8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Writing So Good, It's Almost Criminal...", October 30, 2004
This review is from: The Best American Crime Writing: 2004 Edition: The Year's Best True Crime Reporting (Paperback)
Best American Crime Writing: 2004 Edition, $14.00 US, is an anthology of twenty crime stories gathered by Otto Penzler and Thomas H. Cook. These yarns were originally published in magazines -- such as Atlanta, Details, GQ, and The New Yorker -- that were sold in 2003. Some are similar in topic, but each story is extremely unique as told from the vantage point of its author. Some big name writers happened to appear in this issue, such as James Ellroy, Jon Krakauer, and Scott Turow, but I prefer the original tack of "lesser known authors" that the Editors pursued in previous issues. This edition also includes an introduction by Joseph Wambaugh, whom discusses the need for tort reform to protect crime writers from frivolous lawsuits in a concise six page case -- but it seems that with these buzz words, he's really trying to score points with politicians in this, an election year.
My favorite story in this collection is "Ciudad de la Muerte," a feature that first appeared in Texas Monthly, and that was written by Cecilia Balli. "Ciudad de la Muerte," is both chilling and riveting -- a story of the disappearance of more than three hundred women from Juarez, Mexico, over the last eleven years. But more specifically -- it narrows in on an incident whereby eight bodies were found in canals and irrigation ditches of a cotton field in 2001, and the aftermath of that specific grisly discovery. It's a particularly strong piece, because the writer examines her own fears as she explores the city of Juarez, the shady justice system of Mexico, and the final fate of these women. I'm curious about one thing though, and it's not really clear from the writing, or at least to me. One of the girls that disappeared in that November was named Esmerelda Monnreal, and on page 18 the storyteller reveals that Esmerelda had an older sister named Cecilia also, that had moved to Colorado with her husband. Is this in fact the same Cecilia that authored the story? Or is she simply sympathizing with the victim, because of coincidental names? I could use some clarification on that question. Based on the quality of her work, I'm very eager to read the finished book that Balli is deriving from this piece. This story may also spur you to do further reading on the subject, and spur you to support political action on the matter. Try Googling "Juarez" AND "Disappeared," and reading everything. You may want to write a letter to your Representative or Senator, after perusing these pages, to exhort them to involve the FBI in an investigation of these murders, which should not be allowed to go unsolved, because these women certainly deserve some kind of Justice.
My second "most liked" parable of the group is "Who Is The Boy In The Box?," a twenty-four page recounting of a forty-six year old mystery, penned by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, that first appeared in Philadelphia magazine. And it's a sad story. It's about a little boy that was found in a cardboard box, in a dump, off a path, beaten and dead in Northeast Philly's Fox Chase neighborhood. It's also about the man who ended up performing the fingerprinting and footprinting at the morgue that day, Bill Kelly. The case never left the young policeman's mind. He was 29 at the time the child was found, and consequently developed a lifelong dedication to the case. His most fervent wish was to simply give the boy a name, because somebody must have loved the boy at some point, right? He couldn't imagine anyone harming a child like that, or that the child would be buried in a potter's field, no name on the stone. Police were baffled by "the boy in the box," because every lead fizzled. Other people took interest too -- Remington Bristow, an ME's investigator. The Vidocq Society, a detective, Sam Weinstein. Someone in another Medical Examiner's office, Joe McGillen. In 1998, after the boy was exhumed for modern DNA testing, he was reburied in Ivy Hill Cemetery, in Mt. Airy, PA. The case was featured on America's Most Wanted in 1999, spawning dozens of leads. Someone then came forward with knowledge of the murder, and the facts checked out, and the story is plausible, although the woman did suffer from some psychiatric problems, and some minor lingering doubt remains. She said her mother killed the boy, the boy was purchased as an infant, that he was raised in their basement, and he was mute when he died. Bill Kelly had taken to calling the child Sean over the years, a good Irish name. But the woman that had finally come forward in 2000 gave Bill one small thing. In November of 2003, as he turned to leave from the grave, Bill touched the headstone and said "Good-bye, Jonathan, I'll see you again soon..."
And I suppose my third favorite gem from this volume would be "Stephanie," a chronicle of the unsolved 1965 murder of Stephanie Lynn Gorman, a Los Angeles schoolgirl, as told by James Ellroy, that first appeared in GQ magazine. It's fair to say that Ellroy, who has a gift for writing about the past, is infatuated with his subject here -- and that his writing is eloquent and rhapsodic as usual. Ellroy didn't know the girl, but he's just slightly older, by a year, and he lived within five miles of the girl. The story starts while he's reviewing the murder book. Crime scene: a corner house, Hillsboro and Sawyer, West L.A.
