Customer Reviews

Blood Trail (Pinnacle True Crime)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Steve Walker, with the input of Detective Rick Reed, has written a true crime book that reads like a novel. His experience as a reporter shines as he weaves the story of Joe Brown, a convicted killer, throughout the book. The book goes into great detail into the mind of Joe Brown and shows how this very disturbed person became a killer. The book was very easy to read and I would reccommend it to anyone who enjoys these kinds of books.

Riveting from beginning to end. A fascinating and disturbing look into the mind of a killer, co-written by the detective who first suspected that something bad had happened to Ginger Gassaway of Evansville, IN, and finally helped bring justice to her family by forming a bond with her twisted murderer.

I couldn't put it down.

The grammar and vocabulary of this book make it jarring to read for those of us more accustomed to the excellent writing of someone such as John Glatt or Lowell Cauffiel. I couldn't get through it.

I purchased this book and was very anxious to read it, as I personally know someone who shared a cell next to Joe Brown in Miami Correctional Facility, where he is currently incarcerated. (At the time of this book, he was still incarcerated at Wabash Correctional Facility). I had found so many spelling and grammar errors within the first few pages of this book that I found myself becoming distracted from the often boring and repetitive storyline. Instead of focusing on Joe Brown and his horrific crimes (or lack thereof as the case may be?), I was focusing on finding more spelling errors or sentence structure train wrecks. Seriously, who edited this book? As for the story itself, it was very dry and procedural at times. There were several unnecessary interviews and side stories that seemed to be placed in the book just because they were available, not because they contributed to the direction of the plot. Just when things started getting interesting toward the end, the authors rushed through Brown's confession of 13 other murders and the wild goose chase he led police on to find their remains. I'm guessing since they never found anything, it wasn't a subject their egos wanted to dwell on. All in all, I was not impressed. For the record, Joe Brown still ascertains that he killed all those women and they "twisted" things in the book, although in my opinion it is Joe Brown who is twisted.

After reading several books as of recent written or contributed to by the detectives involved in the cases, I've decided that it's time to stop. I'm finding any time that you read a book of that type, you're going to be subjected to unnecessary repitition and the inside scoop of office politics which, in no way, pertains the story.

Such as found in this book written by Steven Walker alongide Detective Rick Reed.

If the fact that Joe Brown, the man convicted of killer his girlfriend, Ginger Gasaway, leads Detective Reed and his colleagues on a wild goose chase numerous times (on the same cases every time too) isn't enough, Reed takes the opportunity to really boast about his "detective skills" several times along with a detailed (and boring) explanation of why he thought he was not getting the assistance needed with his suspect.

I often found myself skimming through this book. Joe Brown decided to tell his story numerous times, for his own benefit in some fashion, and the authors of this book decided to repeat them too. Of course, without Brown's chain-yanking, there really wouldn't have been a story to tell.

Blood Trail is an okay read when there simply isn't anything else; or, if you like books from a egotistical Detective's point of view, then this one is probably for you.