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gingermouse's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This novel sticks pretty closely to known facts of the case, with some fabrications of names or small details about victims.
There is a lot of assumption of women being sex workers. It is implied, negatively, that most if not all of the victims were sex workers although stated facts of the case elsewhere don't seem to corroborate this.
There is an entire chapter of unnecessary, irrelevant and gratuitous animal cruelty and sexual abuse. It is the chapter that starts with Danny being accosted by a random man near the bathhouse and moves on to said bathhouse. The man has a chicken in a bag that is implied to be a person initially. Avoid thus chapter, it is disturbing and traumatic and absolutely not needed for the plot. Nor does it seem to be a real part of the case.
The rest of the fictional parts of the Novel are gripping and engaging and keep pace and stakes with the non fictionalised events. The killer in reality was never caught although there's now an accepted theory on the real life killers identity. The fictionalised parts and characters run quite close to real details and known and supposed players from the time.
I did enjoy this book, but was severely let down by the above mentioned chapter. I'm told this is a cult classic although it is a case and author i was previously unfamiliar with, I dont think I'd have read this had I already encountered the case as true crime.
Overall this book contains a lot of sexism and homophobic rhetoric, voiced by the characters, that would have been common place in the 30s and probably at the time of writing.
There is a lot of assumption of women being sex workers. It is implied, negatively, that most if not all of the victims were sex workers although stated facts of the case elsewhere don't seem to corroborate this.
There is an entire chapter of unnecessary, irrelevant and gratuitous animal cruelty and sexual abuse. It is the chapter that starts with Danny being accosted by a random man near the bathhouse and moves on to said bathhouse. The man has a chicken in a bag that is implied to be a person initially. Avoid thus chapter, it is disturbing and traumatic and absolutely not needed for the plot. Nor does it seem to be a real part of the case.
The rest of the fictional parts of the Novel are gripping and engaging and keep pace and stakes with the non fictionalised events. The killer in reality was never caught although there's now an accepted theory on the real life killers identity. The fictionalised parts and characters run quite close to real details and known and supposed players from the time.
I did enjoy this book, but was severely let down by the above mentioned chapter. I'm told this is a cult classic although it is a case and author i was previously unfamiliar with, I dont think I'd have read this had I already encountered the case as true crime.
Overall this book contains a lot of sexism and homophobic rhetoric, voiced by the characters, that would have been common place in the 30s and probably at the time of writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, and Physical abuse
There is an entire chapter that starts in the street with Danny Cottone and a man with a chicken in a bag- you can and should skip it entirely for animal cruelty. It is an entire chapter of gratuitous animal cruelty, bestiality and sexual violence. It adds literally nothing to the plot, is not relevant to the case and basically only comes up vaguely one other time (and still isn't relevant to the plot).
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