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74 reviews for:
The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths are Solving America's Coldest Cases
Deborah Halber
3.18 AVERAGE
74 reviews for:
The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths are Solving America's Coldest Cases
Deborah Halber
3.18 AVERAGE
*Disclosure: I received this book from a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.*
1. This book jumps all over the place in terms of narration, and I'm not quite sure what type of book this is supposed to be. Is it an expose into the world of online cold case hunters, the ins and outs and the hidden drama behind the scenes? Is it an investigation into the "hidden crises" of unknown and missing people in the United States, and the problem trying to find them justice? Is it about the author solving a missing person case herself (more on this later)? There seems to be multiple narratives throughout this book, and none of them stick.
2. Multiple missing person cases are detailed as being solved in the book, but there are inconsistencies in how they are presented. Some cases are introduced and solved in two paragraphs; others take whole chapters; some are used to set up the background of the person that the author is interviewing at the moment; and in the case of Tent Girl, introduced in the beginning of the book in what looked to be the case that would tie everything together and with the investigation and solution lasting the whole book, only for the identity of Tent Girl be casually revealed two-thirds of the way through the book, almost as an aside. Tone was very inconsistent between the ways each case was handled by the author.
3. Unless I missed the reveal (which is possible, because the writing style is so odd), but the other main case in the book, that of the Lady of the Dunes, remained unsolved at the end of the book. There seems to be a mention of a couple of potential IDs for the body, but, again, the way the names of the bodies were revealed in the book made it really hard sometimes to figure out what had been written. An index at the back of the book to search for names would have been helpful.
4. Halber litters the book with personal observations of the people and places that she visits in her research, and almost all of them are off-putting and degrading in some fashion. There is an idea that comes out from reading this book that everything outside of New York or Boston is in some way inferior and not meant to be taken as seriously as it could be. From the description of the "troll woman" climbing hotel stairs to a forensic examiner that can (incredibly) dress in tailored suits, to multiple mentions of hillbillies and rednecks, these descriptions take away from what should be the main focus of the book: the dead bodies themselves.
5. There are two points in this book where the author states that she wishes she could solve a cold case, which makes me wonder if she went into this book thinking that a) there was nothing difficult about doing so, and that b) it was, or could be treated as, the same as playing a game. It makes me wonder if she ever took this book seriously.
6. This has nothing to do with the premise of the book, but as I was reading this I was coming up with the impression that, while this book was thoroughly researched, the author wasn't the best writer. And then she writes (on page 100) that "... The Who guitarist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack." And that one typo (Entwistle played bass) made me question how thorough her research really had been.
I was very happy to have won a copy of this book in a giveaway and was hoping it was as good as it looked. And while Deborah Halber seems to have done her homework in researching this topic, it comes across as very boring and dull, which is not something I would think I would say about a book that discusses solving cold cases. I think this book could have been done better as a series of newspaper articles or possibly a series of essays on a website. Halber has no sense for writing a narrative in book form, and I think some of the problems I had with this book would be solved with a re-write to include a more cohesive narrative.
1. This book jumps all over the place in terms of narration, and I'm not quite sure what type of book this is supposed to be. Is it an expose into the world of online cold case hunters, the ins and outs and the hidden drama behind the scenes? Is it an investigation into the "hidden crises" of unknown and missing people in the United States, and the problem trying to find them justice? Is it about the author solving a missing person case herself (more on this later)? There seems to be multiple narratives throughout this book, and none of them stick.
2. Multiple missing person cases are detailed as being solved in the book, but there are inconsistencies in how they are presented. Some cases are introduced and solved in two paragraphs; others take whole chapters; some are used to set up the background of the person that the author is interviewing at the moment; and in the case of Tent Girl, introduced in the beginning of the book in what looked to be the case that would tie everything together and with the investigation and solution lasting the whole book, only for the identity of Tent Girl be casually revealed two-thirds of the way through the book, almost as an aside. Tone was very inconsistent between the ways each case was handled by the author.
3. Unless I missed the reveal (which is possible, because the writing style is so odd), but the other main case in the book, that of the Lady of the Dunes, remained unsolved at the end of the book. There seems to be a mention of a couple of potential IDs for the body, but, again, the way the names of the bodies were revealed in the book made it really hard sometimes to figure out what had been written. An index at the back of the book to search for names would have been helpful.
4. Halber litters the book with personal observations of the people and places that she visits in her research, and almost all of them are off-putting and degrading in some fashion. There is an idea that comes out from reading this book that everything outside of New York or Boston is in some way inferior and not meant to be taken as seriously as it could be. From the description of the "troll woman" climbing hotel stairs to a forensic examiner that can (incredibly) dress in tailored suits, to multiple mentions of hillbillies and rednecks, these descriptions take away from what should be the main focus of the book: the dead bodies themselves.
5. There are two points in this book where the author states that she wishes she could solve a cold case, which makes me wonder if she went into this book thinking that a) there was nothing difficult about doing so, and that b) it was, or could be treated as, the same as playing a game. It makes me wonder if she ever took this book seriously.
6. This has nothing to do with the premise of the book, but as I was reading this I was coming up with the impression that, while this book was thoroughly researched, the author wasn't the best writer. And then she writes (on page 100) that "... The Who guitarist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack." And that one typo (Entwistle played bass) made me question how thorough her research really had been.
I was very happy to have won a copy of this book in a giveaway and was hoping it was as good as it looked. And while Deborah Halber seems to have done her homework in researching this topic, it comes across as very boring and dull, which is not something I would think I would say about a book that discusses solving cold cases. I think this book could have been done better as a series of newspaper articles or possibly a series of essays on a website. Halber has no sense for writing a narrative in book form, and I think some of the problems I had with this book would be solved with a re-write to include a more cohesive narrative.
Scattered and chatty. This is very little information filled with way too many descriptions of people’s physical appearances, added just for padding. The title is not representative of what’s in the book. Did not enjoy.
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
I enjoyed this book a bit more than the other reviewers. I truthfully did not have a horrible time keeping track of timelines, people, and stories like others noted. Yes, the author bounced around, but I still found the stories interesting and as interesting as they could be given the topic at hand. I also understand why people found that the stories were not super engaging, but I think it is important to consider that web sleuthing isn’t really all that exciting to begin with. It involves a lot of sitting at your computer looking for clues while your eyes dry up from looking at your screen. Not exactly the most exciting and engaging thing! I think this book served its purpose. It’s about how web sleuths do what they do and those rare times when cases are actually solved and/or a person is finally identified.
I will say the thing I disliked the most about the book is the author’s choices in describing people. She uses descriptors that make these people sound ugly or dumb or simply any negative connotations based on their appearance or personality. It made me uncomfortable. I would hate to be that lady she said was “a troll of a woman”!
I will say the thing I disliked the most about the book is the author’s choices in describing people. She uses descriptors that make these people sound ugly or dumb or simply any negative connotations based on their appearance or personality. It made me uncomfortable. I would hate to be that lady she said was “a troll of a woman”!
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
I had this on my TBR forever and finally got a copy. The first third or so was incredibly interesting but the story slowly fell more and more flat. I finished it but barely.
Bummed to report this was kind of a mess. Most of the stories were interested, but they were mixed up together in a very difficult-to-follow fashion.
unique read but lost my interest mid way. would have liked it more as vignettes about specific cases and sleuths. got bored with the historical perspective of how the development of the Internet led to the eventual identification of victims long unidentified.