Customer Reviews

Reckless: Millionaire Record Producer Phil Spector and the Violent Death of Lana Clarkson (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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I have struggled with a few of this author's books, but none so much as this one. The main complaint I have with Mr Smith's writing style is that he tends to go off on a tangent, and pads his books with pages and pages of unnecessary detail about things that really are only vaguely relevant to the story.

In the case of 'Reckless', there was relatively little written about the actual murder of Lana Clarkson - in fact there was very little information about Miss Clarkson at all. This book is no more than a rehash of the life story of Phil Spector, taken from a number of 'sources' and put together by Mr Smith in this very uninteresting piece of work. I didn't finish it.

I've read other titles by Carlton Smith and have enjoyed most of them. However, "Reckless" is by far the worst book I've read in quite some time. In fact, I had to force myself to finish it.

One is led to believe by the back cover of the book that the story is about the murder of Lana Clarkson. Don't be misled. It really isn't about Lana Clarkson at all. It's almost entirely about Phil Spector and his life as a record producer. Smith quotes heavily from two other books in this story. It's almost as if he wrote a repeat of what has already been written before by someone else. Save your time and money.

Reckless is NOT a true crime book. It's a biography of Phil Spector - and not a very inspired one. There is no indication that Carlton Smith spoke to anyone involved with this case, and it's not an ancient case with all the key players dead.

If you like student research papers where the author simply looks at the other books and articles written about something and then checks in with personal observations, then that's what you get here. An overview of the literature. Some unqualified personal observations. And, he says the same thing over and over and over again.

Very boring. And it could have been a great story.

Phil Spector may not be one of the nicest men around the music industry but regardless he is a musical genius in the production sense. The music industry as the film and television industry is filled morons. Spector was producing at only 18 years old. His first hit was with the Teddy Bears entitled To Know Him is To Love Him which is the epithat on his father's grave. I was surprised to learn other interesting facts about Spector's life. Of course, he can be cruel to his girlfriends but he's in a business where women will do anything to get to the top. Spector might be a musical genius but his ego needs to be deflated as well. His behavior might be explained by his own bipolar personality disorder which he readily admits to having. The book is short on the last few months of the trial and omitting the wonderful Linda Kinny Baden who was his defense attorney, confidante, friend, and wife of Dr. Michael Baden. There was a lot more to this case that gets omitted. There are typical grammatical errors such as misspelling Gary, one of his sons. Of course, the Spector's background and history is quite interesting if you never read a book about him. Spector was one of the giants of the music industry. His devotion and obsession with the Motown sound and developing the wall of sound has made him a legend but sadly, he has become reclusive, private, and almost sad at times. When you get to the top, it gets lonely. He was devoted father to his twins, one of whom died around CHristmas day. Regardless of his Jewish upbringing, the loss of CHristmas especially a child from illness is devastating. Also, the book fails to mention key players like Sara Caplan and Phil's new wife, Rachel, who is no trophy wife or dumb blonde. She takes him as he is and has been at trial every day during those long months. I have to say that the book also has interesting background history on the victim, Lana Clarkson. Sadly, Lana never became as famous as she should. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, she had to settle for $9.00 per hour job as a hostess at the House of Blues owned by Dan Ackroyd. Of course, she deserved more. She was funny, beautiful, and brilliant. The videotape shown at the trial is a brilliant example of what was lost. Of course, the business can be cruel and detrimental to anybody's health. Just look at Phil for example. I was interested to know about her friendship with Oscar Nominee Sally Kirkland who was a mentor and good friend who defended her. I don't believe that her death was intentional but probably a terrible accident. Who knows what happened is Phil and Lana? Sadly, the trial ended in a hung jury which is worse than a conviction because the trial has to happen all over again. Lana may not have been suicidal and the gun might have gone off as an accident. I don't believe it was anything but an American tragedy as Carol COnnors who was a member of the teddy bears and sang "To know him is to love him" on his premiere album. I wished they kissed and make up.

Instead, Mr. Smith delivers a one-sided slam against Phil Spector who according to the author hasn't done one nice thing during his whole life. It's amazing that St. Martin's Press would publish such a biased book while a court case is going on.

In Reckless, the author masquerades as a true crime story. Writer Carlton Smith, becomes a chronic fabricator who writes with oblivious abandon and apathy about the feelings and good names of others. In Reckless he makes Kitty Kelly seem like Mother Teresa. His book has attempted to sully the reputation and good name of the murdered actress Lana Clarkson. Reckless does this by regurgitating a rumor about her in an article written by Robert Anson in Vanity Fair, knowing that there was no substance whatsoever to this rumor, and then lying about the source. He didn't have to do what he did to make his book sellable. But he went for the sleaze factor about Lana possibly being a call girl after promising Edward Lozzi,her former publicist and long time friend,and a person he interviewed for this book, that he would not. This book is dangerous and shoddy tabloid journalism. Smith's book is a valentine to accused murderer Phil Spector and his former lawyer Leslie Abramson.Cartlon Smith jumped at the chance to sully the reputation of Lana Clarkson to sell this book. His non-sourced, post deceased, reputation ruining heresay, shows through and makes for a terrible read. Beside this book trashing the victim Lana Clarkson, it also reads as though Phil Spector edited this book himself.

Reckless is Carlton Smith's take on Phil Spector. By any measure, Spector has had an interesting life and Smith follows Spector from his tragic boyhood to his fame as a record producer to his bizarre later years. I'm surprised at the negative reviews on Amazon; while Reckless has many flaws, the book is still compelling.

Spector's life has been one of those bizarre only-in-America tales. In his 70-odd years, Spector has accomplished much and wasted it all. Unsurprisingly, the strongest parts of Reckless are the well-documented tales of Spector's music career. In describing the years after Spector withdrew from public, there are significant gaps in the story.

Smith does not spend a lot of time discussing Lana Clarkson - the actress who was shot and killed in Spector's home in 2003. However, there are two solid chapters on Clarkson and Smith treats her with respect.

As reviewers have noted, Reckless has many flaws. Smith's writing is mediocre. He goes off on uninteresting tangents and includes too much minutiae from Phil's life. Also, Smith copies from previous materials on Spector instead of doing his own reporting and he spends far too much time discussing the discrepancies in these accounts. A final flaw is that Reckless ends before the resolution of Phil's legal case, which makes the book anti-climactic.

In summary, Reckless is interesting, light reading that held my attention. Smith is not Shakespeare, but readers who are interested in true crime probably aren't looking for Shakespeare. For anyone interested in Spector's bizarre life, Reckless is a decent read.

I learned a lot about the early music publishing years. The book is mostly about Phil Spector's life, from early years to adulthood. I really enjoyed this book because it was a look into a world I hadn't know too much about beforehand. Recommended !

This is the first book I've read by this author. Probably the last, too. I kept reading to get to the story about Lana Clarkson and Spector. Should have put it down after the first chapter.