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stonecoldjaneausten's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.25
jilly7922's review against another edition
4.0
This book is about the Mad Bomber in New York City during the 1950's. The mad bomber terrified New York City with dozens of home made bombs over a 16 year period of where he was unanimous. This book is about the hunt for the killer. This book was also about the beginning of criminal profiling. Criminal profiling got its roots from this hard to solve case.
Overall I rated this book four stars out of five. This book was well written and very informative. It captured all aspects of these crimes. It did go into depth about the mad bomber case. This book had excellent character development, it went into detail describing all the main players in the story. There were times in this book that I felt the story did not flow well and got off track, but overall it was a great read.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Michael Cannell, and St. Martin's Press: Minotaur Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
For more book reviews come and read my book blog at: http://turnthepagereviewsbyjill.blogspot.com
Overall I rated this book four stars out of five. This book was well written and very informative. It captured all aspects of these crimes. It did go into depth about the mad bomber case. This book had excellent character development, it went into detail describing all the main players in the story. There were times in this book that I felt the story did not flow well and got off track, but overall it was a great read.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Michael Cannell, and St. Martin's Press: Minotaur Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
For more book reviews come and read my book blog at: http://turnthepagereviewsbyjill.blogspot.com
duparker's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyable book. The story, characters and takeaways are well directed and thought out. The author researched the topic and understands its impact on modern policemen & police work.
mattleesharp's review against another edition
5.0
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for feedback and review.
This book is great. Definite shades of Lawrence Wright. Cannell really expertly weaves the facts and reporting of the case of the Mad Bomber into an easy to follow narrative. I really appreciated how many perspectives you get: from the newspapers to the police to the profiling psychiatrist.
I was attracted to this book because I didn't really know the story of the Mad Bomber, and this was about as comprehensive a look at him and the time period as I could have asked for. Solidly sourced and incredibly thorough.
A couple years ago I read a book called Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb. A major point made there was that a lot of the power of a bomb is not in the destruction, but in the noise. A bomb, especially in the period of time this book covers, acts as a microphone for bombers. This book does a really good job of fairly covering the grievances George Metesky was trying to amplify while placing them in the context of his psychology.
The only issue I really had with the book was its epilogue, which ran a bit too long and tried to cover too much of the "after" part of the story. It was great to have so many perspectives inform the main thrust of the book, but there's a lot more time than necessary spent making sure every one of those individual storylines gets a neat little bow tied on it. Overall I definitely recommend this book highly to anyone though. It was a great read.
This book is great. Definite shades of Lawrence Wright. Cannell really expertly weaves the facts and reporting of the case of the Mad Bomber into an easy to follow narrative. I really appreciated how many perspectives you get: from the newspapers to the police to the profiling psychiatrist.
I was attracted to this book because I didn't really know the story of the Mad Bomber, and this was about as comprehensive a look at him and the time period as I could have asked for. Solidly sourced and incredibly thorough.
A couple years ago I read a book called Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb. A major point made there was that a lot of the power of a bomb is not in the destruction, but in the noise. A bomb, especially in the period of time this book covers, acts as a microphone for bombers. This book does a really good job of fairly covering the grievances George Metesky was trying to amplify while placing them in the context of his psychology.
The only issue I really had with the book was its epilogue, which ran a bit too long and tried to cover too much of the "after" part of the story. It was great to have so many perspectives inform the main thrust of the book, but there's a lot more time than necessary spent making sure every one of those individual storylines gets a neat little bow tied on it. Overall I definitely recommend this book highly to anyone though. It was a great read.
radbear76's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting story but a the style is a little too melodramatic for my taste.
morgaine816's review against another edition
3.0
This was an interesting book since it was based on a real case but it was a slow read. I never got into it as far as it keeping my attention. It took me a couple of months to read it which hardly ever happens to me. It was just that I kept putting it down and wanting to read something else. But if you like true crime and want to read it as more of a non-fiction style, give it a try.
courthompson's review against another edition
4.0
A little bit of a slow start, jumping around a bit, but then I was hooked. I hadn't heard of the Mad Bomber and the whole investigation was incredibly interesting. I'm a big fan of true crime and thoroughly enjoyed this one!