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yoitsmichelle 's review for:
Death on Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case
by Caitlin Rother
informative
slow-paced
Like practically every millennial woman, I love True Crime. Whenever I’m out for a walk on the trails near our neighborhood, the sun shining through the trees, quiet, no one else around, I stop and think - “Am I gonna get Datelined right now?” And yes, I use Dateline as a verb.
Ann Rule, Michelle McNamara, James Renner, a slew of others. I will read, listen, and watch ALL of the things that have to do with True Crime. I read Helter Skelter in middle school. The Black Dahlia, Son of Sam, The Golden State Killer, Ted Bundy, the Yogurt Shop Murders in Austin, TX, which literally still boggles my mind to this day.
I don’t dabble too much into recent crime stories, besides the big ones like Laci Peterson or Chris Watts, the not-so-perfect father, so I didn’t really know much about the Rebecca Zahau case. I buddy read this one with @pazthebookaholic who has seen the Dateline episode of this case, and who told me that some information she thinks she definitely remembers from the episode, so if you have watched it, a lot of this book will seem a bit repetitive.
This book is absolutely dense with information. Rother does an amazing job of researching and interviewing key witnesses nine years after the fact of Rebecca being found dead in the Coronado Mansion.
My issue with the book was, all of this information was written in a way that I could not engage with. It felt clinical and dry. I wasn’t spooked, I didn’t feel creeped out, or like someone was watching me through my windows. I didn’t feel anything. This was just the facts.
Usually, when reading True Crime the author gives us something, some personal connection that ties it all together. At one point, Rother does try to connect with Rebecca’s case by offering a personal story, but it comes in the last quarter of the book, and mostly mentioned in passing and I just thought, damn, that was a missed opportunity.
It’s a highly informative book, especially if you have zero knowledge of this truly bizarre case. Unfortunately, it was just missing a little extra spark of something for me.
Thank you @netgalley & @kensingtonbooks for the eARC. This is out April 27th.
Ann Rule, Michelle McNamara, James Renner, a slew of others. I will read, listen, and watch ALL of the things that have to do with True Crime. I read Helter Skelter in middle school. The Black Dahlia, Son of Sam, The Golden State Killer, Ted Bundy, the Yogurt Shop Murders in Austin, TX, which literally still boggles my mind to this day.
I don’t dabble too much into recent crime stories, besides the big ones like Laci Peterson or Chris Watts, the not-so-perfect father, so I didn’t really know much about the Rebecca Zahau case. I buddy read this one with @pazthebookaholic who has seen the Dateline episode of this case, and who told me that some information she thinks she definitely remembers from the episode, so if you have watched it, a lot of this book will seem a bit repetitive.
This book is absolutely dense with information. Rother does an amazing job of researching and interviewing key witnesses nine years after the fact of Rebecca being found dead in the Coronado Mansion.
My issue with the book was, all of this information was written in a way that I could not engage with. It felt clinical and dry. I wasn’t spooked, I didn’t feel creeped out, or like someone was watching me through my windows. I didn’t feel anything. This was just the facts.
Usually, when reading True Crime the author gives us something, some personal connection that ties it all together. At one point, Rother does try to connect with Rebecca’s case by offering a personal story, but it comes in the last quarter of the book, and mostly mentioned in passing and I just thought, damn, that was a missed opportunity.
It’s a highly informative book, especially if you have zero knowledge of this truly bizarre case. Unfortunately, it was just missing a little extra spark of something for me.
Thank you @netgalley & @kensingtonbooks for the eARC. This is out April 27th.