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inkyfingerspgs's review
3.0
I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
Before reading Busted, I had not heard of the Tainted Justice series. Having no prior knowledge of the events, I was sucked into the story and found the book difficult to put down. I shared the outrage of the victims and often felt my face twist in disgust as the tales of police misconduct got more and more outrageous, right to the bitter (and unsatisfying) end. But hey, you can't make up the perfect ending when you write nonfiction.
So why only three stars?
I almost put this book down for good after the first ten pages. Four of the first seven pages detailed a morning in Ruderman's home before she went to work. More specifically, she spent four pages talking about how bad of a parent she thinks she is and how unruly her children are. Four pages may not seem like a lot to be complaining about, but placing this useless information that is unrelated to the actual story so early in the book got me quickly disinterested. I wouldn't have picked it up again if I hadn't felt obligated to read it because I got it from a giveaway.
As I read more, I got the feeling that Ruderman and Laker wrote a pretty good and mostly interesting 175 page book and were told that they had to make it longer if they wanted it published. So they went back and added a side story about the failing print news industry. That wasn't enough, so they went back and described everyone's appearance in painstaking detail. That still wasn't enough, so they went back again and wrote a mini life story for every person they mentioned by name. This book reminded me of when I wrote quality essays in college, but had to water them down with BS to meet arbitrary word counts.
The story at the heart of this book deserves five stars, and Ruderman and Laker deserve that Pulitzer for exposing these atrocities as perhaps only journalists could. Their book editor deserves one star for either not cleaning out the crap or (even worse) requesting that it be added in.
Worth a read, but don't feel bad if you skim some parts.
Before reading Busted, I had not heard of the Tainted Justice series. Having no prior knowledge of the events, I was sucked into the story and found the book difficult to put down. I shared the outrage of the victims and often felt my face twist in disgust as the tales of police misconduct got more and more outrageous, right to the bitter (and unsatisfying) end. But hey, you can't make up the perfect ending when you write nonfiction.
So why only three stars?
I almost put this book down for good after the first ten pages. Four of the first seven pages detailed a morning in Ruderman's home before she went to work. More specifically, she spent four pages talking about how bad of a parent she thinks she is and how unruly her children are. Four pages may not seem like a lot to be complaining about, but placing this useless information that is unrelated to the actual story so early in the book got me quickly disinterested. I wouldn't have picked it up again if I hadn't felt obligated to read it because I got it from a giveaway.
As I read more, I got the feeling that Ruderman and Laker wrote a pretty good and mostly interesting 175 page book and were told that they had to make it longer if they wanted it published. So they went back and added a side story about the failing print news industry. That wasn't enough, so they went back and described everyone's appearance in painstaking detail. That still wasn't enough, so they went back again and wrote a mini life story for every person they mentioned by name. This book reminded me of when I wrote quality essays in college, but had to water them down with BS to meet arbitrary word counts.
The story at the heart of this book deserves five stars, and Ruderman and Laker deserve that Pulitzer for exposing these atrocities as perhaps only journalists could. Their book editor deserves one star for either not cleaning out the crap or (even worse) requesting that it be added in.
Worth a read, but don't feel bad if you skim some parts.
memnoch's review
5.0
A really great read that you can't put down. The first thing I thought of after reading this was just how important paper investigative journalism is and has been in fighting for the people. If it becomes a lost art who will uncover corrupt police officers and politicians and other high level wrongdoings all that go unchecked because the common folk have very little chance of going against the machine and are usually scared. Well it is good to know that Ruderman and Laker are always trying to uncover the dark secrets of my city Philadelphia.
chicagoliz's review
5.0
I wavered between 4 and 5 stars on this one -- I really enjoyed reading it and felt like I got to know the author through reading this book. It's not as in depth or hard hitting as some other memoirs of investigative journalism that I've read, which is what makes me hesitant to give it 5 stars, since I tend to be kind of stingy with the 5 star reviews. But, this was such an enjoyable and very quick read that I feel okay doing so. I live near Philadelphia now, but did not grow up here and don't really think of it as home -- I don't really follow the local Philadelphia politics and stories particularly closely, so I wasn't overly familiar with the underlying case that's described, even though I lived in the area while the story was being broken. I loved the interweaving of the authors' personal stories and the information about the rivalry between the Inquirer and Daily News, as well as the lament of the demise of investigative journalism and independent newspapers.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, interesting read. There's a surprising amount of humor in it, given the dark nature of the underlying story. Personally, I think it would make a great beach read, although not everyone agrees with my idea of great beach reading material.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, interesting read. There's a surprising amount of humor in it, given the dark nature of the underlying story. Personally, I think it would make a great beach read, although not everyone agrees with my idea of great beach reading material.
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