Customer Reviews

Death of an Angel: The Inside Story of How Justice Prevailed in the San Francisco Dog-Mauling Case

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have read so-called true crime since the classic "In Cold Blood," but even Truman Capote and, later, Norman Mailer, in "The Executioner's Song," failed to bootstrap the genre out of gore as its main attraction. (The rest of the practitioners follow a well-worn formula as interesting as a Danielle Steele soap.) Now along comes this book, Death of an Angel. Is it really true crime? Hey! It's about a notorious crime, but one in which the judge overruled the jury and let the perps off. What it's really about, and why everyone's talking about it, is that it gets into police work and under the carpet of the DA's office in a way that even "Law & Order" doesn't do.
OK, the formulaic Date, Time, Place at the beginning of each chapter and episode seems like a cop-out -- pardon the expression -- but in this cop-heavy report full of all sorts of twists and turns it turns out to be a pleasant guide to events.
This is a thoughtful read, so unusual in any crime book. In fact, I quickly forgot about the crime in following the fast-paced action of police procedural. The all-too-human reactions to this hideous event come through, but not garishly.
"Death of an Angel" has so manyn things going for it I wouldn't be surprised if it found a dozen different audiences. It's a book I will keep around.

I just finished reading Death of an Angel by Joseph Harrington. I was most impressed with the clarity and compassion of Mr. Harrington's writing. I have read various true crime books,and found many of them to be simply pages of facts and no meaningful theme. Mr. Harrington presents a compassionate look into the lives of those involved in this tragedy while skillfully weaving the important facts into the story. He took a complex puzzle and put it together perfectly! I highly recommend reading this book. It's one you won't put down until you have you have read the last word on the last page.

Well, where to begin in my review of one of the most poorly written books I had the displeasure in reading. Let me first explain that the book was a gift and I only read it out of desperation on a long plane flight. First off, the sheer length can only be a testament to the apparent vanity of the author applauding his own cleverness, as he rambles on incessantly through pages of incorrect grammar, spelling errors, and contrived story line. Although this is "true crime" and the plot is based in fact, the book manages to lose any of the real life suspense or drama of the case and turns it into a narrative more predictable and less interesting than those concocted in a 6th grade creative writing class. Even the title reeks from maudlin undertones! That should have clued me in, it was my mistake when I brought this book with me on my flight.

The typographical errors and mispellings in this book are so bad that I stopped reading it halfway through. Combine that with the fact that much of this book is regurgitated court transcripts and you end up with a book that is an awful reading experience.

It’s a dangerous world. Diane Whipple was killed by two dogs.

She could have died in an auto accident, a house fire or a plane

crash. Not to mention mugging, serial killers, sharks, cougars, etc. The difference is that Diane Whipple *knew* that these dogs

lived next door. The tragedy is, IMO, that she was too nice. Frankly she should have:

1) Raised hell the first time she had problems with these dogs. Police, animal control, landlord.

2) If she couldn’t get satisfaction, and quickly, *she* should have moved out. It’s not fair, it’s not right, but it would have gotten her out of the way of the dogs and their idiot owners.

3) She should have armed herself. That’s not PC, but if you’re going in harms way you need to take precautions. And she, through no fault of her own, was placed in harms way.

The dog owners? Frankly they were too stupid to own a pet rock, let alone two powerful, dominant dogs.

The law, prosecution tricks, gay rights, etc are interesting but

peripheral to the heart of the matter. A woman in a potentially

dangerous situation seemed not to recognize the danger nor

be able to deal with it in a realistic way. The owner of two

very large, powerful dogs apparently had the combined IQ’s

of a brain damaged newt to not recognize the real danger their

dogs presented to neighbors and do something about it.

A mildly interesting book, but it misses the point.

worth a $1.00 at the bargain bin.