Customer Reviews

Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Lowry's way with words and with the flow of the story is exquisitely rendered. She has told a story that is far, far too hard to tell and made the reader glad she did. She weaves the tragedy of her own son's death with the horror of Karla Faye Tucker's life and crime and death with such a soft touch and consummate skill it can only be a gift. I am a voracious reader and can tell you that I've never read a harder story to tell, told with so much light, so much compassion, so much beauty, so much gut-wrenching honesty. I have worked with abused people and with people who have experienced great losses, and I learned from this book. Thank you, Ms. Lowry, for giving us your bone marrow in this one.

I am a regular reader of the true crime genre and picked up this book the same way I have picked up the others ... go to the true crime section and take something from the shelf. At the time I chose this book, I had never heard of Karla Faye Tucker or her crime. I read the book and enjoyed it for the same reason the author became close to her subject ... Karla Faye Tucker is a compelling character, despite the horrible crime she has admitted to committing. Karla Faye is surprisingly likeable, forthcoming about her life before the crime, and talks about the crime candidly, although not in a boastful or graphic way. She does not try to blame her upbringing, anyone or anything for her crime and does not plead for understanding. She simply talks about herself, what she did and how she feels about herself now. The reader is given the opportunity to make their own decision about her. About two months after I read this book, I began to hear about Karla Faye Tucker every day as her execution date drew closer. I support the death penalty and have never felt badly about the execution of a convicted murderer, in fact, I applauded this nation's ability to carry out these punishments. When Karla Faye Tucker was executed this week, I felt terribly sad. I still can't fully explain why, but this book was certainly the reason.

This book, in the true crime genre, is about a female pick ax murderer on death row. It is a biographical retrospective from a psychological perspective and examines Karla's early involvement with hard drugs, her upbringing by a drug addicted and prostitute mother and other environmental influences.

The author juxtaposes a memoir or her son who was recently killed in a hit-run accident. He, too, was a 'child-gone-bad' - - skirmishes with the law, school drop-out. "There but for fortune"......she thinks.

Though interesting, this book misses the boat. Karla has become 'decent' - - a christian, caring woman. However, I ended the book still thinking, 'Who is she?', and ultimately, 'so what!'. Perhaps, being of the mindset that reality rests as much in behavior as thought, I did not find Lowry's analysis of events convincing or cohesive.

"Compassion" seems to be in short supply when it comes to Karla Faye Tucker --- starting with then-Gov. Bush's smirk on the occasion of her execution and continuing in these reader comments. This she-got-what-she-deserved feeling stems, I think, from the view that People Don't Change. What grim philosophy! Change --- the hope of it, the longing for it --- is, in fact, what drives most evangelical religions. Given that, you'd think Karla Faye Tucker would be the Poster Child for Christian conversion. She never denied the terrible crimes she committed, she prostrated herself before her Lord, and, if you believe her, Jesus bathed herin His love. That is the subject of the book Beverly Lowry has written --- a book powered by a head-splitting irony: The murderesss gives comfort to the professional writer (a mother whose son was killed in an unsolved highway accident). My advice: Just read the book. Decide for yourself.

I have no idea what the death of the author's son had to do with Karla Faye Tucker. I found the author's obsession with Tucker bizarre and wonder whether the author would have been drawn to Tucker had she not found Tucker so physically attractive. An example: at the end of the author's first visit to Tucker, the two place their palms on the glass separating them as if their palms are touching. I have no problem with the idea of people changing, but believe this book is yet another example of attempts by believers to sanctify Tucker. It's outrageous to me that any of the reviewers of this book would have the gall to criticize the woman who was killed because she was spending the night with the principal victim. So much for Christian charity.

This book is one of the most in depth and intensive examinations of a death row inmate (now deceased) and the reasons she got there. Like its subject, Karla Faye, the book does not revel in the crime committed but makes it extremely clear that it was a terrible thing for a person to do. As is the death penalty. I challenge even the most committed death penalty supporter to read this book and still believe that the State of Texas did the right thing on Febraury the third of this year.

Ecchh. I really thought I was going to enjoy this book. However, it didn't take too many pages to realize I would never finish it. I do feel for the author and could get a sense of her horrible pain over her son's death. I think I would have rather read about that and just left Karla Faye Tucker out of the whole thing. I just couldn't empathize with her story. Hard childhood, blah blah, blah. I am ambivalent towards capital punishment but here I felt no pain for Ms. Tucker or her family. I saw the female victim's (Townsend) husband on TV and he pointed out that no one commuted her death sentence so eye for an eye. Not really recommended.

I chose this book because of the back cover. It says: Crossed Over is also an intimate portrait of a life gone tragically awry and then redeemed behind bars." So naturally, I was waiting to read about the redemption. I was hoping to read a lovely uplifting and encouraging born again Christian journey but instead the author indulges herself with gory details to quench her own fascination with death, prostitution, sex, drugs, and murder. She brings up Christianity and God maybe two sentences in the entire book. And it is just plain raunchy language and disgusting details!!! I wanted to learn about and be comforted by Karla's redemption and salvation. I got nothing from this book. And you know what? At the end, the author even tells us that she hangs up a pictures of the murdered people so "she doesn't forget". Are you kidding me? I don't need to hang up pictures of people with a pick axe in their heart to remember it. Sounds like a bizarre romance with murder if you ask me. CREEPY!

As one of the people who is intimately involved in the case that this literary piece is supposed to be realistically portraying, I am surprised that anyone could believe that any of this actually happened the way the author portrays it. The convicted murderer is shown as being a wonderful person. I have not met too many "wonderful" people who are capable of swinging a pick axe into two different people more than 60 different times and enjoying it so much that they told several people that they had a sexual orgasm with each swing. That is sick. This was not an isolated incident; within a day after the first two murders, this individual was planning several more murders which would have been carried out if she had not been apprehended. She had no religion and no remorse until AFTER she was in jail. The reason I know all this? Tucker murdered my wife, Deborah Ruth Thornton. Don't waste your money on this trash.

All I read is true crime. This book is one of the best I have ever read. I will never forget this book. If you are a true crime fan you have got to read this book!!!