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A review by itsrdrm
The Kidnap Years: The Astonishing True History of the Forgotten Kidnapping Epidemic That Shook Depression-Era America by David Stout
3.0
First of all, thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
"The Kidnap Years" by David Stout is truly a fascinating read. I didn't know about the kidnapping epidemic that went on during the 1930s and terrorized America, but I felt like the book failed to explain why that happened and why it stopped. This is basically a collection of (very) short stories about kidnappings that occurred during that time, but it jumps from a case to another and then jumps back again to the previous case in a way that I found utterly confusing.
The book focused on too many cases when it would have benefitted from choosing half of them and going deeper into those stories. To be honest, I finished the book two hours ago, and I can't remember anything meaningful because I had too much info to deal with, and not even half of them mattered or helped me "feel" more towards a case. Any case, actually.
Don't get me wrong; I can see the book was thoroughly researched, but having been thrown at all these pieces of information, made me lose interest pretty soon. Information after information after information and the book never manages to anchor me to a single page or a single human being. Do you want to know what is missing? Depth. It's a great history book that I will use for references, but other than that, I don't know if someone who is not into true crimes might enjoy a book that is missing a bit of a soul.
"The Kidnap Years" by David Stout is truly a fascinating read. I didn't know about the kidnapping epidemic that went on during the 1930s and terrorized America, but I felt like the book failed to explain why that happened and why it stopped. This is basically a collection of (very) short stories about kidnappings that occurred during that time, but it jumps from a case to another and then jumps back again to the previous case in a way that I found utterly confusing.
The book focused on too many cases when it would have benefitted from choosing half of them and going deeper into those stories. To be honest, I finished the book two hours ago, and I can't remember anything meaningful because I had too much info to deal with, and not even half of them mattered or helped me "feel" more towards a case. Any case, actually.
Don't get me wrong; I can see the book was thoroughly researched, but having been thrown at all these pieces of information, made me lose interest pretty soon. Information after information after information and the book never manages to anchor me to a single page or a single human being. Do you want to know what is missing? Depth. It's a great history book that I will use for references, but other than that, I don't know if someone who is not into true crimes might enjoy a book that is missing a bit of a soul.