Customer Reviews

Disturbed Ground

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

 

 

The facts and information offered in this book are great . I recommend this book to anyone wanting to know about this interesting, but sad case.

Fascinating account of a grandmotherly serial killer. The author obviously did her research and has written a compelling story of how "she almost got away with it." It continues to amaze me how law enforcement officials tend to work with blinder on, make assumptions based or first impressions and appearances, and fail to truly investigate a crime. This is also a story of how the California parole system failed much as it failed Jaycee Dugard. This is an unusually well written true crime account that reads much like a fast paced legal thriller or an episode of CSI.

I picked this up on a whim walking through the library...I think I'm genetically disposed to be attracted to any book with the world diabolical in the title...this was an interesting case...I am, as always fascinated by people who are, for whatever reason, compelled to kill. The subject here was fascinating to me because I don't remember this case at all and it leaves me wondering what the heck I was doing at the time that I'd never heard of Dorthea Puente at all...but then I realized that for much of the time this case was on trial, I was living in National Parks and not really having access to a TV. While reading the book, it is painfully obvious that the person writing it was once a former writer for the Los Angeles Times as the entire thing read like a really, really, really long newspaper article...but still, it's packed with details of Dorthea's life, the victims, and the trial from start to finish...so one doesn't want for left out details. Overall a good read, but not quick...it took me three days to get through it all because it was fact dense and not as fluid as I might have liked.