Detective Bureau/Homicide Division/LAPD
DR#65-538-991 [Murder/187 PC]
Victim: Stephanie Lynn Gorman/White Female/Age 16
DOB: 06-11-1949 - DOD: 08-05-1965
Ellroy clinically eyes the crime scene, breaks down the timeline, develops the suspects, pencils in the detectives, chases some leads. Dragnet type stuff. They sprint through 5,000 names. They turns up 201 rap sheets. They arrest a few possibilities -- but they're sprung. Of course he isn't really there, he's just imagining that he's there. A reconstruction. Powerful stuff. Ellroy's friend Rick Jackson tells him about Stephanie, late of Hamilton High. He's LAPD Homicide. It's the year 2000. Stephanie's sister attends a party. She's fiftyish, requests an update. Rick makes calls, Detective Dave Lambkin picks it up, sends unknown prints from the 1965 crime scene to the modern FBI, gets a print match. I'll leave the rest to you. Interestingly enough, you can still map some of the locations mentioned in the story "Stephanie" on MS Streets & Trips.
For the purpose of this review, and in favor of leaving you some stories to discover on your own, I've decided to summarize only three of these non-fiction tales. Almost all of the other items in this anthology, such as A Miscarriage Of Justice, For The Love Of God, Not Guilty By Reason Of Afghanistan and Unfortunate Con are just as good, in terms of quality. There was only one story that I skimmed, and one that I couldn't bring myself to finish. I read the remaining eighteen, sometimes more than once. The trio of story lines I've decided to outline for you here are simply the most interesting in my opinion. Penzler and Cook did a fairly good job of selecting stories, but I really would like to see them select from a much greater pool of sources. I think the ideal mix would be three fifths magazine stories, two fifths long-form newspaper articles. And perhaps they should also consider including pieces that were published exclusively on the Internet. Currently they only survey magazine articles, which seems unfair, since so many newspapers also provide excellent crime writing. And having four stories in this issue from GQ? That seems like over representation to me. Ditto having some of the same authors appearing year after year, please, no Robert Draper in 2005. There are many great writers of crime fiction, so the Editors should really give more scribes a chance. And one last note for Base Art Co. who designed the back cover -- white on yellow was a horrid idea -- the story titles on the reverse were nearly illegible.
And If you, my constant reader, seek out Best American Crime Writing: 2004 Edition based on the recommendation here, you'll probably also want to pick up Best American Crime Writing: 2003 Edition and Best American Crime Writing from 2002, the first in this series. Or you may also want to pursue six of the books I've hyperlinked below, which are by the authors that Cook. and Penzler chose to feature in this edition. If you'd like to send stories for possible inclusion in this series, submissions should be directed to Otto Penzler, c/o The Mysterious Bookshop, 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019.
If any of the great authors that have contributed to this series happen to read this, may I please encourage you to write a story about Victoria Snelgrove, entitled "Non-Lethal Weapons?"
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crime Pays - for the Reader, December 28, 2009
This review is from: The Best American Crime Writing: 2004 Edition: The Year's Best True Crime Reporting (Paperback)
The 2004 edition of Best American Crime Reporting was the 3rd book that I'd read in this series. I thought that this edition was particularly strong; a number of stories that I did not anticipate enjoying turned out to be excellent.
I thought that the highlight of the 2004 edition were -
- Unfortunate Con (from the Oxford American) is about a con artist who always wanted to be a writer. In 1999, he claimed that he had convincing proof that George W. Bush had been convicted of cocaine possession. The con artist then ended up dead. This story is not about Bush or politics; instead, it focuses on the enigmatic would-be writer.
- Code of Dishonor (from Vanity Fair) concerns the rape scandal at the United States Air Force Academy. I have low expectations for our government, but the actions of the Air Force officials in this case were reprehensible. This story moved me more than any of the other pieces in the book.
- Chief Bratton Takes on LA (from City Journal) is a politically-incorrect view of the Los Angeles Police Department. The author takes the view that the LAPD was unfairly hobbled by the U.S. Justice Department after the Rodney King beating.
- Night of the Bullies (from GQ) is about the long-term effects of an assault at the University of Texas in 1978. The victim, a young UT student, was beaten by three UT fraternity pledges. The fraternity men have moved on with their lives; the other man was not so lucky.
- Possessed (from Atlanta magazine) was the "sleeper" in this book. It is about an eccentric, but intelligent man who lives in the woods near Atlanta. The man became convinced that a murder took place that the police refused to acknowledge. Readers who want "something different" will enjoy this piece.
There are two very long articles in this volume. One is Robert F. Kennedy, Junior's argument that his cousin, Michael Skakel, should not have been convicted of murder. The second is a long piece by Mark Bowden on the use of torture to prevent terrorism. Both of these are interesting pieces, but both take a lot of time to read.
As with other volumes in this series, there are a fair number of pieces that are mediocre or that just fell flat for me. With this series, the reader has to accept the good with the mediocre.
True crime fans will not want to miss this edition of Best American Crime Reporting. It is difficult to find so many interesting true crime stories in one volume.
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