Customer Reviews

Secrets Can Be Murder: What America's Most Sensational Crimes Tell Us About Ourselves

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

 

 

This is a book of case studies about crime, motivating factors, behavior, and family dynamics. The author does her homework on the psychological aspects of interpersonal relationships and social interaction. She looks at American values, the media, and double standards. Read it to find out more about childhood issues, parenting styles, deviance, and the secrets of what goes on behind closed doors. The truth is not pleasant. I think Valez-Mitchell has some important things to say and I respect her research.

This book and some details are just too much for me to absorb like "modern day movies" with too much gruesome detail but Jane Velez-Mitchell is just reporting the truth rather than providing mega-bucks hollywood slock aka "entertainment". This book is crucial to be read and for our law makers to make changes nationwide to better protect women from abuse and murder. What is clear are these murderers where giving off plenty of signals or even had criminal records that were neon signs. I hope her book brings change to people's awareness, safety and the "the system" which does not protect the victims. Velez-Mitchell points out that "economic abuse" plays a role in the abuse of women and it can be found at all socio-economic levels. Her point about the how women can be the harshest judges of fellow women blaming them for their own rapes and murders is right on. "Why was she out so late?" "What was she wearing?". I hope this book raises awareness and brings national changes in our legal system, in protecting women and children and state of the art technological warning systems to alert communities of the movements of repeat offenders that our on the outside and we need to ask ourselves how and why the legal system continues to set free people that are so violent. Why is so much hostility and rage towards women accepted in this culture. Read this book and find out Velez-Mithcell's answers and the sad truths about why so many women stay home in what I call "good girl prison" but as she points out men do not stay home because they are not afraid of being harmed. Read this book and I hope Jane Velez-Mitchell "Secrets can be Murder" helps to bring change and prevent unacceptable hostility and rage towards women that is very much accepted in America to successful reforms to protect the innocent and successfully prosecute the guilty. Jane Velez-Mitchell ends on a spiritual uplifting note and she has a list of important resources and she urges readers to get involved! Read this book!

I am a true crime story/psychology enthusiast and I have seen the author Jane Velez-Mitchell on t.v. many times.(Nancy Grace, Larry King, etc.) As an author, she really has the talent to keep the reader captivated in every detail of each crime and the possible psychological explanations for them. She did an outstanding job on this truly "can't put it down" type book. Bravo!

The book provides a lot of interesting information about a number of victims, killers and crimes. The author does recognize that some victims played a role in the outcome. It is not blaming the victim (which the author goes out of her way to avoid) to acknowledge that in some cases the role the victim had before the crime may have added to circumstances that were already bad. Some of the connections the author makes between the crime and the killer's family secrets are a stretch at best.

This was a very interesting book to read and holds your attention but it seemed to me as if Ms. Valez-Mitchell was blaming the victims, their families, everyone but the perpetrator of the horrific crimes studied.

This book was an unexpected surprise...I thought it would be another compilation of headlining true crime cases from a Court TV reporter's perspective, and instead it was a psychological journey into the background of the cases and participants. Some reviewers opined that Velez-Mitchell blames the victims/victims' families (as in the case of the Laci Peterson case and exploring the triangulation of Laci, her mother Sharon, and Scott), but I disagree. Ms. Mitchell takes pains to explain that she is not blaming the victims or families for the violence perpetrated against them, rather she is is searching for an explanation for the crimes, what may have led up to the crimes from a family systems and relational perspective. Instead simply claiming that a crime occurred because of an evil or insane perpetrator, she actually delves into the family secrets behind well-publicized cases and provides insight into how intergenerational family secrets can create havoc generations later~hence the title.

Ms. Mitchell examines well-known cases, (such as the aforementioned Laci Peterson murder)Phil Spector, as well as some of the highly publicized teacher-student rape cases. I highly recommend to true crime fans and people interested in exploring crime from a family systems perspective.

Jane Velez-Mitchell has some interesting and worthwhile things to say about sexual secrets, victims getting blamed by the media, and how cases involving good-looking people get much more media attention than cases about plainer people. She also picked a good assortment of cases. However, I'm appalled that she and her publishers thought it was acceptable to call Andrea Yates, who most likely had schizophrenia, "a schizo." I doubt they'd find it okay to call someone "a homo," "a lesbo," "a retard," or "a spic."

I know quite a few details about 2 of the cases in this book. There is nothing more in the book than what was told in the news which is, of course, not very good coverage. Do any journalists conduct investigate reporting anymore? It seems not on the news and not for this book. What's the point? Also, Nancy Grace should probably quit commenting on anything related to the Pamela Vitale murder. She had biased reporting on the case from the beginning (as did several other commentators who were friends of Daniel Horowitz) since she was friends with Daniel Horowitz. Supposedly Nancy was the last person to talk with Vitale other than Daniel Horowitz. Horowitz even called her the night of the murder from the police car.

This is not the kind of book I usually like, but I couldn't put this one down. I don't like those CSI-type dramas, or the forensic crime shows, but this book was truly interesting. If you like CSI and crime dramas, then you must read this book. If you're interested in high profile crime, but don't generally like the "blood and guts" part of it (sort of how I feel--I don't like blood and gore) than you may really still enjoy this book. I'm not saying it doesn't describe the violence. The author tells the background stories, the psychological aspects and the secrets that were kept between the killers and the victims leading up to the crimes.

this a terrific book telling why these sick individuals did their horrific crimes etc, worth the money.