Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Punishment

Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Punishment
Average customer rating:

A Story That Will Haunt the Reader

I support the death penalty more than ever

". . .It Hardly Behooves Us To Talk About The Rest Of Us!"

Jerry Bledsoe does it again!

There are better true crime novels

Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Punishment
Jerry Bledsoe
Manufacturer: Onyx
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451407555

Amazon.com

In 1984, Velma Barfield became the first woman since 1962 to be executed in the United States. Her crimes were unusual: Barfield was convicted of the 1978 arsenic poisoning of her fiancé, Stuart Taylor, and she admitted killing three other people with poison, including her own mother. But her path to execution was circuitous, involving appeal after appeal to various high courts, a grassroots movement to prevent her death, a jailhouse spiritual epiphany, and subsequent "recollections" of childhood abuse and torment that she claimed eventually led to her abuse of prescription tranquilizers, which in turn clouded her judgment and enabled her to perform murderous crimes. Death Sentence, however, is as much about the people she left behind as it is about her fate.

Jerry Bledsoe chooses Barfield's son, Ronnie Burke, as his protagonist. Burke is a greatly sympathetic character whose sense of horror and shame leaps from the pages. Burke watches his own life fall apart as his mother undergoes a transformation in prison, while he uses every last ounce of his strength to try to save her life. He feels duty bound to help her, but nearing the end of the appeals process, he begs her to just quit and accept her ultimate penalty. Yet at her funeral, divorced and in the beginning stages of alcoholism, he cries and begs her forgiveness, apologizing for not doing more to save her. Openly critical of the death penalty, Bledsoe focuses a surgically precise camera on the process of state-sponsored execution and its effects, and the result is a grim but gripping and suspenseful tale. --Tjames Madison

Book Description

Everybody knew Velma Barfield as the perfect wife and a loving grandmother. But there was something about her that nobody knew... Velma Barfield had a secret life, and a sick urge to kill.

"Fast-paced...breathes new life into the true crime genre."-- Raleigh News & Observer

"Taut and engrossing."-- Booklist"Get ready for the Velma Barfield story...complete with all the prescription drug overuse, the arsenic, the drunkenness, the spouse abuse--and the redemption. It's the equal of any suspense novel going."-- Times-News(Burlington, NC)

"Bledsoe has written a detailed account of Barfield's troubled life and motives...holds the reader's interest with a true story that reads like a novel."

-- Library Journal

"Undertakes to answer the questions about the justice system and the motives that drive women to kill."-- Washington Post Book World

"An important commentary of the standing of a nation's soul, with journalistic integrity and the resonance of a fine novel."-- Will Campbell

"The Master of true crime."-- Patricia Cornwell

Customer Reviews:

A Story That Will Haunt the Reader.......2007-06-06

Bledsoe is a true crime master who exemplifies the best of the genre. Original research, fluid storytelling and an eye for the telling detail. You can't do much better than this in the genre. But make no mistake, this is a sad, depressing story that you may wish you hadn't read. Whether you support the death penalty or not, it's hard to argue that death sentences weren't meant for multiple, intentional murderers like Velma Barfield. Barfield was clearly a drug addict with all the most unpleasant behaviors associated with addiction. When she was in a controlled, low-stress environment Barfield not only functioned, she flourished. When she was stressed or, less generously perhaps, not getting her way, look out. Velma had a nasty streak and didn't mind taking it out on 2 husbands, a fiancee, two elderly patients and her own mother. Not to mention an attempt on her daughter and son-in-law. The list of her crimes - murder, arson, DUI, theft, insurance fraud, forgery and others - is shocking.

It's also hard to reconcile with the image of the "death row grandmother", the born-again Christian who helped other prisoners. Except, of course, that prison is another controlled and (in Velma's case) a low-stress environment. One that kept the spotlight locked on Velma, a spotlight she loved. I felt compassion for Velma and her deprived childhood and troubled marriage but I'm still not convinced I buy her stories of being sexually abused by multiple relatives. Velma always seemed to deliver to the listener what they wanted to hear. Was this just another case of that? I honestly don't know. I do know that Velma was guilty of at least 6 murders and had she not gone to jail would have committed more.

Among the victims are Velma's children who showed a superhuman love and forgiveness for their mother. She lied to them, manipulated them, in one case poisoned them, used them, etc and they still loved her. I find it intriguing that Velma's spiraling out of control began not just with her husband joining the Jaycees and her hysterectomy but with her children entering their late teens. They were less dependent on her, less under her control. Sadly, Velma continued to manipulate them to the very end never fully taking responsibility for her crimes and thus leaving them feeling guilty that they "should have stopped her." Broken marriages, broken lives, they are Velma Barfield's last victims and Bledsoe tells their story with a compassion their mother was sadly incapable of.

