To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home

Book Description

A never-before-written exposé on catching child predators, from the creator of the powerful NBC Dateline series

Over 40,000,000 Americans have seen Dateline NBC's ongoing “To Catch a Predator” series, with an average of 11 million viewers per episode. So far, the Dateline series has led to the arrest of 183 men and shown that child predators can be anyone—even those most trusted in the community—including rabbis, doctors, and teachers.

In his book To Catch a Predator, Chris Hansen, the creator and on-air correspondent for Dateline's most successful series, looks deeper into the world of child predators. The book expands beyond the Dateline series to include commentary from psychological and criminal experts about the origins and methods of child predators, and includes substantive advice for both parents and children on how to protect kids on the Internet. Hansen also looks at the current methods for treating child predators and interviews several of the men seen on the Dateline show to follow up on their lives since being arrested. To Catch a Predator presents a strong analysis of what some feel is a child predator epidemic and a startling look at the shortcomings of our systems and society.

Customer Reviews:

TO CATCH A PREDATOR.......2007-08-25

I think every person that has a child in their home should read this book. I also think children over 14 years of age should read this book.

Get the Book!!!!!!!!.......2007-08-04

If you have the internet,if you have kids (THIS IS A MUST READ FOR PARENTS!), if you love kids, if you work around kids, if you hate the actions of pedophiles that become sexual predators and feel they should be incarated unitl Jesus comes back, or you think hey should get treatment and that is the best solution, get the freakin book!
It covers all of these issues and all of the operations and catching these sexual predatory dirtbags. ( Ofcourse I'm a "locker upper!")It is a great read, Chris Hansen is well spoken on all issues, and just does a great job with this one! Its full of information and sometimes will make you say "What" and sometimes "HMMMMM." It is probably the best beginners book for reading on the issue of online predators. There are more explicit and problably more scientific ones but this should be on every internet crimes against children bookshelf. GET THE BOOK!!!

Every parents should read this book!.......2007-06-05

This book is written by the host of the popular NBC Dateline series, To Catch a Predator. If you are a parent, you should read this book.

Read this Book..........2007-06-03

if you have children and a computer.

More than just a rundown of the TO CATCH A PREDATOR Dateline NBC series (although it does do that), this book also contains heartbreaking stories of children who have been exploited -- and in some cases murdered -- by predators they met on the Internet.

Chris Hansen does a great job of illustrating the fact that the computer and the Internet, as a whole, are useful tools that even younger children can take advantage of. But his tips and hints for protecting your children from online predators are something that EVERY parent needs to read -- and then share with their kids.

While I tried to avoid scaring my two children (ages 10 and 6), I have sat them down and discussed the dangers that can be found on the Internet. Just as predators in real life don't always look like what they are, I think my kids now understand that people they could meet online aren't necessarily who they claim to be, either.

I highly recommend all parents, especially those of teens and pre-teens, who have a computer pick up a copy of TO CATCH A PREDATOR. You'll be amazed, frightened, and instilled with a sense of urgency when it comes to the protection of your kids.

Catch a Predator.......2007-05-10

I enjoyed the book, it expands on the television series and gives some insight into protecting your children. It is a great tool for anyone that has children and gives some great tips on using the internet and also what to look for if you have a child that uses the internet.

Average customer rating:

Was the existence of snuff films actually in question?
Don't believe the hype!
Shooting for the stars...
Entertainment=1 star, Information=0 stars
Over the top, lacks real insight, but compelling

Gods of Death
Yaron Svoray , and Thomas Hughes
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684814455

Amazon.com

Legal scholar and anti-pornography activist Catherine MacKinnon approached journalist Yaron Svoray about "snuff films," because he was the only person who'd said in print that he'd seen such a film (while undercover investigating neo-Nazis for his book In Hitler's Shadow), in which a girl was raped and murdered. "It is my misfortune," Svoray says, "to have been born with a need to look under the carpet." After a bit of soul-searching, he undertook the investigation described in this book--a series of adventures with many dead ends and mishaps, some of which are quite funny. (This reviewer was impressed by his tenacity.) The writing, while sincere, is overdramatized and synoptic, leaving the reader to decide whether to believe Svoray's hair-raising tales. This book is important for what it says about how (in Svoray's words) "blood sells," and it will no doubt spark much discussion among those who doubt the existence of snuff films.

