The false teeth of a female serial killer from 1908,the cut-and-paste confession of the Black Dahlia killer,the newly cracked cipher of the Zodiac killer,the shotgun used in the Clutter family murders,which were made famous by Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood-these are more than simple artefacts that once belonged to notorious murderers. They are objets of fascination to the legion of true crime obsessives around the world. And not merely for fleeting dark thrills,but because they represent a way to better understand those who we typically label monsters in lieu of learning how they actually became one.In Murderabilia,veteran true crime writer Harold Schechter presents 100 murder-related artefacts spanning two centuries (1808-2014),with accompanying stories of various lengths. A visual and literary journey,it presents a history unlike any previously told in the true crime genre,one that speaks to the dark fascination of true crime fans while also presenting a larger historical timeline of how and why we continue to be captivated by the most sensational crimes and killers among us.
Publisher: Workman PublishingISBN: 9781523515295Number of pages: 288Weight: 660 gDimensions: 232 x 172 x 30 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
"Schechter's prose has the punch of a campfire ghost story and the objects run a satisfying gamut from intriguing curios to the stuff of nightmares. It adds up to a strange and fascinating tour of the macabre."-Publishers Weekly"It is the rare reference book that is compulsively readable,but Murderabilia is one... These two-to-four-pages-long articles provide fertile ground for true-crime fans or students researching specific cases or types of crimes."-Booklist"A fascinating tour of criminological history."-Katherine Ramsland Ph.D.,Psychology Today"It is a measure of (Schechter's) research and gift for storytelling that the reader not only learns new details about familiar murders but about murders that are just as gruesome but lost to time.... The book not only saves you the trip but gives you 99 other reasons to be an armchair detective."-Air Mail
Kommentar