I support the death penalty more than ever.......2002-09-18

I'm sorry, but I did not see Velma Barfield as a "sympathetic" character. 99% of us have had less than perfect childhoods, but we don't use prescription drugs to hide from the world or poison people we perceive as being in our way.

I don't care how "redeemed" a killer on death row becomes. It doesn't bring back the people they murdered. And I think it's ridiculous how convicted murderers can delay their punishment for years with appeals and stays, things that their victims never got.

No, the book did not make me "re-think" my pro-death penalty stance. If you play, you must pay,,,whether you're Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy...or a grandmother from North Carolina.

". . .It Hardly Behooves Us To Talk About The Rest Of Us!".......2002-06-20

I have this little sign that reads:

"There's so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it hardly behooves us to talk about the rest of us."

Once upon a time not so long ago, there was a time when a slim and healthy, young man who had grown up with both poverty and big dreams was just starting out in the entertainment business and causing the girls to scream and swoon.

About that same time, a young woman who had come from an abusive home was putting her heart into building a happy home for her husband and two small children.

As the years passed, the young entertainer became more and more popular--and so did the homemaker.I knew the story of Velma Barfield well, so I knew how the story was going to end--yet, the writer had a way of making me live each step with Velma and her family, just as if I didn't know the ending.

A friend went to see Titanic, and he told me that the movie was done so well that he never gave up hope that both Jack and Rose would survive, even though he knew that Jack wouldn't.

This is the way I felt while reading this book.

When a sympathetic character such as Velma Barfield ends up on death row, it makes a lot of people rethink their views on capital punishment, because it brings it so close to home.

The "bad" people aren't some sort of cardboard characters anymore. They're your sons, daughters, Mommies, Daddies, and grandparents. And that's when we come to realize, through the masterful telling of their stories through books such as this one, that there really ARE no totally "bad" people, placing value on the lives of ALL people involved!

Jerry Bledsoe does it again!.......2002-05-21

Another winner for Jerry Bledsoe. This man is an author extradordinaire! With highly acclaimed books like "Bitter Blood" and "Blood Games" under his belt, Bledsoe strikes another homerun with the story of Velma Barfield.

If you like true crime, buy this book, as well as Bledsoe's other books.... Before he wakes, Blood games (my personal favorite) and Bitter Blood (this book will blow your mind away!).

There are better true crime novels.......2002-03-21

My favorite read is true crime and it's a genre filled with a lot of trashy novels posing as non fiction. This is well written and factual but...it's boring. This book is all about a drug addicted mother who overdoses on a regular basis and poisons family and friends. Sound interesting? I thought so too but I ended up skimming through half the book. The story glosses over how Velma's children deal with their mother over the years until she was convicted. The daughter is not so forgiving and the author focuses on the son's staunch support of his mother. It's not hard to figure that the author's slant on the story came from the son but the book would have been much more interesting if the daughter had been as revealing....

Average customer rating:

Jay Brandon - Angle of Death
Angel of Death
Angel of Death
Nice try .... try again.
Exceptional Book !

Angel of Death
Jay Brandon
Manufacturer: Forge Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312865414

Amazon.com

The excellent legal thrillers by former Texas prosecutor Jay Brandon (such as his Edgar-nominated Fade the Heat) are the real McCoy--brainy and visceral assaults on the justice system by someone who has seen all of its aspects.

Brandon's latest is a powerful story about two men determined to destroy each other, using whatever it takes. San Antonio District Attorney Chris Sinclair, who is white, is so sure that a charismatic African American community leader, Malachi Reese, is a bad guy, in spite of all the good work he does to feed and house the needy, that he uses a legal loophole to have Reese convicted of a double murder that he may not have committed. From his jail cell, Reese then orchestrates a monumental attack on Sinclair, arranging murders and ruining reputations. Using his stripped-down prose like a scalpel, Brandon cuts away most (but not quite all) of the fat that often pads legal thrillers, leaving a strong story and several vivid characters. You might not like either Sinclair or Reese very much at the end, but you'll come away understanding why the law can only go so far in bringing people together. Other Brandon books include Defiance County, Local Rules, and Rules of Evidence. --Dick Adler

Book Description

To the African-American community in San Antonio, Malachi Reese is a saint, a community leader, and a man who helps the hungry and the homeless. To District Attorney Chris Sinclair, he is the Angel of Death, a killer possessed by the need for power and willing to do whatever it takes to gain it. Sinclair overcomes incredible odds to see Reese convicted of murder and sentenced to Death Row. But Reese has not been defeated. From Death Row, he threatens to destroy Sinclair. As a series of seemingly unrelated crimes begins, Sinclair feels the power of Reese descending upon him, and finds that enemies are allies and allies are enemies, and that truth and justice are much more shades of gray than an issue of Black and White.