Customer Reviews:

Was the existence of snuff films actually in question?.......2006-06-01

I find it hard to believe that there are people who doubt the existence of snuff films. It doesn't surprise me one bit. For a non-fiction book, this was a quick read. I understood why he took liberties with changing names and condensing events. Would I call it "journalism", probably not, but just because it is not true journalism doesn't mean it should be dismissed either.

My main problem with the book, is that he seemed to be stating in the beginning that he was searching to prove that snuff films are this dark area of the PORN industry (which, I think is more unbelievable) and ends up "proving" snuff films exist as a tool of war, which I think is a completely different thing.

I am not sure what to make of Robert DiNiro's appearance in the book. He doesn't come off very well, so if his press secretary does confirm he was at this viewing, I find that interesting. Svoray has gone on to do other interesting things and it is too bad that this book was not better done or taken more seriously.

Don't believe the hype!.......2004-04-17

Having read the reviews here, I purchased this book full of enthusiasm for what is described as a work of non-fiction that reads like a "spy novel" or thriller. Having been blinded by that hype, it wasn't until I was on about Page 200 of 300 pages that I realized that what I was reading was/is a very boring book! Zzzzzz.....besides, a major hurdle that I had in getting comfortable with the story is this: if the author had seen a snuff film in Germany (which he claims to have done) that gave him repeated nightmares, then why the obsession with obtaining a copy of such a film in order to "prove" that they really do exist?

Shooting for the stars..........2003-12-14

...this endeavour narrowly avoids plummeting to Earth.

As it is, it's just not all that good. By all means, do not pay full price for this book. Like the other reviewers, I will not spoil the 'ending', and I will also say that there is hardly a shred of evidence or compelling presentation to make you really believe this is all true.

It's not investigative journalism. It's not entirely schlock, but it certainly is not the compelling story as promised by the slipcover.

The story is littered with all sorts of events, but not a shred of documentation; he even states that he avoids a lot of truth by changing names, places, times, events. Sadly, this also destroys what little credibility the story has. Even the name-dropping he does, doesn't carry much weight (and you'd think Robert De Niro's name would carry some weight, no?)

It's not a waste of time... but it's not the gripping story that one hopes it would be.

Entertainment=1 star, Information=0 stars.......2002-02-19

That "Gods of Death" [is] a sensationalist puff-piece written like a very slow spy novel.
There is a lot of speculation over the validity of snuff films and while there's certainly a possibility that they do exist Mr. Svoray doesn't present a very compelling argument. The one thing he NEVER acheives is to convince us of a worldwide underground for this stuff. More to the point, he actually acheives the opposite with his bumbling investigation, which is convince the reader that snuff films are not so much an industry unto themselves but rather an isolated occurance.
Throughout his investigation he askes the reader to accept a lot without giving us any real incentive. The "I know it doesn't look like much but you'll just have to trust me" method is the main device that is employed throughout this book.
While you certainly won't find any meaty informative value in this book one might be so inclined as to read it just for morbid curiousity, especially in the light of recent movies like "8mm", and I can tell you in all seriousness that it falls flat in that avenue as well. "Gods of Death" [is] more or less like a pulp spy novel. The only problem is that it is too dreadfully paced and full of macho bravado to even entice the most desperate spy novel geek. And as it pertains to its main character, Mr. Svoray, he tries to put himself over but instead comes across like an irredeemable [idiot].
While I'm certain that some reviewers are of the skeptic camp I'm also sure that there were a great many more that were like myself who went into it with a "show me" attitude. I was willing to accept a possible theory as long as there was sufficient evidence to back it up. Needless to say, there wasn't. As it seems "Gods of Death" makes its entire case on hearsay.
If you are waiting for an intelligent and believable look into the world of snuff pornography I suspect you'll have to wait a while longer. If it's just perverse entertainment you're into then rent "8mm". It's more enjoyable and ultimately more realistic than Yaron Svoray would have you believe.

