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lolanicole's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic! Highly recommended to people who love true crime and to Miami natives. As someone who has now made her home in Miami, I was shocked and fascinated at Miami's crime-ridden history.
Edna Buchanan is one amazing lady!
Edna Buchanan is one amazing lady!
megmerante's review against another edition
4.0
This book was the main focus on my college admission essays when I was applying to journalism programs. She provides a great model for what a journalist should always strive to be.
dontwritedown's review
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.25
Read the first edition, the most recent version has 100 pages more.
I'm interested if Edna's attitude toward ethnic minorities has changed since editions and what more has been added I feel like she has the attitude of someone who should not work in news, seems very biased.
That being she still gives a very nice insight into the world of news in the 80s, but still very much a product of it's time.
I'm interested if Edna's attitude toward ethnic minorities has changed since editions and what more has been added I feel like she has the attitude of someone who should not work in news, seems very biased.
That being she still gives a very nice insight into the world of news in the 80s, but still very much a product of it's time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child death, and Rape
i_dream_of_books's review against another edition
3.0
Eerie and terrifying. This book really isn’t something I should have read in one sitting. There is some really terrible people out there. It was an interesting read.
jnkay01's review against another edition
4.0
From the department of Things That Aren't There Anymore:
"From the beginning, it was a comfort just to see the Miami Herald building looming huge and permanent against the skyline. It made me feel secure. It still does. You can see it from the expressway, the causeways, from downtown, and from the bay. Just look up. The Herald building sprawls over an entire block of prime waterfront. Employee parking lots are slowly swallowing the surrounding neighborhood. Sometimes the world's biggest barge is moored at the back door, delivering newsprint.
The yawning fifth-floor newsroom is the size of a concert hall, with a spectacular view. To the east, beyond the glass cages of the executives, lies Biscayne Bay, its surface dotted by the bright sails of weekend regattas, the spans to Miami Beach, and the resort skyline with the sea beyond. The panorama is so clear and beautiful that any imperfection is quickly noted. Twice over the years one sharp-eyed editor has spotted from his office desk, and hastily reported to the proper authorities, dead bodies adrift in the bay. The vista to the west is an overview of stunning skyscrapers, Overtown slums, spectacular sunsets, and the lights of the Orange Bowl, above which the Goodyear blimp hovers during big games. Brown pelicans and Chaulk's seaplanes swoop gracefully past the newsroom's picture windows to land at Watson Island just southeast of the building. The blue-and-white seaplanes arc in a sharp turn so close to our windows that even veteran newsroom habitues sometimes catch their breath. A stranger visiting my desk gasped and would have hit the floor had he not realized that all around him it was business as usual.
Somewhere in the heart of that mammoth structure, buzzed by birds and planes and strafed by the politicians that it gores, a newspaper is actually printed."
"From the beginning, it was a comfort just to see the Miami Herald building looming huge and permanent against the skyline. It made me feel secure. It still does. You can see it from the expressway, the causeways, from downtown, and from the bay. Just look up. The Herald building sprawls over an entire block of prime waterfront. Employee parking lots are slowly swallowing the surrounding neighborhood. Sometimes the world's biggest barge is moored at the back door, delivering newsprint.
The yawning fifth-floor newsroom is the size of a concert hall, with a spectacular view. To the east, beyond the glass cages of the executives, lies Biscayne Bay, its surface dotted by the bright sails of weekend regattas, the spans to Miami Beach, and the resort skyline with the sea beyond. The panorama is so clear and beautiful that any imperfection is quickly noted. Twice over the years one sharp-eyed editor has spotted from his office desk, and hastily reported to the proper authorities, dead bodies adrift in the bay. The vista to the west is an overview of stunning skyscrapers, Overtown slums, spectacular sunsets, and the lights of the Orange Bowl, above which the Goodyear blimp hovers during big games. Brown pelicans and Chaulk's seaplanes swoop gracefully past the newsroom's picture windows to land at Watson Island just southeast of the building. The blue-and-white seaplanes arc in a sharp turn so close to our windows that even veteran newsroom habitues sometimes catch their breath. A stranger visiting my desk gasped and would have hit the floor had he not realized that all around him it was business as usual.
Somewhere in the heart of that mammoth structure, buzzed by birds and planes and strafed by the politicians that it gores, a newspaper is actually printed."
jeanetterenee's review
3.0
Miami journalist and novelist shares her experiences covering the crime beat in Miami. Some of these stories could only happen in Miami!!
moreteamorecats's review against another edition
3.0
A friend, then a cops-and-courts reporter, had recommended Buchanan years ago as the best of the best in crime writing. I'd hoped for something like a compilation of her reporting, but the book is also substantially a memoir. Buchanan's own story is well-told, but her crime vignettes are astonishing. I'll stick a few examples under quotes later. In retrospect, an entire book of those would have felt exhausting by the end. The best way to read her work is probably the way it was meant, daily, in the paper.
emilygigs's review
4.0
Could anybody turn a phrase like Edna Buchanan? Part autobiography, part greatest hits of crime, part chronicle of Miami from the 1960s-1980s, this is a treat for all fans of true-crime, journalism history, and tough broads who paved the way for the rest of us.
Also, bless her, Edna Buchanan loved her cats.
Also, bless her, Edna Buchanan loved her cats.
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