Customer Reviews:

Jay Brandon - Angle of Death.......2005-08-10

good writer with quick plot which carries on throughout the book with lots of twists and turns.
A good read.

Angel of Death.......2002-06-05

This is a murder story that concerns King Edward I. After destroying the Red House, King Edward is confronted by a mystery. A man called Walter de Montfort is killed. It is up to King Edward to find clues and capture the culprit. In the end, he discovers it was a man called Robert de Luce, the treasurer of the Cathedral of St. Paul's, the senoir cannon of the church. King Edward found out that Robert de Luce poisoned Walter de Montfort when a drink was passed around.

I chose to read this book because of a few reasons. First because it would help me with my projects. Second because it is a mystery book. Third because it is tied in with the Middle Ages. Fourth because it is really a good book. Finally, because it is full of excitement.

I actually didn't have a favorite part. This to me was good because it was a mystery story. I liked it because it ties in with the Medieval Time. I don't think that any mystery stories have a favorite part. I like the types of mystery stories that gives you clues so you could solve the mystery yourself. Some of those types of books that I like to read Encyclopedia Brown Books.

Angel of Death.......2002-06-05

Nice try .... try again........2001-05-29

After reading Loose Among the Lambs I just had to grab another Brandon book - but was a tad disappointed. This one started out well, but tried too hard, was too cliche and just didn't have it. I think when Brandon's on, he's right-on, as in Loose Among the Lambs and Fade the Heat. But after reading this one I couldn't help but think that he's seen one too many episodes of Ally McBeal. Judges - no matter now incompetent - would not let attorneys blather on and on and on like they do in this novel, without getting interrupted. Brandon tries to make us believe early on that this judge is very incompetent, perhaps so that he can allow the attorneys to do just this, but I didn't buy it. And the ending? Too ridiculous. Too Hollywood. Brandon must have been thinking of the big screen when he wrote the ending. Too bad, because he's a great writer.

Exceptional Book !.......2000-01-11

Jay Brandon mixed in his thorough understanding of how the criminal justice system works, a very original and intelligent villian, and a uncanny depiction and right on the mark description of the relationships and dynamics within the African-American community and how that community precieves the Legal Justice System to create a thrilling,page turning book that you can't put down.His protagonists Sinclair and Greenwald are a great match romantically and in helping to take down the killer Reese. Unlike other books that basically are written as screenplays/scripts or their antagonist are more interesting and way smarter than the hero i.e. James Patterson-"Pop goes the Weasel". Malachi Reese and Chris Sinclair are both very smart and cunning in their own ways, making for some great suspense and good reading.Look forward to the sequel to this book if for nothing else to read about the on going relationship of Sinclair/Greenwald and the other strong characters in the book, Asst DA Lynn Ransom and Councilman Winston Phillips. Get the book because you won't see it on the Hollywood screen because the villian is too Politicallly Incorrect for Hollywood to allow the book to be made into a movie.

The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison (Women in the West)

Average customer rating:

Well done book
Compelling crime drama and cultural history
Excellent research and writing and a fascinating story
Fantastic book-well researched, great topic!
Enthralling!

The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison (Women in the West)
Kathleen A. Cairns
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0803211414

Book Description

“Crack shot.” “Enigma woman.” “Good with ponies and pistols.” “A much-married woman.”

What if such an unconventional woman—and the press unanimously agreed that Nellie May Madison was indeed unconventional—were to get away with murder? Shortly after her husband’s bullet-riddled body was found in the couple’s Burbank apartment, police issued an all-points bulletin for the “beautiful, dark-haired widow.” The ensuing drama unfolded with all the strange twists and turns of a noir crime novel.

