Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery by Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James

6 reviews

librarymouse's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.0

This book is very dense and the organization makes the information and names harder to follow across chapters and years. Still, it's interesting to get a glimpse into the author's research processes and they make a good case for the man they believe to be the killer and what they believe to be his fate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Child death, Sexual assault, Body horror, Murder, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Mental illness, Stalking, Classism, Hate crime, Blood, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Death, and Gun violence

Minor: Drug use, Domestic abuse, War, Alcohol, and Animal cruelty

crackyourbrainup's review

dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, Death, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

bibrarian_'s review

dark informative slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Racism, and Pedophilia

msradiosilence's review against another edition

dark funny informative mysterious sad slow-paced

1.5

Tldr; the “good” of this book (the authors playing to their strengths, etc) did very little to outweigh the bad (the authors being blind to their own weaknesses, and being racist, etc.) 

Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/the-man-from-the-train

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Stalking, Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, and Racism

eldritch_flower's review

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

 This was just an interesting read. Through this book, we follow the crimes of an axe murderer that targeted people living near railroads and in small towns. If all murders in the area completed by axes were done by this one person, then they would have killed over 90 people in 10 years. Of course, it's more complicated than that, and the authors are incredible with their research.

The book was easy to follow(I listened to it via audiobook), and the writing was fun. Yes I said fun. It wasn't just dry facts, it had personality to it. And it managed to have that personality without being disrespectful to the victims or the seriousness of the crimes. And honestly, considering how so many true crime podcasters and commenters fall short on this, it's admirable that the author was able to pull this off.

I like to think of myself as a true crime buff, specifically forensic psychology(which is what I went to college for), and this is a case I had never heard of. Most of us heard of the Axe Man of New Orleans, but not many of us know just how many axe murderers there were all over the US. And this was one that was brand new to me.

For that, I really appreciated how the author explained the crimes, explained the police procedures(and very specifically calls out how dumb they were, because they absolutely were), and discussed who he thinks committed the crime and why.

Overall, it was a great audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Murder, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

aconfundityofcrows's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

Woah so fascinating and they figured it out too. Now we just need a German speaker to sift through old newspaper records to figure out if he committed any more in Germany or Austria.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Stalking, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Hate crime, Cursing, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Physical abuse, Infidelity, Incest, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship