Married to the Black Widow
A truly harrowing account of one woman's twenty-year campaign of coercive control, lies and manipulation that nearly ended in the murder of an innocent father.
Here you will find my reviews of true crime books from the ‘classics’ on, along with reviews of true crime television shows, documentaries and dramatisations. Please note that these books and shows can be extremely harrowing, so caution is advised.
A truly harrowing account of one woman's twenty-year campaign of coercive control, lies and manipulation that nearly ended in the murder of an innocent father.
An excellent book examining the causes of murder obsession, its impact on those who experience it and the consequences for wider society. The darker side of murder obsession (notably copycat killers) should not, Monroe argues, detract from the fact that murder obsessions can result in empowering positives such as righting judicial wrongs and victim advocacy.
Well worth a look. A fascinating tale of a famous Black Widow in Ireland, told using a wealth of public record material, police statements and interviews.
"Page-turner" is an over-used term, but it is the best description I can find for this book, which I could not put down. Carefully crafted, sensitively written and imaginatively structured, Keefe has written a masterly true crime story at its gripping best.
Must read: Larson has written a compelling parallel history of Daniel Burnham's World's Columbian Exposition and Dr H.H. Holmes's serial killing that took place adjacent to the Chicago World Fair. Unnerving and exhaustively researched, it is a superb contribuion to true crime 'fact fiction'.
Well worth a read. The book explores a range of different contract killer stories from around the Anglophone world. It does not usually pay that well to be a contract killer, Jones shows, so it helps to have a pathological disregard for human life and a propensity for violence. If your ego or sense of machismo outweighs your ability to carry out the job, so much the better.
Must-read: Look no further for a vivid and highly readable account of how murders are solved and criminals brought to justice, written by an experienced murder detective.
Worth a look: recaps the murderous acts of many notable killer women through the ages - a solid reference guide or platform for further investigation.
Troubled childhoods can, sometimes, be connected to emotional challenges and a propensity for violence in adulthood. Virginia McCullough tried to excuse the murder of her parents as the product of neglect and years of abuse in her formative years. The truth was, rather, that a much more sinister motive drove McCullough to kill John and Lois – she wanted their money. This poorly constructed documentary, however, barely scrapes the surface of why these killings actually happened. A copy of my complaint to Ofcom is at the end of the review.
Those who commit violent crime usually exhibit some form of personality disorder, diagnosed or otherwise. The murderer at the centre of this documentary appears to have been driven by one of the most common: narcissism.
Must-read: Thoroughly researched and beautifully written, this genre-forming classic provides colourful insights into the criminal minds behind the gruesome murder of four innocent family members.