In this intriguing cultural history, Kathleen A. Cairns tells the true tale of the first woman sentenced to death in California, Nellie May Madison. Her story offers a glimpse into law and disorder in 1930s Los Angeles while bringing to life a remarkable character whose plight reflects on the status of woman, the workings of the media and the judiciary system, and the stratification of society in her time. An intriguing cultural history, Cairns’s re-creation of the case from murder to trial to aftermath casts an eye forward to our own love-hate affair with celebrity crimes and our abiding ambivalence about domestic violence abuse as a defense for murder.

Customer Reviews:

Well done book.......2007-09-18

This book is about my aunt(through marriage) and I personally know the author did a lot of research. I commend her.

Compelling crime drama and cultural history.......2007-05-20

This book has something for everyone. It's a compelling crime drama, a carefully layered character study and a cultural history that provides insights into gender roles, the legal system and the media of the 1930s and the 1940s.

Nellie May Madison was an unusual and at times a desperate woman, but she found the inner strength to avoid being a victim on two occasions. The author masterfully re-creates her story, including pain-staking research about her Montana pioneer family.

The book has lots of surprising legal twists and turns. But what sets it apart is the larger story it tells about the life and times of Southern California during that period.

One note of caution: don't start the book if you need to go to bed early, I couldn't put it down.

Excellent research and writing and a fascinating story.......2007-05-06

The doctrine of self-defense has always required an "imminent" danger. To a man, "retreat" involves a physical act. But a beaten woman who decides to get her man before he gets her often preemptively strikes while he's incapacitated.

Alas, the law has always shaken a finger at slaying a sleeping drunk.

Nellie Madison woman shot her sleeping husband in the back, and the lawyers and the press didn't know what to make of it. Indeed, her lawyer kicked women off the jury and refused to put on the evidence that would explain why she did it, and the puzzled jurors contemplated the bloody bed set up in the courtroom and sentenced her to hang.

This book finally tells us the entire tale of Nellie Madison for the first time, and it is so terrifically researched, so well put together, you might forget the story took place in 1934. It's supposed to be an "academic" book, and was published by The University of Nebraska Press, yet it's anything but a stuffy academic treatment, and it's a physically lovely, beautifully produced book.

The crime rags were quick to put a moniker on Mrs. Madison, referring to her as "a real-life Roxie Hart," among other names, and dubbed her crime one of the most mysterious in the annals. An investigator called her "the coolest woman I have ever questioned."

Purple prose never fades, and the author couldn't help but quote some of the press accounts. My favorite, courtesy the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express:

"Like the opening of a detective mystery will be the prosecution's evidence in the trial of the comely 'enigma woman.' There will be told in court the screams of a woman at midnight, excited footfalls in dim halls. Then, like the closing chapters of a 'thriller,' in which the mystery is solved, the story of Mrs. Madison will unroll before the jury, providing, it is hoped by the defendant and her counsel, an adequate excuse for blasting Eric Madison into eternity as he lay on his bed that fateful night."

She was an unusual woman; she began her marital adventures at 13 and was divorced several times -- this when divorce rates were in the single digits -- and yet she never had children.

Then she bought a handgun and made herself a widow. Witnesses originally thought the gunshots came from the adjacent Warner Brothers Studio. Despite the Hollywood backdrop, Nellie May missed her cue; she didn't weep into her handkerchief for the press. Indeed she refused to say anything at all about the murder until she was behind bars and sentenced to swing.

Then she told a story of rib-cracking abuse -- and it was backed up by the dead man's other loves, who told virtually identical stories of stranglings and beatings and humiliations that the flashpoint-tempered Eric Madison heaped upon the many women in his shortened life.

The Enigma Woman is a wonderful piece of storytelling, masterfully constructed, and the author obviously put many miles on her car getting the full story. I wish I'd written it, and I stand in awe of anyone who can glean so many fascinating details from a case that's coated in decades of dust.

I also noticed Amazon is pairing it for sale with The Good-Bye Door, the book out last fall about electrocuted 1930s serial killer Anna Hahn, another I enjoyed very much for the same qualities.

The Enigma Woman is top-shelf stuff for votaries of high quality historic crime stories. Professor Cairns will keep you mesmerized in contemplation of a most curious murder case, one in which our recalcitrant heroine could not speak until she was within the shadows of the gallows, one in which the victim may well have had it coming in spades and by golly got it.

Fantastic book-well researched, great topic!.......2007-04-21

I first became aware of Nellie Madison in the summer of 2006 when I was told that she was buried at the historic Mountain View Cemetery in San Bernadino, CA. Well, I was told that a "woman who was on death row" was buried there, but no further information was given. A few months later I located Nellie's victim, her husband Erik Madison, at Vallhala Cemetery in North Hollywood and the pieces of the puzzle all came together. Then I heard that Proferssor Cairns was about to publish a book about the entire case! Talk about it being a small world.

