A review by kari_marie
Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin

challenging dark informative slow-paced

2.75

 

Blonde Rattlesnake by Julia Bricklin delves into the corruption of Los Angeles, the news media influence, and the crimes of Burma Adams and Tom White. 

 

I had not heard of this true crime and the spree this couple went on. It was fun to read about a true crime story I had heard nothing of. I felt like Bricklin really tried to be subjective to the couple and bring a more modern focus on this crime. Bringing up how battered woman syndrome can contribute as well as head injuries can affect people's personalities. That being said there was a lot of filler in this book. There was a whole paragraph about somebody named Elsie Moody. She ended up having nothing to do with the story. There are so many names and weird backgrounds about people and adding somebody who had nothing to do with story just made it harder to follow. There was a lot of jumping around timeline wise. Soon as a new person was introduced, like a lawyer we went into their future corruption. Then we are back in time to talk about Tom's history to present court case, and then history of cop to the future of corruption. It was hard to track. 

 

I will give this 2.75 stars because while I did think the topic was interesting, and I am sure the sensational stories made it hard to research. Its barely scraping three stars because there needed to be cut to irrelevant information, and clearer timeline and focus. 

 

Thank you to NetGalley, Lyons Press and Julia Bricklin for the free copy. This was an honest review. v