Over the top, lacks real insight, but compelling.......2001-12-24

Admittedly reads more like a potboiler thriller at times, and I strongly suspect it was written with the big screen in mind - understandable, since much of the book is comprised of the author's financial concerns & what his obsession with finding out the truth behind snuff films drives him to do and spend, both monetarily and emotionally.

When his investigation came to end, the author had a problem (another reviewer already gives away the ending, so I don't think I'm divulging any secrets): he hadn't managed to come up with the goods - he'd finally gotten his hands on a tape, but it was stolen from him while he was detained in a Serbian police station. So what do you do? His answer is to make a book out of the subjective experience of hunting down the truth - what he goes through, how it affects his family life, his psychological state, the potentially life-threatening situations he encounters, the characters he meets & how he gets on with them. This makes some sense, because the reader wants to understand the mental and moral state of people who could actually make, enjoy, or be in any way involved with these films, as well as what effects such images have on 'normal' people - as Svoray says, once you've seen them, there's no going back. Unfortunately Svoray doesn't have the psychological insight to make much of this (a much better example of real insight into monstrosity and evil is Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men," which looks at a single battallion in Poland as a case study to understand how so many people could have committed the Holocaust) - great credit to him for his investigative skills, but his constant efforts at casting himself as moral judge disallow him from genuine understanding, and his portraits come straight from stock characters from standard thrillers. This problem potentially undermines the book's veracity, but one can also argue that he merely understands these people on the same terms borrowed from Hollywood, or that his co-writer (a screenwriter) compressed his character portraits to make for a fast read.

The book is a very quick read and compelling at times, and the reader must admire the author's bravado. So, in the end, does his claim to have seen real snuff films stand up? What proof does he offer? Here's something: he claims to have set up a viewing for the actor Robert De Niro and a friend of De Niro's; he recounts a conversation between the two men in which they say they believed the film was real; and De Niro's press agent has confirmed the viewing. So, while Svoray couldn't come up with any hard evidence, the De Niro story is pretty convincing that such films do in fact exist, and that there is indeed pure evil (in Svoray's terms) in the world.

Average customer rating:

In A Child's Name

He did it again

very good book,pretty factual

The TV-movie didn't tell half the story

In a Child's Name
Peter Maas
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0671726277

Customer Reviews:

In A Child's Name.......2004-01-07

In A Child's Name by Peter Maas is an outstanding non-fiction book. Maas finds factual information about the custody case, because he was one of the reporters. He interviewed both sides and wrote the book based on what they thought, and not his own opinions. He describes in great detail about the battle over Philip Taylor that was between the victim's sister and her in-laws. The book, however, has too many explicit details that younger people should not read. Even older readers can find some parts disturbing. There is a lot of violence, anger, and hard feelings that the reader can feel just by reading the book. The movie of the book is good; however, it leaves many of the details out. The movie doesn't tell about Theresa and what she did with Ken. I didn't know half of the things that went on with Theresa, Ken, and their families until I read the book. I was shocked to find some of the information that Maas wrote about. It also doesn't tell everything about Ken, like the book does. For the full understanding, the book is an excellent source. This is one book that could catch the reader's interest from the beginning to the end. I thought that this book was one of the best books that I have ever read, because it kept my interest. I would definitely recommend this book to people whom like custody cases mixed in with a murder case.

He did it again.......2002-01-28

The movie " In A Childs Name" was the best movie that I have ever saw. It brought back memories of what happened to my sister. Now I have ideas to help my nephew.

very good book,pretty factual.......1999-07-21

This poor girl should have gotten out of this awful marriage. It showed how close to her family she was and at what lenghts family will go to to do the right thing. The book presented how strong and what great character her sister had.I have met her sister on several occasions and she is nice,kind and sweet. How this family can go on the way they do is an inspiration to others.

The TV-movie didn't tell half the story.......1999-04-09

If you saw the TV-movie of IN A CHILD'S NAME (starring Valerie Bertinelli), it didn't tell half the story of wife-murderer Ken Taylor, his child-stealing parents, and their accomplices, of whom some were unwitting. With this book author Peter Maas raises the stakes for true-crime writing. Read IN A CHILD'S NAME!

