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A review by caidyn
The Kidnap Years: The Astonishing True History of the Forgotten Kidnapping Epidemic That Shook Depression-Era America by David Stout
3.0
I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I wanted to like this book more. I didn't even know that there was a kidnapping epidemic, but, when I think about it more, there definitely was. The 1930s were huge on kidnapping for whatever reason. And, I say "whatever reason" because I didn't think that Stout really showed why this went on. He did a good job of giving a brief overview on cases, but he didn't delve into causality or different factors. He didn't even really separate the cases out.
The book is largely chronological. It stays in a steady line and jumps around a little, but not much. Each chapter is about a different kidnapping, really. Some kidnappings go over multiple chapters because it took years to find out what happened or for the trial to start. The case that goes over the whole book is the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which was the biggest one. There was also the kidnapping of Grace Budd that went on for a while, who was one of the victims of the serial killer, Albert Fish.
I wish that this book maybe grouped the types of kidnappings together -- kidnapping an adult or a doctor is very different than kidnapping a child -- and was clearer about things. In the end, all the cases blended together because there were so many and none of them stood out. Even when we revisited cases in the book that took years to solve, I couldn't remember a detail about anything because there were just so many that sounded almost exactly alike.
Overall, good, but not a true crime book I would really want on my shelf.
I wanted to like this book more. I didn't even know that there was a kidnapping epidemic, but, when I think about it more, there definitely was. The 1930s were huge on kidnapping for whatever reason. And, I say "whatever reason" because I didn't think that Stout really showed why this went on. He did a good job of giving a brief overview on cases, but he didn't delve into causality or different factors. He didn't even really separate the cases out.
The book is largely chronological. It stays in a steady line and jumps around a little, but not much. Each chapter is about a different kidnapping, really. Some kidnappings go over multiple chapters because it took years to find out what happened or for the trial to start. The case that goes over the whole book is the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which was the biggest one. There was also the kidnapping of Grace Budd that went on for a while, who was one of the victims of the serial killer, Albert Fish.
I wish that this book maybe grouped the types of kidnappings together -- kidnapping an adult or a doctor is very different than kidnapping a child -- and was clearer about things. In the end, all the cases blended together because there were so many and none of them stood out. Even when we revisited cases in the book that took years to solve, I couldn't remember a detail about anything because there were just so many that sounded almost exactly alike.
Overall, good, but not a true crime book I would really want on my shelf.