Customer Reviews

Monster

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a voracious reader of true crime and find that too many of them are poorly written. This book is unusually well written and well organized. I came across the book by following a cable show on NecroSearch, the volunteer forensics organization that participated in helping Richardson put Luther away.

I read true crime occasionally out of a need to know what makes these people tick, though I'm not sure that anyone will ever have the answer to that question. This book details the ghastly crimes of suspected serial killer Thomas Luther. Although convicted of only one murder, Luther left a bloody trail of rapes and assaults, as well as compelling circumstantial evidence linking him to numerous unsolved murders. The one victim he was convicted of killing, Cher Elder, is brought to life in these pages by the author. One shudders to think of her last moments in the hands of evil incarnate. The woman who loved and stood by Luther, a "psychiatric nurse" named Debrah Snider, is a complete cypher. Even after she was confronted with the chilling and unmistakable evidence of what he was and what he did, she remained true to her man. This book, which I made the mistake of reading while home alone at night, spares few details of the hideous carnage committed by Luther. Although I would have liked to see a chapter on Luther's childhood and the abuse he alleges he suffered, this book nonetheless gives the reader a fairly comprehensive insight into the psyche of a monster.

This is one of the best true crime books I've ever read, and I've read hundreds. It is very well-written and gives detailed insight into what went on in Tom Luther's mind. The reader gets to know the 'two Toms' -- the Good Tom and the Bad Tom, and we see him as a human being, not just his criminal side that the media reports. Additionally, the reader gets to know Deb Snider, the woman who loves Good Tom enough to put up with Bad Tom year after year; it's very easy to say she was stupid to tolerate his treatment of her, but the author does a great job of helping you understand why she did so. Highly recommended reading for true crime fans!

Alert, True Crime fans! For those of us who feast on the genre and who have known too often the frustration--a kind of tawdry humiliation, really, considering the subject-matter--of spending good dollars for bad product, Steve Jackson's "Monster" is superb value both content- and price-wise. At a beefy 530 pages (Amazon's count is uncharacteristically incorrect), Jackson's book is well-researched and features a clear narrative account that is beyond mere "easy to follow"--this book enters the realm of the "could not put it down." The book's length allows its author to include a wealth of detail regarding the heinous crimes of one Thomas Luther, and allows him to do so in an unstilted manner--there's not an incident recounted here that reads awkwardly. Unlike many convoluted attempts by authorial wannabes, Jackson's prose is the real deal; it reads as true as its recounted conversations ring. The book records the pursuit of Luther by Detective Scott Richardson, and documents the twists, turns, and inner turmoil involved in a case of this nature: As Richardson struggles first to find the body of Cher Elder and then to prove the case against the sociopathic Luther, a chronic repeat offender, the reader becomes an active agent in that pursuit, rather than a passive follower of it. Those of you well-read in the genre know what I mean when I say that this is an extremely difficult task for a writer. Jackson is worth two Ann Rules and three Jack Olsens, and those are writers I much admire. Indeed, other than Capote's "In Cold Blood," the Platonic ideal for a true-crime tome, I can think of no book I've found more of an enjoyable challenge. Those of you who, like me, are opposed to the death penalty will get a real run for your money here, a real test of true principles. Jackson's vivid details--yes, much blood here, much stabbing, strangling, and shooting; neckbones snap, faces are rearranged--make the argument for the prosecution. I'm still anti-capital punishment, but I'll admit I wouldn't lose so much as a nap, let alone a good night's sleep, to hear that Luther and other members of his ilk had, at the hands of the State, shuffled off this mortal coil.

As an avid reader of true crime, I will declare that this is one of the best written pieces of work that I have read short of the infamous Ann Rule works.

This book contains the tale of Tom Luther is able to manipulate women with his good looks and his imaginitive story telling; especially Debra Snider, who fell hard and fast for this sexually sadistic loser. The author holds nothing back from the reader on the viciousness of his crime against Cher Elder and many other women; some of whom is only suspected of harming. In addition, readers are given a walk into the hearts and minds of Cher Elder's parents as they struggle to deal with the death of their daughter and the capture of her killer. As you walk through these vicious crimes and feel the torment of Elder's parents, readers are also given insight into how a normal, education, married mother of two (Snider) can fall in love with someone so evil; and even after learning that the evil remains, still loving that person unconditionally.

I really liked this one. It was very hard to put down.
Why is this book so good?
Because you do not learn about one vision but Jackson gives you the versions of how the people who lived near "The Monster" experienced him.For example you will see Luther through the eyes of the woman who loved him,through the eyes of the detective who tries to nail him for years,and bites his teeth in the case. You will be in the skin of his victims their families,but also you will feel their pain,how scared they are,how he managed to create a web surrounding him with people who got mixed up by this men.