Average customer rating:

A confusing mess
A writer of great promise
Disappointing...better as an allegory than a murder mystery
Leave it on the bookshelf!
Tricky

A Child's Book of True Crime: A Novel
Chloe Hooper
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0743225139

Amazon.com

Penzler Pick, February 2002: Chloe Hooper has chosen to explore the dark terrain of obsession in this, her first novel.

Kate Byrne teaches fourth grade students in Tasmania, the large island off the mainland of Australia. Young, awkward, and not very self-assured, Kate becomes involved in an affair with Thomas Marne, the father of one of her students, Lucien, a charismatic but withdrawn youngster. Kate worries about him and the dark nature of some of his drawings, and she worries that Lucien may be having problems with his mother, Veronica, and her career as a bestselling true crime writer.

Veronica's book is currently on the bestseller list and she is busy promoting it. The book, Murder at Black Swan Point, tells the story of one of the most notorious crimes in the area. In 1983 a young woman, Ellie Siddell, was brutally murdered by the wife of the man with whom she was having an affair. The wife's car was found at the edge of a cliff, and it was commonly believed that she threw herself off it, although her body was never found. Years later, Veronica was able to interview the husband before he died, and this interview, as well as some of the crime scene evidence, is explored in her book. She feels that there may be another explanation for the murder of Ellie and the wife's subsequent disappearance.

Kate finds herself both charmed and appalled by Veronica when she visits her son at the school, but Kate also becomes obsessed with the murder and finds herself drawn to Black Swan Point. As the details of Ellie Siddell's death are slowly revealed and the affair between Kate and Thomas gets more obsessive, it becomes obvious that history may repeat itself.

The action pauses throughout A Child's Book of True Crime for an account of the murder at Black Swan Point written for children, with animals indigenous to the continent of Australia taking the parts of the people involved. It is not until the end of the novel that we find out who is writing this story and why. Kate also involves her students in discussions involving everything from the meanings of words to ethical questions concerning behavior and whether actions have consequences.

One of the strong points of the narrative is the description of Tasmania and its history. Like much of Australia, Tasmania was a penal colony, and the history of the region involves the lives of the convicts. Children visit the prisons on field trips. The animals they encounter play a part in their everyday lives and are also very different for the non-Australian reader, making this not only an eerie read but also an instructive one. This is a story guaranteed to stay with you long after you've closed the covers. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

Tasmanian schoolteacher Kate Byrne is having an affair with the father of her most gifted fourth grader, Lucien. Her lover's wife has just published Murder at Black Swan Point, a true-crime story about the brutal slaying of a young adulteress in a nearby town. Kate herself has become so obsessed with the murder and so convinced that the published account has it all wrong that she sets about writing her own version -- this one for children, narrated by Australian animals. Though Lucien's father brings Kate to life sexually in encounters of escalating eroticism, he cannot dull her obsession. Fixated on the crime of passion, Kate is becoming less and less aware of the present and of how her behavior may align her fate with that of the dead girl. Chloe Hooper chillingly captures this young woman's unraveling in an intense, witty, superbly crafted novel.

Customer Reviews:

A confusing mess.......2004-03-09

Kate Byrne is an elementary school teacher in the midst of having an affair with the father of one of her students, Lucien. The child's mother has just completed a true crime book concerning a local murder-- the death of a man's mistress presumably by the jealous wife and the wife's subsequent disappearance. Of course, Kate becomes increasingly unnerved by the mother's obsession with the murder and worries about the possible danger to herself. It quickly begins to prove her undoing. Meanwhile, Lucien appears to be suffering the effects of his mother's work as evidenced by the highly violent pictures he draws.

The book is a treatise on the unraveling of a dysfunctional young woman unable to fully participate in the adult world. In spite of it's brief length, this is a very dense book which can prove to be highly confusing to the casual reader. A fable of animals is interspersed in the tale, which adds to the confusion. Great books are worth taking the time to slowly read and figure out what the author was saying. This book is definitely not great and therefore, in the end, proves to be way more confusing than it needed to be.

