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Category Archives: crimes against

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

12 Monday Aug 2024

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in crimes against, Fiction, Historical Fiction, murder, murder and investigation, thriller, True crime, United States

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college sorority members, crimes against, serial murders, Ted Bundy, thrillers, Victims of violent crimes

This novel is based on the real-life crimes of Ted Bundy, though he is deliberately never named. Instead, Bright Young Women focuses on the lives of the women he crosses paths with and forever changes. This is a powerful story about violence, anger, and how women navigate the world.

“An unsettling and thrilling page-turner… Knoll’s haunting, must-read account will captivate [readers] until the end.”—Library Journal (starred Review)

“Bright Young Women is a fearless and intoxicating ride into the aftershocks of a series of brutal murders. Knoll explores in vivid, pointillist prose the effects on the ‘bright young women’ of the title, both the victims snuffed out in their glorious prime, and those left behind in their wake. It’s a compelling, almost hypnotic read and I loved it with a passion.”
—Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling Author of Then She Was Gone

“Stunning… By focusing on the women affected by her Ted Bundy stand-in instead of the nuances of his criminal psychology, Knoll movingly reframes an American obsession without stripping it of its intrigue. The results are masterful.”—Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)

“Blistering and powerful, Bright Young Women is an almost unbearably vivid story of sisterhood and survival. With razor-sharp skill, Jessica Knoll deconstructs the myth of a criminal mastermind, revealing the women he seeks to destroy as the truly brilliant ones.”
—Flynn Berry, New York Times bestselling author of Northern Spy and Under the Harrow

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This Other Eden by Paul Harding

28 Wednesday Feb 2024

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in crimes against, Fiction, Historical Fiction, United States

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eugenics, families, historical fiction, hurricanes, islands, missionaries, race relations, racially mixed people

The book is a mere 221 pages but the exquisite sentences can be very long, some almost a paragraph.  An unusual book about a little known island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast.

“Stunning…You could imagine lots of ways a historical novel about this horror might be written, but none of them would give you a sense of the strange spell of This Other Eden―its dynamism, bravado and melancholy. Harding’s style has been called ‘Faulknerian’ and maybe that’s apt, given his penchant for sometimes paragraph-long sentences that collapse past and present…[An] intense wonder of a historical novel.”― Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“Harding’s third novel revisits an appalling moment in Maine history…[A] brief book that carries the weight of history. A moving account of community and displacement.”― Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Pulitzer winner Harding (Tinkers) suffuses deep feeling into this understated yet wrenching story…It’s a remarkable achievement.”― Publishers Weekly (starred review)

[T]his gorgeously limned portrait about family bonds, the loss of innocence, the insidious effects of racism, and the innate worthiness of individual lives will resonate long afterward.”― Booklist (starred review)

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The Late Show by Michael Connelly

01 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in action, crimes against, detective, Fiction, murder, murder and investigation, mystery, suspense, United States

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California, crimes against women, detective and mystery, Hollywood, Los Angeles, murder and investigation, policewomen, prostitutes, sexual harrassment in law enforcement, suspense, women detectives

This was my first time reading the prolific Michael Connelly, and I loved this mystery that introduces us to Renee Ballard, a detective in LA working the overnight shift. Ballard is a great character and the cases she tries to solve in this first story are compelling.

The Late Show introduces a terrific female character: Detective Renee Ballard…The pacing of Ballard’s debut story is breathless…Ballard is complicated and driven enough to sustain the series Connelly doubtless has in mind for her.– “New York Times”

A hard-hitting police procedural that captures the imagination from page one.– “RT Book Reviews (4 stars)”

The most intriguing mystery in The Late Show, though, is Ballard herself. Connelly is too skillful to hand us her resume in one document dump; instead, he fills out her portrait with a subtle hand over the course of the novel, a little background here, a glimpse of her temperament there, the revelation of her unusual living conditions sketched in between.– “Tampa Bay Times”

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We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

24 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, crimes against, Fiction, homicide investigation, murder and investigation, suspense, thriller, United States

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best friends, detective, ex-convicts, mystery, revenge, thriller

“I LOVED this book. From the riveting plot to the beautiful writing. But mostly what kept me longing to get back to it each day were the characters, especially young Duchess. Fierce, brave, vulnerable, she leaps off the page fully formed. As does Walk. How aptly named. A chief of police on his own inexorable journey. This is a book to be read and reread and an author to be celebrated.”
—Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“It’s an instant classic….Let’s begin at the end. After you’ve turned the final page of Chris Whitaker’s magnificent new novel, you’ll struggle–I struggled, certainly–to describe the experience…it recalls the very best of Tana French and Dennis Lehane. Think of Duchess Day Radley as a twenty-first-century Scout Finch, tough and curious and good. In fact, think of We Begin at the End as a novel at the same time distinctly American and profoundly universal.”
—A.J. Finn, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Woman in the Window

“Two damaged children–one timid and sweet, the other foul-mouthed and furious–will break readers’ hearts in this well-plotted and perfectly-paced novel. If, like me, you love stories that kidnap your intended schedule because you can’t not keep turning the pages, then I wholeheartedly recommend Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End.”
—Wally Lamb, New York Times bestselling author of I Know This Much Is True

“This is an epic drama and a profound masterpiece. I’ll be amazed if I read a better novel this year.”
—Daily Mirror (UK)

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The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in 20th century, crimes against, England, Non-fiction, True crime

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fly tying, Great Britain, London, Natural History Museums, theft from museums, True crime, zoological specimens

I stopped reading another great book when I read the review of this book. Within pages I was hooked!  A captivating true crime story of an unlikely thief (a 20 year old, American concert flute player) and his even more unlikely crime (breaking into the Tring Museum –home to the largest and oldest ornithological collections in the world)  in 2010 in London.  The author is relentless in his pursuit of the facts, the thief(s), and the appalling greed for our natural treasures.  I can’t stop thinking about it. Put this title on hold at the library!

“This extraordinary book exposes an international underground that traffics in rare and precious natural resources, yet was previously unknown to all but a few. A page-turning read you won’t soon forget, The Feather Thief tells us as much about our cultural priorities as it does about the crimes themselves. There’s never been anything like it.”  —Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

“A fascinating book . . . the kind of intelligent reported account that alerts us to a threat and that, one hopes, will never itself be endangered.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Captivating…Everything the author touches in this thoroughly engaging true-crime tale turns to storytelling gold. . . . Johnson’s flair for telling an engrossing story is, like the beautiful birds he describes, exquisite. . . . A superb tale about obsession, nature, and man’s ‘unrelenting desire to lay claim to its beauty, whatever the cost.’”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

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