The style of the writer appeals a lot to me,eye for detail
As i said before, when i was reading i felt like i was there.
If you start reading this book,make sure you have a lot of time,cause you can't put it down!
Hope you understand my English

I agree with the readers that the book was compelling and generally well written. Much better, actually, than the vast majority of true crime books (and like many, I've read too many to count...), but that is where our views diverge; I have NEVER read a book in my life with more grammatical errors or punctuation errors, for that matter. Without even trying, I counted (in my head alone, and only starting about halfway through the book) 15 sentences with no verbs.

I realize that this will seem like nit-picking, but can't the author or publishing company afford an editor...? It really mars an otherwise excellent book (yes, as another reader wrote, it should have been about 100 pages shorter to eliminate repetitiveness) by an author who shows a lot of potential for a genre where most writers seem to have barely made it through junior high school.

This book's look at the police investigations and court events over the years made this a cut above most true crime books, which tend to be sensationalistic rehashes of basic crime descriptions that anyone could write based upon newspaper reports, for example.

One final note: a list of characters and index would be greatly appreciated. I found myself repeatedly researching previous events (particularly the informants' testimony from various prisons and jails over the years) and digging through dozens of pages simply because the author was too lazy and professional to use an index. Still, well done overall and I'll be reading other books by the author in the future if possible.

I highly recommend this book to any true crime fan who wants a well-written, highly detailed work. While the book is almost too exhaustively researched, the reader ends up richly rewarded by getting to know the characters so well. Gore fans will be disappointed, but this is a top-notch effort for the genre.

I truly enjoyed reading the book and found the story itself fascinating. My one complaint is that it was perhaps 100 pages too long. The author, while I commend him for his thoroughness, dragged the story out a bit and at times it seemed extremely repetitive. Certainly any fan of true crime accounts will find the story compelling, but don't expect a smooth, easy, fluid read.

Steve Jackson's true crime marathon, MONSTER, is the story of serial sex murderer, rapist, and all-around scumbag Tom Luther; his neurotically incomprehensible girlfriend, Debrah Snider; dogged detective, Scott Richardson; and a plethora of both Luther's rape, assault, and murder victims as well as of his band of petty criminal misfit friends.
Luther is another of what is a frighteningly long line of sexually deranged sociopaths, to which, reading a lot of true crime as I do, I am becoming unfortunately inured. Suffice it to say that while his lunacy has become depressively commonplace on the true crime landscape, Luther is certainly worthy of inclusion thereon.

Jackson has overall done a fine job with MONSTER. The writing is smart, professional, and for the most part reportorial, and Jackson presents - with the minor exception of his digs at defense attorney Lauren Cleaver - the story without injecting his personality into the narrative. The trial section of the book, often tedious in true crime, is handled well with a minimum of repetition and with a summary, rather than a blow-by-blow presentation, of forensic and scientific evidence. This is a long book - 530 pages in paperback - and it never gets boring.

There are two literary devices Jackson uses I wish to specifically address. The first is that Jackson, who seems to have gotten vast amounts of his information from Richardson and Snider, omnipresently uses quotes to move the story along to the extent that there is absolutely no way that the all of the quotes can be actual. This is a device that I usually heartily dislike, but Jackson does it extraordinarily well. He seems to be attempting to have the dialog accurately reflect the personality of the speaker and succeeds to the extent that the quotations feel honest, fit smoothly into the overall narrative, and move the story swiftly along.

However another thing Jackson does with regularity is a sort of half-hearted attempt to mimic the pronunciation used by many of the players. He does this exclusively by randomly dropping the "g"s at the end of "ing" words and unfortunately attributes this manner of speech to most of the characters in the book. "'What I'm talkin' about is, uh, wiring you so we can monitor or record the conversation. It'll show your credibility, that you aren't just fabricatin' all this stuff that Babe is sayin', and I guess that's what I'm trying to say.'" Now I'm not sure why Richardson here in the middle of all this semi-folksiness, writes "wiring" and "trying" as opposed to "wirin'" and "tryin'", but it's random, unconvincing and - even if it were better done - unnecessary and generally doomed to irritating failure. My example is not of an occasional occurrence, but rather of a ubiquitous feature of the writing. And on page 414, in an apparent moment of unrestrained down-home ecstasy, "Babe Rivinius (called her to say that) J.D. had fled with Skip and wouldn't be comin' back...." I mean, that's part of the narrative! That's not even a character speaking. Though I realize that the use of this device is not the worst thing going, it decreased my enjoyment of the book as, as opposed to the rest of the writing (or maybe writin'), it feels forced and unnatural.

But the bottom line is that MONSTER is a professionally written and thoroughly researched work, and I'm glad I read it. I can't imagine a true crime fan not enjoying Jackson's book, and I recommend it highly.