The book is excellent. Sources are cited throughout, no tabloid style writing, no sensational prose. A welcome relief from most true crime stories. She did an amazing amount of research, interviewing people connected to Nellie, obtaining archival photos, everything you would hope to see but rarely do.

Nellie Madison's story deserved to be told, and Ms. Cairns did an excellent job sharing it.

Enthralling!.......2007-03-04

I really enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it. Ms Cairns has managed to achieve a perfect balance between academic quality and readability. Personally I always think that a well written biography or history book should fire the interest of the reader into wanting to find out more about peripheral characters mentioned in the book or the historical period in general, once you have read this book you will want to do both. "The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison" would appeal not only to those interested in true crime but also to anyone interested in the history of California or the 1930's generally. The main focus of the book is obviously the trial of Nellie Madison which was fascinating however Ms Cairns does her best to provide a good overview of Nellie Madison's life which is extremely interesting and unconventional, especially for the period in which she lived.

Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language

Average customer rating:

Mediocre Content Betrays a 5-Star Title
Takes the Tux off the bull
Death Sentences
He commits the sin he condemns.
A terrible waste of time!

Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language
Don Watson
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

A brilliant and scathing polemic about the sorry state of the English language and what we can--and must--do about it.

Do you ever leave work wondering whether all of the words exchanged between you and your colleagues in emails and meetings actually had any meaning? You spend the day touching base and networking, workshopping and impacting, strategizing and implementing, going forward with your key performance indicators. No wonder you are exhausted when you leave the office!

Even as English spreads around the globe, the language itself is shrinking. Our vocabularies are increasingly trimmed of subtlety and obscure words are forbidden unless they qualify as economic or business jargon. The constant pressure in our society to be efficient and productive is working like a noose around the neck of the English language.

Don Watson is one of Australia's foremost writers and intellectuals. In Death Sentences, he takes up the fight against the pestilence of bullet points, the scourge of buzzwords, and the dearth of verbs in public discourse. He encourages us to wage war against the personal mission statement and the Powerpoint essay and to take back our language from the corporate wordsmiths and marketeers. BACKCOVER: Praise for Don Watson's Death Sentences:

“Don Watson has written a fine and necessary book. Any citizen who neglects to read it does so at his or her peril.”
-Lewis H. Lapham, editor of Harper's Magazine

"[a] marvelous polemic..."
—forbes.com

“…captures the powerlessness and frustration we feel when confronted by meaningless words delivered with authority.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Watson makes an eloquent, elegant, and sometimes scathing case for taking back language from those who would trip it of all color and emotion and, therefore, of all meaning.
—Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist)

“…many lessons and insights in this book…”
—Leigh Buchanan, Harvard Business Review

“[Watson is] always clear and precise, even when exposing the verbal pollution that passes for wisdom in the public realm.”
-Toronto Star

Customer Reviews:

Mediocre Content Betrays a 5-Star Title.......2006-11-13

The author makes excellent points about the wind of pompous, meaningless jargon and deceptive spin that has swept through government, business and academia. I personally trudged through a lot of this muck in the social "sciences" and share the author's concern for the erosion of the language. We are losing our ability (or is it will?) to say what we mean in a way that is easy to understand and worth the reader's time.

Chapter 1 should be digested by everyone whose job requires them to write or speak. In the beginning I thought the book was a 4; by page 58 I was thinking 3 stars; and by chapter 3 it was in freefall. His own writing bogs down in muddy thinking and poorly chosen examples. I lost sight of his sails as he drifted off point and disappeared in a fog of philosophical opportunism.

I still recommend chapter 1, but get it from your library. It's not worth the money.

Takes the Tux off the bull.......2006-09-09

Clear writing takes the Tux off the bull and reveals it for what it is. No one can say that often enough.

Death Sentences.......2006-08-23

Anyone whose job requires that they write clearly and compellingly should read this book.

He commits the sin he condemns. .......2006-02-20

Let me dissent from the praise this book has received.

I found Watson's style overblown and pompous. He criticises modern discourse for lacking both passion and clarity. Fair enough. But he confuses the two; passion doesn't make for clarity. Often, the opposite.

Some occasions demand a cool head, and the writing which describes them should reflect that.

