Take a photo of a barcode or cover
34 reviews for:
Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed
Robert Graysmith
3.18 AVERAGE
34 reviews for:
Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed
Robert Graysmith
3.18 AVERAGE
dark
Well this is an unbelievably thorough (500 plus pages with very detailed appendices) book. Graysmith is (and has been for 40+ years) probably the world's leading expert on the Zodiac case, and this book collects all the information from, among other places, the various police jurisdictions involved in the murders. He spills the beans early on that he feels pretty darn sure that Arthur Leigh Allen, who died in 1992, was Zodiac. If you're a true crime aficionado AND you're old enough to remember this (or you've seen David Fincher's terrific 2007 movie) AND you've got time on your hands - go for it! I certainly enjoyed the book and admire Graysmith's scholarship, but I wasn't sorry when I finished.
Full of amazing detail and personal recollections. However all of that is lost in the incredibly disorganized style. The book reads like it was originally pages of notes recounting pieces of the puzzle that were tossed up in the air and then recorded in whatever order they fell.
There’s no denying that Robert Graysmith is the expert on The Zodiac Killer, but this was such a hard slog to get through. I felt that this book was far longer than it needed to be - it feels like much of the information is repeated from his previous book supplemented by padding. If it had been edited better, I feel that it would have been a more interesting read. There is a lot of repetition within the book, and conversations are repeated verbatim, which, for me, quickly became boring. The section on the shooting of the Zodiac movie also appears to mostly to be a word for word account of Graysmith’s involvement in the project - this turned something that could have been really interesting into something as dull as dishwater.
Overall, the information & theories were interesting but the delivery let them down.
Overall, the information & theories were interesting but the delivery let them down.
not as good as his original zodiac book. using an alias for the suspect feels very off, especially to someone who's read other zodiac-related things
dark
informative
slow-paced
dark
informative
slow-paced
challenging
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
This was way too long and repetitive. Pretty certain I slept through half of this.
Being true crime obsessed, I can whole heartedly say I've never struggled to read a true crime book before. It was unnecessarily repetitive, at times I thought I was reading 3 chapters back. It mostly goes between talking about Arthur Leigh Allen and people who talk up his first book. It is to a point of unhealthy obsession with the man. I have no doubt Arthur Leigh Allen did unspeakable things that he wasn't charged for other than child molesting (which is despicable) but in all honesty I think the real unsub knew him and purposely framed him. It was a trail of bread crumbs to him. This book never needed to be written, I'll never re read this and sadly wish I could get my money back. Spare your time and money.