Customer Reviews

23 Days of Terror : The Compelling True Story of the Hunt and Capture of the Beltway Snipers

5 star:		(3)
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Having already read 3 weeks in october by Charles Moose, I was very pleased to find another book on the Washington Snipers, this one by Angie Cannon. It seemed to be a different book altogether, but equally as good. It went into much more detail about the lives of the snipers, trying to comprehend what would lead someone to commit such a massacre.

It was brave enough to question the local police and federal task force`s efforts to catch the snipers during the three weeks of terror, but also giving praise to the investigation when deserved.

Read this book if you want to know much more information that was not always covered in 3 weeks in october.

An excellent read - straight to the point - could`nt put it down.

I thought this book was an interesting read about the sniper manhunt. I liked the little personal vignettes as they really gave life (not just names, ages and dates) to the victims. It was a nice personal touch.

The book gave a good, thorough accounting of the massive investigation, the effect of the terror on the people in Washington, and the snipers themselves.

I'm not a big fan of true crime books, and this book is a perfect example why. Among the many reasons, the one that sticks out the most is that they can be very poorly thought out. I want to read, in detail, what happened at every scene; not just the same thing we already know from watching the news last year. I want to know all the steps the detectives made in catching the suspects. 23 Days of Terror seems to be more of a biography on Muhammad, Malvo and their thirteen victims than a detailed review of the Beltway sniper investigation. Yes, I feel sorry for the victims and I do know that the author was just writing in those mini biographies out of respect for the dead and injured, but that could've been put in a separate chapter at the end of the book. I'm sorry, but the life of a middle aged landscaper really doesn't interest me when I'm trying to read a book about a murder investigation...

I already explained why I didn't like the book. True crime books are supposed to have a detailed description of the crime, all the clues, leads, and tips that lead up to the arrest of the suspect(s). 23 Days of Terror was more of an homage to the victims than anything; and in all honesty, I find that boring. If you want to see what a good true crime book should be like, read The Brown's Chicken Massacre by Maurice Posley. Every detail as to how the police caught the two murderers is written, and Posley still manages to show the respect for the victims, but it's not boring like this one was. As to your distaste for my closing line: excuse me if you can't take a joke. You act as if you live in the only city that has ever had a serial killer. Just because your city's tragedy happened to be on CNN doesn't make you Yoda.

I haven't read this book yet, but just wanted to say that i'm positive that it will be of great interest to me. I also wanted to say that i agree with the person that said that the guy that was complaining about the book being everything that cnn told us: that guy has no right to say that this story is bad to make a book of. don't critisize until u live through the events yourself like i did. I was in D.C. for NYLC for a week right in the middle of all the happenings. I stayed less than a mile from one of the sites where the snipers struck. after living through it personally, this book is appropriate to write, and it is interesting.