For example, Watson spends most of page 31 arguing why he prefers the phrase "universities are under siege" to "universities are under pressure". The second phrase smells of "21st century secular Methodists", whereas the first calls to mind the Trojans, who, like their counterparts in academia, live behind walls and who "have something the besiegers want--not a woman in this case, but their submission certainly."

To use an old-fahioned Australian phrase, get your hand off it. "Under pressure" will do just fine, thanks.

Colour and metaphor are great. But too much makes for verbal sludge, just as thick and gooey as the bureaucratic double-speak Watson criticises.

I really don't need to hear that modern official language obscures rather than informs. Orwell and others established that long ago. Where's the new spin? Watson gives none.

On p. 139, he observes that Martin Luther King knew a good speech is like a song. A good book isn't. I personally found Watson's constant chorus of disgust a little hard to listen to, over and over, gilded with obscure references and going nowhere.

A terrible waste of time!.......2005-10-05

I cannot believe that publisher accepted to bring this book to market. This is a terrible & pointless critic of the language. There is absolutely no substance to this book, only a catchy title! I regret this purchase.

Death Sentences in Missouri, 1803-2005: A History and Comprehensive Registry of Legal Executions, Pardons, and Commutations

Average customer rating:

Death Sentences in Missouri, 1803-2005: A History and Comprehensive Registry of Legal Executions, Pardons, and Commutations
Harriet C. Frazier
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company, Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786427191

Product Description

This chronological discussion of the death penalty in Missouri covers those executed from 1803 through 2005. Sources include newspapers, county histories, prison records, Union Army records, pardon papers and appellate court cases. Chapters discuss such topics as the death penalty offenses of Indians and blacks; death sentences carried out by the military; lynchings; the gas chamber; the executions of rapists, juveniles, and women; pardons and commutations; appellate court reversals; and lethal injection.

Average customer rating:

Blanchard is a terrific writer, BUT . . .
Someone get this author an editor!
Great Book
Not to be missed
Mechanical, Contrived, and Predictable

Life Sentences
Alice Blanchard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: B000HEYVLI

Book Description

From the critically acclaimed author of the Today show pick The Breathtaker comes a chilling new tale of psychological suspense. Boston-basedscientist Daisy Hubbard is driven to find a cure for the rare genetic disease that claimed the life of her brother. But her progress is interrupted when she learns her unstable sister Anna has gone missing from her California home. Once there, the situation gets worse; she's informed by the LAPD that a known serial killer has confessed to Anna's murder and insists upon showing her his handiwork himself. But is Anna dead? Teaming up with detective Jack Makowski, Daisy follows the killer's twisted logic, while trying to unravel the past 10 months of her sister's troubled life. Now, Daisy realizes her sister has become a pawn in a game with much higher stakes and Daisy must summon all her resolve to stop the killer in his tracks, and to uncover his obsession with the disease she's been trying her entire life to cure.

Customer Reviews:

Blanchard is a terrific writer, BUT . . ........2007-07-27

Alice Blanchard is a terrific writer.

She can find and describe the concrete detail that will make a scene or person snap into 3-D life.

Her prose can tapdance around that of most mystery writers. It's like seeing a black-and-white movie suddenly come into color.

HOWEVER, her plots and her characters tend to be formulaic.

Small town, outrageous crimes, serial killer (Yawn) with obscure convoluted motives (what other kind would a serial killer have?), confused plucky hero/heroine desperately piecing clues together and racing toward a nail-biting chase scene.

All three of her mystery novels are exactly like this, with a dash of Gee Whiz technical razmatazz thrown in.

So the pleasure of her books lies mainly in the writing.

For this reason, her first two mysteries--Darkness Peering, and The Breathtaker--are better than this one, because the writing in those two sings.

Here, the writing is simply competent and utilitarian.

Pity.

And because of the flatness of the writing here, this book (Life Sentences) tends to be suffocating. Claustrophobic, unrelieved, dark, airless.

The only truly interesting character is Anne.

The villain (no names will be mentioned) is an afterthought, straight from B-movie (or C-movie) casting.

Read the first two.

I do hope Blanchard will give up serial killers.

By actual count, there are 4,798,365,281 serial killers in literature. There have been less than a thousand in history--even counting Stalin, Milosevic, and Bush.

Someone get this author an editor!.......2007-06-06

Cutting at least 100 pages could only have helped this book. There was an incredible amount of repetition as characters thought over (and over and over) the same events, in the same words. Blanchard repeatedly broke what little tensions she'd managed to build with rambling descriptions. I like a well-turned metaphor as much as the next voracious reader, but Blanchard used WAY too much padding. This has to be the sloooooowest suspense novel I've ever slogged through, in spite of having (and using) enough plot points for at least three (better) books.

