Today’s discussion topic is a part two of sorts to last week’s part one, on the genre stories/cases that need a thorough reimagining — but today, we’re talking about the authors of those stories specifically. What big-name true-crime authors’ work would you like to reassign?
The reasons can range from problematic behavior unrelated their authorship (Jeffrey Toobin, who returned to CNN yesterday to talk about The Zoom Incident) to troubling allegations re: their handling of the cases that made them big names (Vincent Bugliosi) to latter-day authorial blunders that dragged down the rest of their oeuvres (Joe McGinniss).
And you’ve got a couple crackpots whose writing isn’t great (Graysmith…sorry, buddy).
So, pick a bold-type author or book and slap someone else’s name on the spine. Walter Kirn is not without his own iss-yews but I’m-a put him on Zodiac, maybe I’d actually finish the thing. Who you got? — SDB
Gosh. This is hard. My true crime reading is rarely erudite. I am pretty indiscriminate about the author, as long as the crime itself interests me. I will say that M. William Phelps has disappointed me more often than he's pleased me. It seems like a page count issue; instead of writing a shorter book and keeping it interesting, there are often too many dullllll pages devoted to L.E. and the D.A.'s office. So if there is an author who spends more time with family and friends of the victims and truly investigates the background of the accused and guilty, I would much rather hear what those people have to say than, say, the home lives of cops.
Good topic! This is kind of a deep cut (and I feel kinda bad harping on the guy because he's like 80 and probably isn't writing that much anymore), but Jerry Bledsoe. Given that he wrote for my hometown paper in NC and his books were among the first true crime titles I ever read, I've had a long relationship with him! But in the last couple of decades he's mostly concerned himself with antagonizing said hometown paper and making ad hominem attacks and I just can't.
I accidentally borrowed Caitlin Rother’s Lost Girls instead of Kolker’s and my God, is it terrible. I actually didn’t mind Death on Ocean Boulevard, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if that was done by Bob Kolker either.
What true-crime authors need to tag out?
There is a James Patterson true crime series - of course there is - and I wish he would just generally quit it all for a while.
Toobin is writing a new book on the Oklahoma city bombing. Why?
Gosh. This is hard. My true crime reading is rarely erudite. I am pretty indiscriminate about the author, as long as the crime itself interests me. I will say that M. William Phelps has disappointed me more often than he's pleased me. It seems like a page count issue; instead of writing a shorter book and keeping it interesting, there are often too many dullllll pages devoted to L.E. and the D.A.'s office. So if there is an author who spends more time with family and friends of the victims and truly investigates the background of the accused and guilty, I would much rather hear what those people have to say than, say, the home lives of cops.
Good topic! This is kind of a deep cut (and I feel kinda bad harping on the guy because he's like 80 and probably isn't writing that much anymore), but Jerry Bledsoe. Given that he wrote for my hometown paper in NC and his books were among the first true crime titles I ever read, I've had a long relationship with him! But in the last couple of decades he's mostly concerned himself with antagonizing said hometown paper and making ad hominem attacks and I just can't.
I accidentally borrowed Caitlin Rother’s Lost Girls instead of Kolker’s and my God, is it terrible. I actually didn’t mind Death on Ocean Boulevard, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if that was done by Bob Kolker either.
This may be True Crime heresy, but aside from Small Sacrifices and her personal connection in Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule was…not great.