A review by pturnbull
Killer Verse: Poems of Murder and Mayhem by Harold Schechter, Kurt Brown

3.0

This was an impulse read, discovered when browsing our local public library's poetry section. Each poem tells the story of a murder from many points of view, both murderer as well as victim. I was excited to find an excellent pantoum included, "Blue-Beard's First Wife" by Leon Gellert. I also liked Simon Armitage's "Gooseberry Season," and Mark Doty's "Charlie Howard's Descent." The best poems leave holes in their telling, where something remains unfathomable about what is described.