Daisy was supposed to be so brilliant, but she most common responses when anyone spoke to her were "What?" or "Really?" and she proved remarkably slow on the uptake outside of the lab. She frequently spouted factoids that let Blanchard show off her research, but I caught a couple of inaccuracies in some of the simpler ones (like, "most caucasian babies are born with dark hair,") so I can't vouch for the more complex stuff. And you simply can't convince me that a top geneticist named "Daisy" wouldn't be going by "D. MiddleName Hubbard" by her second year in grad school. Freddy the Fuzz, I mean Jack, has a couple of believable moments, but you have to read pretty closely to find them.

Get it from the library if you feel compelled to read it.

Great Book.......2006-08-13

Great book. I loved it. Kept my attention, well written, good character development and not drug out in a tiresome redundant fashion as I find some other books to be.

Not to be missed .......2006-08-04

Life Sentences is a wonderfully eerie and utterly engrossing thriller about a Boston geneticist who drops everything, and travels across the country to investigate the disappearance of her schizophrenic sister. Alice Blanchard brings many skills to the table here--extensive research into gene therapy, a rich plot with compelling characters and beautiful narrative description. This is a great book-- not to be missed.

Mechanical, Contrived, and Predictable.......2006-07-13

I really liked Alice Blanchard's first book, "Darkness Peering." Her second, "Breathtaker," has flaws but is engrossing and interesting all the same. "Life Sentences," however, is a disappointment. Blanchard seems to have phoned this one in. It's rather as if Victor Frankenstein had built his skeleton and then couldn't be bothered to add flesh or muscle or to flip the switch on that life-giving gizmo.

Despite a couple of twists, the plot is predictable. The overall arc of the heroine's story is obvious from the very first page. There's nothing wrong with this approach in theory: you know where the story is going, so the fun comes in seeing how it gets there. In this sort of narrative, it's not the destination that matters; it's the journey.

But this premise works only if the journey is surprising and interesting. The trajectory of "Life Sentences," unfortunately, is just the opposite. There are no real surprises, even though some of the events are more than unbelievable (just wait till you get to the whole forest scene and its aftermath -- and its prologue, come to that.) The action moves implacably and implausibly to the expected final confrontation, which, when it comes, is an anti-climax with little emotional power; we've all seen similar scenes too many times before. The feel-good ending is a treacly fantasy, rather like an "awww" moment in a sitcom -- and just as real.

Character development is both erratic (Jack and Daisy) and cliched (the lecherous boss, the sexual abuser [who reads like one of those featureless composite characters in bad pop-psychology articles], the serial killer who seems to have come from Psychopath Central Casting, [and whose backstory accounts for his behavior far too neatly]). The science is interesting but too heavy-handed (it's not hard to understand; it's just presented in "now-it's-time-for-some-exposition" chunks.)

The basic idea is a good one: to explore important questions about genetics, destiny, and family. Based on Blanchard's skill in "Darkness Peering," I would have thought that she could have built this foundation into a complex, ambiguous, and suggestive novel. Alas, she hasn't; the book is ultimately too generic. The whole story feels mechanical and listless, with melodrama (the flood, the fire, the river) and quirkiness (Anna's silly language, the walk on the lakebed, the killer's father's job) substituting for genuine storytelling.

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Staring Death in the Eye
Awesome.
Blanchot the artist...
death sentence is worse than a death sentence
AStonishing example of the 'recit' literary form

Death Sentence
Maurice Blanchot , and Lydia Davis
Manufacturer: Barrytown Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Writing of the Disaster
The Instant of My Death / Demeure: Fiction and Testimony (Meridian (Stanford, Calif.).)
Awaiting Oblivion (French Modernist Library)
The Book to Come (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)
Things: A Story of the Sixties; A Man Asleep (Verba Mundi)

ASIN: 1886449414

Book Description

Blanchot's famous fictive recit, tr Lydia Davis

Customer Reviews:

Staring Death in the Eye.......2002-12-01

A short, harrowing work interested neither in description, character development, nor cleverness but rather in staring death in the eye. If you like Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen King, or even Raymond Carver you doubtless may detest this abstract gift of a conflicted consciousness of a taciturn man in love with a sickly, dying young woman during troubled times. Perhaps the supreme study of the impossibility of fidelity, let alone true love, in a world where death hangs in the air as the possibility of total absence or, more frighteningly, as the cipher of a total presence condemned to repeat its secret to deaf ears.

