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lauviv's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book.
This book really impressed me. I have always been interested in true crime, but books of this genre scare me a bit because some of them are so unprofessional and simplistic. But this book is just so good. It's a perfect mix of investigative work and writing style. It's very long, in my opinion, but this also shows how seriously this author takes his job.
This book really impressed me. I have always been interested in true crime, but books of this genre scare me a bit because some of them are so unprofessional and simplistic. But this book is just so good. It's a perfect mix of investigative work and writing style. It's very long, in my opinion, but this also shows how seriously this author takes his job.
onmalsshelf's review
informative
slow-paced
2.5
I wanted to love this collection of kidnapping stories from the Great Depression, however the passive tone of the book left me just wanting to set the book down.
I had to wait to get the audio so that I could even finish it and even then, I had to put it on 2x to get through it. I probably should've just DNF'd, but I was intrigued by the cases. Even though the cases seemed to be revertive in a sense because honestly how different can kidnappings be from the Great Depression era? I commend the author on his hard work and I can tell that he spent a lot of time researching and writing this book. However, in a time when so many true crime books are being released with interesting cases and a easily readable tone, I'm afraid this one may get lost in the fray.
If you're looking to learn about some kidnappings from the Great Depression era that are the not the Lindenbergh kidnapping, I suggest picking this up.
I had to wait to get the audio so that I could even finish it and even then, I had to put it on 2x to get through it. I probably should've just DNF'd, but I was intrigued by the cases. Even though the cases seemed to be revertive in a sense because honestly how different can kidnappings be from the Great Depression era? I commend the author on his hard work and I can tell that he spent a lot of time researching and writing this book. However, in a time when so many true crime books are being released with interesting cases and a easily readable tone, I'm afraid this one may get lost in the fray.
If you're looking to learn about some kidnappings from the Great Depression era that are the not the Lindenbergh kidnapping, I suggest picking this up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
beauty_andbooks's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
2.0
I get the idea of this book and I think it had good intentions of being a great nonfiction book. But in the end I was bored by the time I read 20% of the book. The kidnapping stories all ended up seeming like repeated information and the same story. I was just uninterested by that point. I think it’s well written and easy to understand as a nonfiction full of dates and names. I think you’d enjoy this book if you were into the gangs of the 1930s.
*Thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for a complimentary book to review
*Thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for a complimentary book to review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Child death, Suicide, Death, Violence, Antisemitism, and Confinement
elzecatreads's review against another edition
2.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-book in exchange for an honest review.
The Kidnap Years is an in-depth look at numerous kidnappings that took place in the United States in the early 1930s. The book also discusses the creation of the FBI, J.Edgar Hoover, issues around prohibition, gangsters, and the mob. The most famous of all kidnappings, of course, is the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping, and this case was gone over in intricate detail.
While I found parts of the book to be interesting, particularly the formation of the FBI and some of the investigation surrounding the Lindbergh case, the kidnapping stories themselves became repetitious after just a few chapters. The conclusion to the book felt a bit rushed and contrived and I was left wondering what was the point? I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I thought this would be a more interesting subject than was presented in this book.
The Kidnap Years is an in-depth look at numerous kidnappings that took place in the United States in the early 1930s. The book also discusses the creation of the FBI, J.Edgar Hoover, issues around prohibition, gangsters, and the mob. The most famous of all kidnappings, of course, is the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping, and this case was gone over in intricate detail.
While I found parts of the book to be interesting, particularly the formation of the FBI and some of the investigation surrounding the Lindbergh case, the kidnapping stories themselves became repetitious after just a few chapters. The conclusion to the book felt a bit rushed and contrived and I was left wondering what was the point? I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I thought this would be a more interesting subject than was presented in this book.
itsrdrm's review
3.0
First of all, thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
"The Kidnap Years" by David Stout is truly a fascinating read. I didn't know about the kidnapping epidemic that went on during the 1930s and terrorized America, but I felt like the book failed to explain why that happened and why it stopped. This is basically a collection of (very) short stories about kidnappings that occurred during that time, but it jumps from a case to another and then jumps back again to the previous case in a way that I found utterly confusing.