A writer of great promise.......2003-08-14

Rare is it that I pause in reading a book to admire the writer's craft, his or, as in this case, her ability to turn a phrase, the well structured sentence that makes me think perhaps I should start reading poetry. Chloe Hooper's book, A Child's Book of True Crime is a story that I stopped often to admire. Less a murder mystery and more a meditation upon the banal and routine crimes committed agaiinst children as they pass toward adulthood the writing becomes at once more luminous and less attached to the "true crime" of the title. Ms Hooper moves freely among perspectives and realities-the dead make appearances and a detective agency of wildlife creatures editorialize while the story's protaganist seems in danger of becoming the victim of the crime she investigates. Ultimately what matters most in this wonderful novel is the delicious pleasure of its reading. I recommend it highly.

Disappointing...better as an allegory than a murder mystery.......2003-06-09

Never judge a book by the blurb on its back cover. Chloe Hooper's debut novel "A Child's Book Of True Crime (CBTC)" promised much - it was even shortlisted for the Orange Prize - but delivered little. That's because the author couldn't decide what she wanted the novel to be, a stylish murder mystery with an alternative ending and one that cleverly uses the past to mirror the present, or an ode to the nature of violence, a condition inherited from Australia's history as a penal colony. Written in an uncomfortably choppy prose, the novel makes a frustratingly uneven read.

As a murder mystery or psychological thriller, CBTC fails on two levels. First, you don't get any resolution to the "who murdered Ellie Siddell" poser from the past, though luckily you do get to find out whether Kate is letting her own mounting paranoia get to her head or if Veronica is really out to repeat the true crime she is writing about with her rival. But that's not all. Readers will feel doubly cheated when they discover at the end that the Kate/Thomas/Veronica triangle is really a sideshow and that the spotlight of the story is on Lucien. This makes Kate's defiant show of concern for Lucien's welfare as played out in the closing scenes particularly unconvincing and difficult to understand. Up until then, she was only afraid for her own life.

CBTC reads much better as an ode to violence as a condition inherited from the past that still haunts the present long after the original settlers have passed on. There is a lurking sense of violence bubbling beneath the surface that runs throughout the novel. Even if the farmer who helped Kate fix her broken car didn't turn out to be a pervert, there is the verbal violence heard spasmodically by Kate in the background to remind us. The psychological violence inflicted by the philandering Thomas and his chilly true crime novelist wife on their son Lucien by treating him not like a nine year old boy but as a "short adult" is truly horrific. Even the storybook animals in the imaginary story are gentler to their own kind and that's the rub.

Chloe Hooper was working with great material but she lost it when she couldn't quite decide on the genre she was writing in. CBTC fell between two stools and that's a shame. A courageous but failed experiment.

Leave it on the bookshelf!.......2003-06-02

I agree with some of the other reviewers for this book. The characters as well as the plot lack development. Too many unanswered questions. The ending left me thinking one thought: what was the point? Too many assumptions have to be made on the part of the reader and too many unanswered and unresolved issues. The writing was choppy and lacked flow. I would not recommend this book.

Tricky.......2002-12-10

The title of this novel is a bit deceptive, because it does not give you a clue as to what is in store for you between the covers. Yes, there is a child's book of true crime in there--but the larger part of this novel is a psychological psuedo-thriller. Kate Byrne, an elementary school teacher in Tasmania, is having an affair with Thomas, the father of one of her students. Thomas' wife, Veronica, has just written, with much hoopla, a true crime story. This story covers the murder and subsequent mysterious disappearance of two women several years before, in Tasmania, who weer involved in a triangle which mirrors the Kate-Thomas-Veronica mess. The novel is narrated by Kate, who becomes more and more obsessed with Veronica's book and more and more convinced that she, too, will meet a terrible fate, perhaps at Veronica's hands. This novel is clever, smart and surprising. Enjoy.

