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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I was pretty gutted about this book, I'd reached the point of the year where I'd hit the wall with my reading and needed a bit of a break from it, unfortunately I was about half way through this when that happened.Brother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald flee their busy London lives for the beautiful but stormy Devon coastline. They are drawn to the suspiciously inexpensive Cliff End, feared amongst locals as a place of disturbance and ill omen.
Gradually, the Fitzgeralds learn of the mysterious deaths of Mary Meredith and another strange young woman. Together, they must unravel the mystery of Cliff End’s uncanny past – and keep the troubled young Stella, who was raised in the house as a baby, from returning to the nursery where something waits to tuck her in at night ...
The second in Tramp's Recovered Voices series, this strange, bone-chilling story was first published in 1942, and was adapted for the screen as one of Hollywood’s most successful ghost stories, The Uninvited, in 1944.
I'd been waiting absolutely ages to get hold of it but for some reason it was always about £40 on Amazon, then I had a look and it was there for a tenner, right from the get go though I was struggling with it, the writing just seemed confused and befuddled, I tried to get back into it after a little break but couldn't, I reckon if I re-read it again in the future I'll really enjoy it but for now it is one of the few books that I quit before the end.
Talking with Serial Killers? I take issue with the title after reading the book, it is more like a chronological breakdown of their crimes rather than actual interviews, now don't get me wrong you can tell that an awful lot of work went into the book but it certainly isn't 'talking' with the serial killers.An investigative criminologist, Christopher Berry-Dee is a man who talks to serial killers. In this book, their pursuit of horror and violence is described in their own words, transcribed from audio and videotape interviews conducted deep inside some of the toughest prisons in the world. Berry-Dee describes the circumstances of his meetings with some of the world's most evil men, and reproduces their very words as they describe their crimes and discuss their remorse—or lack of it. This work offers a penetrating insight into the workings of the criminal mind.
Some of the cases were really interesting, being a horror buff I really enjoyed the Ronny DeFeo Jr chapter, I didn't realise just how messed up that case was, not just the murders but the whole investigation, the corruption that was involved etc, again whilst it wasn't an interview it was a compelling read and it has gave me a good few cases to look into in more detail.
One thing that I will praise is that the author certainly didn't pull any punches when describing the crimes, it was pretty damn gruesome in fact, I like that, I read these books because I want to set it down and just think 'Jesus Christ, what did I just read' and he certainly managed to get me to do that once or twice.
The cons are pretty huge though, again I will say it (for the third or fourth time) this isn't talking with serial killers, it is just a breakdown of their cases, a lot of that info may have come from the killers themselves but it doesn't come across like that when reading the book.
The spelling and grammar mistakes were horrendous as well, I can normally overlook them but in this instance they were jarring and it was hard to just skip over them without grinding my teeth slightly.
I often find with books like these that the authors quite enjoy self praise 'this murder would still be unsolved had it not been for me' is a sentence that crops up several times throughout the book, it didn't overly bother me but it was still worth a mention.
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Originally Posted by p4pking
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