Customer Reviews

Death of a Doctor (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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

 

 

I wouldn't give the book even one star, if there were a "no stars" category. Reading it is sheer drudgery. I'm a quick reader and very fond of true crime, so plowing through it for two weeks was quite unusual and quite unsatisfying. There are few facts - instead, lots of "if", "maybe", "perhaps", and "might" - the author has built an air castle on his own conjecture. Finally I just checked the back of the book for the verdict (normally verboten) and threw it away. What a total waste of money and time! I'm going to be allergic to the name Carlton Smith from now on. Too bad he shares the first name of a good true-crime writer!

Do not waste your money on this one. Very poor research and slow moving. This si not the first time I have been disappointed with this author, but it will be the last time and of this I am sure. I think this book was probably written in about 2 days. This is one of the worst books I have read in along time. I can not understand how this Turkey ever got published. AWFUL!!!!!

True crime is tough to write about, but filling page after page after page ... with complicated legal wranglings and accounting practices that no one but an accountant could understand or even care about takes this book from about 10 pages of interesting information about the lives of these people to however many it ended up being. Sorry, I ramble.

Working at this book was sheer drudgery. I'm a quick reader, and I love true crime, so taking two weeks to plow through the first half of the book was most unusual. Most frustrating, too. Finally, I gave up, checked the back of the book for the verdict (normally verboten) and just threw it away. The author built an air castle on conjecture. "If", "maybe", "perhaps", "possibly", are the main words. There's hardly a sentence without one of these, and a notable scarcity of facts and evidence. It was a big waste of money and time, and I'm going to be pretty allergic to the name Carlton Smith from now on! (Too bad he shares a first name with another true crime author who's consistently good!) Yuk.

I have never been thrilled with Carlton Smith's work but after trying the sample on the Kindle I decided to give him another try. I bought the book based on the first chapter which was the only part of the book actually written like a story. I agree with the other reviews that none of the karma stuff or history on culture was necessary. My biggest problem with the book is that most of it was word for word from trial transcript. If that's what I wanted to read I would buy a copy of the transcript. Carlton Smith needs to read authors like Ann Rule to see how to write a book that tells a good story and skips all the repeating trial testimony. I will never purchase another one of his books again. I didn't want to give it any stars but had to give one to continue with this review.

Carlton Smith is a very good true crime writer. However, this wasn't his best work.

Overall, the book was very well written. It had a lot of information and was obviously well researched. It was longer than necessary for the information presented. I didn't need long explanations of law, Karma, or Indian religions. I was also disappointed that there were no photos of the victim.