To the Last Breath: Three Women Fight for the Truth Behind a Child's Tragic Murder

Average customer rating:

I had to keep reminding myself.......
Excellent book
Poor Little Renee
Shocking story, good book
Renee, I will never forget you--

To the Last Breath: Three Women Fight for the Truth Behind a Child's Tragic Murder
Carlton Stowers
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786247363

Amazon.com

The story opens with somber drama: The body of a 2-year-old girl is removed from her grave and transported to a hospital for a second autopsy. In the small Gulf Coast town of Alvin, Texas, the bereaved mother, the child's grandmother, and the female detective who has risked so much to champion their cause, await the opinion of a visiting pathologist. Carlton Stowers, whose Careless Whispers won the 1987 Edgar Award for fact crime, brings all the right skills to this tale of a sullen, possessive man who liked to play cruel mind games on his loved ones and apparently killed his young daughter in a slow and deliberate fashion. Perhaps at the end, we don't really know why he did it, but we will have come to know and admire the three women who fought for justice.

Book Description

On January 22, 1994, two-year old Renee Goode played happily with her sisters and cousin, as the four of them enjoyed an impromptu "slumber party" at the home of her father, Shane Goode. The next day she was dead.The local medical examiner could not determine the cause of the little Renees death. But her mother Annette and grandmother Sharon were convinced she'd been murdered--and that they knew the identity of Renee's killer: her handsome father, Shane Goode, a manipulative, emotionally abusive man who displayed virtually no interest in Renee--until he took out a $50,000 insurance policy on her life.With the help of a courageous female police investigator and Assistant DA, Sharon launched a case against Shan and had Renees tiny coffin, lovingly filled with her favorite stuffed animals, exhumed from its final resting place. And her small corpse revealed what her grandmother had suspected all along: cold, calculating Shane Goode had murdered his own daughter to cash in on her death.

Customer Reviews:

I had to keep reminding myself..............2007-01-26

.....that this was non-fiction. Absolutely, unbelievable, the happenings in this book.

Excellent book.......2005-06-23

This is a story of a 2-year-old child who was murdered by her father after her parents had divorced. It is a gripping story by its own right, but it was so well written I felt like I knew just about everyone. The flaws of all the characters are included, making no one a true hero (which is reality). The almost non-existant investigation, the extreme shortcomings of certain investigators, the political wheeling and dealing that almost allowed Shane Goode to get away with murder, the over-involvement of the victim's grandmother, the personality shortcomings of the victim's mother, the personal problems of the prosecutorial/detective staff -- everything is bared in this book. Sure, it would have been nice to know more about the murderer, but he steadfastly maintained his innocence as did his parents. There was enough information from other sources to get the true flavor of this guy. Others have criticized the book because all questions weren't answered. But in real life they rarely are (i.e., how could Shane attract strong and weak women? What was his secret?). The book is a tear-jerker, and Renee Goode is lucky her story was told by Carlton Stowers, one of the best true-crime authors ever.

Poor Little Renee.......2004-11-09

She had a sad sap moron for a mother, and a cold-blooded killer for a father. Luckily she had a granny with some brains who fought for justice for her.

It's impossible to have any sympathy for Annette, her mother, who stayed with this man, even though she knew he killed her cat, and had no qualms about getting pregnant by him a second time (the first time he "made" her have an abortion at 5 - 6 months), even though she could not support herself and the child she already had by her first husband and had to keep moving back in with mommy. Both she and Shane moved so many times: back together, apart, condos, apartments, rent houses, back with their respective parents - I could not keep up with all the moving. They were quite obviously immature and both expecting someone to come along and solve their problems for them.

Even though Annette told Detective Duckworth her suspicions at the scene, he claimed she didn't, and that he "knew nothing". So basically he did nothing, and luckily was reassigned to Narcotics. He couldn't even find out that Goode had taken out $50,000 life insurance policy on his kids - as far as he was concerned, this guy would have gotten away with murder, no skin off his nose, as long as didn't have to do any actual work. This book does not make the Houston and Alvin Police Depts look very good, but what is, is. They didn't do their jobs, the ME's didn't want to do their jobs, the wife-cheater DA didn't want to do his job either - luckily he resigned too! The only ones who wanted to work and cared about justice were the female Asst DA, the woman detective, and the grandma turned private investigator. She may have raised two kooky kids, but she got it together and took care of things for Renee - she paid for her funeral, tissue testing the city refused to pay for needed for evidence, and took copious notes. Thank goodness for them, or this guy would probably have murdered another of his kids.