The book focused on too many cases when it would have benefitted from choosing half of them and going deeper into those stories. To be honest, I finished the book two hours ago, and I can't remember anything meaningful because I had too much info to deal with, and not even half of them mattered or helped me "feel" more towards a case. Any case, actually.
Don't get me wrong; I can see the book was thoroughly researched, but having been thrown at all these pieces of information, made me lose interest pretty soon. Information after information after information and the book never manages to anchor me to a single page or a single human being. Do you want to know what is missing? Depth. It's a great history book that I will use for references, but other than that, I don't know if someone who is not into true crimes might enjoy a book that is missing a bit of a soul.
"The Kidnap Years" by David Stout is truly a fascinating read. I didn't know about the kidnapping epidemic that went on during the 1930s and terrorized America, but I felt like the book failed to explain why that happened and why it stopped. This is basically a collection of (very) short stories about kidnappings that occurred during that time, but it jumps from a case to another and then jumps back again to the previous case in a way that I found utterly confusing.
The book focused on too many cases when it would have benefitted from choosing half of them and going deeper into those stories. To be honest, I finished the book two hours ago, and I can't remember anything meaningful because I had too much info to deal with, and not even half of them mattered or helped me "feel" more towards a case. Any case, actually.
Don't get me wrong; I can see the book was thoroughly researched, but having been thrown at all these pieces of information, made me lose interest pretty soon. Information after information after information and the book never manages to anchor me to a single page or a single human being. Do you want to know what is missing? Depth. It's a great history book that I will use for references, but other than that, I don't know if someone who is not into true crimes might enjoy a book that is missing a bit of a soul.
dawnh's review
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
3.75
I love true crime and this one ticks all those boxes. It was fascinating to learn about all these crimes and the process of trying to solve them. It was well researched and flowed nicely.
neverwithoutabook's review
4.0
What a fascinating book the 1930's was a scary time to live in. If you enjoy true crime stories, then you will enjoy this book.
caidyn's review
3.0
I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I wanted to like this book more. I didn't even know that there was a kidnapping epidemic, but, when I think about it more, there definitely was. The 1930s were huge on kidnapping for whatever reason. And, I say "whatever reason" because I didn't think that Stout really showed why this went on. He did a good job of giving a brief overview on cases, but he didn't delve into causality or different factors. He didn't even really separate the cases out.
The book is largely chronological. It stays in a steady line and jumps around a little, but not much. Each chapter is about a different kidnapping, really. Some kidnappings go over multiple chapters because it took years to find out what happened or for the trial to start. The case that goes over the whole book is the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which was the biggest one. There was also the kidnapping of Grace Budd that went on for a while, who was one of the victims of the serial killer, Albert Fish.
I wish that this book maybe grouped the types of kidnappings together -- kidnapping an adult or a doctor is very different than kidnapping a child -- and was clearer about things. In the end, all the cases blended together because there were so many and none of them stood out. Even when we revisited cases in the book that took years to solve, I couldn't remember a detail about anything because there were just so many that sounded almost exactly alike.
Overall, good, but not a true crime book I would really want on my shelf.
I wanted to like this book more. I didn't even know that there was a kidnapping epidemic, but, when I think about it more, there definitely was. The 1930s were huge on kidnapping for whatever reason. And, I say "whatever reason" because I didn't think that Stout really showed why this went on. He did a good job of giving a brief overview on cases, but he didn't delve into causality or different factors. He didn't even really separate the cases out.
The book is largely chronological. It stays in a steady line and jumps around a little, but not much. Each chapter is about a different kidnapping, really. Some kidnappings go over multiple chapters because it took years to find out what happened or for the trial to start. The case that goes over the whole book is the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which was the biggest one. There was also the kidnapping of Grace Budd that went on for a while, who was one of the victims of the serial killer, Albert Fish.
I wish that this book maybe grouped the types of kidnappings together -- kidnapping an adult or a doctor is very different than kidnapping a child -- and was clearer about things. In the end, all the cases blended together because there were so many and none of them stood out. Even when we revisited cases in the book that took years to solve, I couldn't remember a detail about anything because there were just so many that sounded almost exactly alike.
Overall, good, but not a true crime book I would really want on my shelf.
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