Awesome........2002-07-05

Death Sentence is awesome. There are many themes in this book, and if you pay any attention, and that keeps the book interesting. It is alternatingly bleak, hilarious, and sometimes bleakly hilarious.
The funniest line might be, "What do I care about that honor, or even that friend, or even his unhappiness? My own is immense, and next to it other people mean nothing." Or perhaps the line that the narrator throws in about sleeping in open graves may strike your fancy. If you do not find these bleakly funny, perhaps you are not morbid enough to read this book.
Several questions which may keep you up at night are, "Who is the narrator? What is Blanchot saying about French, or other, Cultures? What is the significance of casts? Why does everyone live in hotel rooms? How does Blanchot deal with the concept of death?

Blanchot the artist..........2001-01-20

L'arret de mort (Death Sentence)is a beautifully crafted piece of literary art...and one which starkly draws the boundary line between what is perceived as 'The Art of the Novel' in France and its dumbed-down American counterpart. Blanchot (along with Bataille, Robbe-Grillet and countless others; certainly not all from France) is a writer who dares to ask what fiction is, dares to redefine the form, re-examine his new definitions...he dares to make his novels about ideas, not mere bedtime stories (or worse, Hollywood film-treatments). From the first sentence to the last this novel draws the reader into considerations of our mortality, of the haunting trajectory of our experience, and most daring of all, it questions the very nature of literary endeavor. Magnificent.

death sentence is worse than a death sentence.......2000-02-08

Foucault praised Blanchot on his writing of this book, expressed his admiration for Blanchot's style. But... it is Blanchot's style that makes the book absolutely unbearable. Focault thinks that Blanchot's absence of a plot is the plot itself. I think that there is a certain amount of faith in this believe; faith in the assumption that the non-plot is conscious, that it is deliberate. I don't, I can't, believe that this is true and if it is, I don't think it's that ingeneous. Books without plots are just long poems and even long poems (take Dante's Inferno) have some type of plot. Blanchot non-plot style of writing isn't particularily interesting, which might be different if Blachot could find a better subject to write about. The book rambles on, with the main charter being fickle, but since there is no plot, there is no way to determine exactly what he is being fickle on. The book, which is short, only one hundred pages, drags on and for such a short novel that's a "bad" thing.

AStonishing example of the 'recit' literary form.......1999-01-05

This lost classic of French literature is thankfully back in print, translated by Paul Auster's first wife, the excellent detail-led writer Lydia Davis. Death Sentence recounts the horrific drawn out death of writer Colette Laure Peignot whose posthumously gathered writings are now available as The Collected Writings of Laure on City Lights. See also on Amazon. The prose here sticks like a dart in your memory. Its the stuff of ticking clocks and sleepless nights. Gripping yet troubling. A vital part of the Georges bataille-Laure story. Highly recommended both as a translation and as a compelling piece of prose.

Destroyer 080: Death Sentence (Destroyer)

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Destroyer 080: Death Sentence (Destroyer)
Warren Murphy , and Richard Sapir
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Men's Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Destroyer 081: Hostile Takeover (Destroyer)
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ASIN: 0451164717

Law, Psychology, and Death Penalty Litigation

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Law, Psychology, and Death Penalty Litigation
James R. Eisenberg
Manufacturer: Professional Resource Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Criminal Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1568870892

Organ Transplants from Executed Prisoners: An Argument for the Creation of Death Sentence Organ Removal Statutes

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Organ Transplants from Executed Prisoners: An Argument for the Creation of Death Sentence Organ Removal Statutes
Louis J., Jr. Palmer
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books

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Jurisprudence | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

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Organ Transplants | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786406739

Book Description

This is a study of the utilitarian proposal for the creation of "death sentence organ removal statutes" that would make legal the harvesting of transplantable organs from the cadavers of executed capital murderers. The book outlines the legal history of the human corpse, examines the current market for transplantable organs and the development of transplanting techniques, presents legal justifications for the imposition of organ harvesting, and even anticipates the constitutional arguments that will be made by capital felons attempting to challenge removal of their organs. Current methods of execution are examined, along with the need to implement a new method of execution that will efficiently allow the harvesting of healthy organs. Also discussed are changes for prosecuting capital murderers, expediting executions, and minimizing ethnic, racial, gender, and economic discrimination as related to death sentences. An appendix provides a model death sentence organ removal statute.

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