Customer Reviews

The Missing Girls: A Shocking True Story of Abduction and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have read thousands of true crime books and this is the second-worst I have ever read, in terms of the writing. That's saying a lot, considering that the genre is not generally known for its artistic quality. I found it almost unreadable. It's very difficult to follow the story because of the confusing references, constant switching of voices and tenses, and general lack of literary imagination. Details are thrown in that add nothing to the story. It is just a hopeless mish-mash.
As the previous reviewer noted, this could have been a decent book. It has a lot of the elements of a typical true-crime story: murder, innocent victims, deviants, mystery. Too bad they don't come together here. Don't wast your time.

This was a book written by a 6 yr old...The author claims she is "The Lead Private Investigator on this case. Truth is, she is an unpaid relative, with no talent. She never fails to remind you how much her husband admires her, and how much more she knows than the FBI. I'm really surprised that the Publisher accepted this book. Could have been a great story. I certainly hope Ms. O'Neal gives up writing,,,

This is without a doubt one of the most amateurishly written yet professionally published books I've ever attempted to force myself to slog through. The story itself, a yarn about a private dectetive investigating the mysterious disappearance of two abducted children, has the requisite amount of pathos and mystery to form the basis of a real page turner, which is the only reason I'm giving it two stars instead of just one. Unfortunately, the best raw material in the world does not write itself, and in this case, the lacking element was the services of a ghost writer who actually knew his or her craft. Unfortunately, the publisher and authors did not avail themselves of those services, and the result is a book that reads like it was written by a sixth grader. This publisher must have had extremely low standards or perhaps just been really desperate to get something about this particular crime into print. Probably both. It remains to be seen whether I'm going to be able to get all the way through it or not. The only reason I've stayed with it this long is that I really want to see how the bastard who killed those little girls finally got nailed. Only for hard core true crime fans with a high tolerance for really bad writing.

Somewhere among all the egotistical blather of Linda O'Neal and her whipped husband, Philip Tennyson, there is a true crime story; that of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis who made national headlines when they disappeared from their Oregon City homes two months apart. It was later determined, after a disorganized, completely fumbled investigation by local law enforcement and FBI, that Ward Weaver had murdered these young teenager girls to hide his secrets of pedophilia.

Unfortunately, in this 372 page book, only about half of those pages are dedicated to the story. The remainder is non-stop bragging by O'Neal about her husband, his toys, her meetings with friends, or her mother's onset of Alzhemiers. Not to mention the times that Linda O'Neal attempts to show us what a wonderful person she is by being so supportive of Lori Pond, Ashley's mother, when the rest of the world can see that this woman should be called "Mother" only because she gave birth, not by her child-rearing skills by far.

Lastly, O'Neals boasting about how she led the FBI to Weaver is a farce. It was Weaver's own actions when attempted to rape his son's girlfriend that led the FBI and local law enforcement to take a harder look at him as a suspect in the girls' disappearances. O'Neal can boast all she wants, but it's an outright lie. In my opinion, simply an attempt to boost business for her private investigations business.

I would not recommend this book for anyone unless you like a story, within a story, within a story that has no basis for being tied into one another. I'd rather read a Harlequin Romance than to read another book like this!

I tried hard to get into this book, but the writing was horrible and jumped around so much I just got tired of trying to follow it.

I finally put it down about 1/3 way into it and it's ashame because it really is a very sad story that should be told. Hopefully someone with better writing skills will write this story in a way that will more interesting to read.

I am a big true crime fan, but I agree with every other negative reviewer about this book - it is the worst I've ever tried to read. The writing is disjointed and terrible, but what is worse is that the author seems to use this story to inflate her own oversized ego. The book is more about her and her husband than those poor little girls. I am used to professional writers like Diane Fanning, Dale Hudson, Kathryn Casey, Corey Mitchell and an old favorite, Ann Rule. I hope this woman has another job because she'll never make it as a writer.

I picked this book up because I remembered the story of the two missing girls, but I never knew the outcome. I was very interested in what happened. Unfortunately this book is so poorly written I don't think I can finish it. Whoever was the editor/ghost writer for this book was either blind or an idiot. Don't waste your money or your time. I really hope a talented person or even semi-talented person decides to write this story over, anything would have to be better than this book.

THE STORY WAS O.K., BUT HER HUSBAND SOUNDS LIKE A SAINT!! IF I HAD MY DRUTHERS, I WISH I HADN'T BOUGHT THIS BOOK.

I am having a difficult time reading this and staying focused. I agree with all previous reveiws. This book is written like a conversation between the "author" and her husband, family , etc. It is very hard to follow as she gets off on tangents about her husband, vehicles, her mother etc. I am so disappointed as this could have been a very good story and I hope someone else writes about this crime so those of us interested can get the facts. I have only read half of it but so far most is about this lady's life written in a conversation form. Don't waste your money on this one!!!!!

One of the worst-written true crime books I've ever read. Very corny at times! The author seems to switch back and forth between telling a true crime story and writing in her personal diary! One minute she was giving serious details about a disappointing meeting with the FBI and the next minute, she's in a purple negligee being consoled by her husband over it, as he pulls the hair pins out of hair so it can cascade down to her shoulders...CORNY! WHO CARES! Go be a romance writer, lady! True crime readers aren't interested in your corny personal life. Many other unintersting things and unnatural-sounding dialogue takes place throughout the book. I found myself saying outloud, Come on! No one really talks like that in this day and age! And the way she changes tenses throughout, just totally annoying. If you can get past all that, the actual story is sad and horrible.