This is an interesting story, but not well-written or organized. It may be necessary to tell, but there seemed to be too much about all the authorities infighting and personal problems. There was basically zilch about Shane Goode's childhood or background. So no explanation of his psychological state or what happened in his life to lead him to this point.

It could have been better.

Hint: In order to write a true crime story that will appeal to and hold the interest of DISCERNING true crime readers, it's best that the author spend her/his time getting the scoop on the MURDERER - not the lawyers.

Shocking story, good book.......2004-05-01

This was a very good book about a very touching story. Left some things unanswered, but good nevertheless.

Renee, I will never forget you--.......2000-12-13

thanks to this spellbinding book by Mr. Stowers; I am a prolific reader of true crime and while I am reading a book I am engrossed in it but the story fades quickly; not so with this book. There are so many aspects to the story: the shoddy, so- called investigation by the police; the shoddy examination by the medical examiner resulting in an "undetermined cause of death",the realization that if the family had not been persistent, this child's murder would have been "cold filed"; What is heartening is the degree of involvement of Sue Dietrich the Detective who asked to get involved in this case and the attorney who tried the case Jeri Yenne; their passion to bring the killer to justice was surprising and Mr. Stowers reveals their compassion for this child. Most of all, Mr. Stowers writing style evoked an immense amount of sympathy for this poor unfortuante and innocent child. I kept looking at her face and then went back to reading the book; while the death of a child is always horrific, you don't always feel as though the child in the book if personalized as was the case with this book; I felt as though I could see Renee and hear her laugh and play; in fact,there were times I had to put the book down because it was painful to read; Thank goodness for Sharon, Renee's grandmother, who was intelligent and feisty and would not allow this crime to be swept under the rug; It was the passion of the the detective and the attorney who tried the case that won this case for Renee; I will never forget you, Renee.

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A Child's Book Of True Crime
Chloe Hooper
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0224062379

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A Child's Book of True Crime
Chloe Hooper
Manufacturer: Jonathan Cape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKHQ6E

Average customer rating:

Illicit affairs and murder at the bottom of the world.

A Child's Book of True Crime
Chloe Hooper
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0099428954

Customer Reviews:

Illicit affairs and murder at the bottom of the world........2005-09-21

Evoking a dark world of violence and doom from the outset, Hooper sets her debut novel in Tasmania. Mystery, deception, and betrayal are at the heart of three stories told simultaneously. A children's tale written by 4th grade teacher Kate Byrne uses animals to tell about a 1983 murder (hence, the title); a popular novel written by Veronica Marne, the wife of Kate's lover, Thomas Marne, describes the same murder; and the on-going triangle of Kate, Veronica, and Thomas provides the day-to-day action.

This is a lot to cover in 230 pages. In order to tell Kate's story and provide the background of her affair with Thomas Marne, Hooper must give many flashbacks while simultaneously revealing Kate's life in the classroom, her trysts with Thomas, and the perceived threats to her life. The suspense depends on the reader's seeing parallels between Kate's affair and that of the 1983 victim, Ellie Siddells, so Kate, as narrator, must also provide information about Ellie's background and her murder. The animal story is yet another level of abstraction which the reader must correlate with Kate's life.

Though the novel is filled with dazzling descriptions and some insightful observations about childhood, the novel ultimately ends up being talky, its three stories overwhelming its characters and obscuring its focus. The narrator, Kate, dictates and talks about the action, instead of bringing it to life, and the reader never really gets to know her.

Plot and suspense are the novel's focus at the beginning, while Kate's (undeveloped) character and her coming of age are the focus at the end, a problem which makes the author's overall purpose unclear. The quality of the writing and some gorgeous descriptive paragraphs will take your breath away, however, and perhaps leave you as anxious as I am to see what Hooper does in her next novel. Mary Whipple

Average customer rating:

A Child's Book of True Crime
Chloe Hooper
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKHRSG

Average customer rating:

A Child's Book of True Crime (SIGNED)
Chloe Hooper
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKJPNG

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