Customer Reviews

Smooth Operator: The True Story of Seductive Serial Killer Glen Rogers (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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

 

 

Take out the wordy and irrelevant descriptions of various locales frequented by serial killer Glen Rogers and this 269-page book would never crack the 150-page barrier. Why, for instance, Linedecker found it necessary to go into such detail about the geography and history (as in all the way back to the 18th century) of such towns as Hamilton, Kentucky . . . well, if you can figure it out, please let me know. Local color is one thing, but this is local humdrum. To make matters worse, the author spends far too few pages writing about the real meat of any true crime story . . . the actual crimes, the crime scenes, the forensic evidence, the investigations, the investigators and (saddest cut of all) the victims. The photo section of the book is particularly maddening. It features eight pictures of the killer and only two pictures of the poor women who had the misfortune to cross his path. And I'm not talking about exploitive and sensationalist crime scene photos of dead bodies. I'm talking about how these women looked in life. Just as with the so many stories of murder and tragedy in our society, the killer gets most of the press and the victims get the short end of the stick. Oh, and one more thing . . . when you crack this book, be ready to read at least fifty descriptions of how Glen Rogers drinks, what he drinks and what happens when he drinks. Better yet, read the first one and skip the other forty-nine. Basically, Smooth Operator is a series of newspaper atricles that Linedecker put on the rack and stretched into a book. If you want a good read, leave this one sitting on the shelf collecting the dust it deserves and spend your money on ANYTHING by Ann Rule, Robert Ressler or John Douglas.

I finished this book in two weeks, which is a far cry from my usual No-doz induced, all-night read-a-thon. At times, the book would move at lightning speed, at other times it was slower than molasses. Why did the author feel the need to give the geography of the city to the readers? Was that supposed to give us insight on why Mr. Rogers was a serial killer? Someone pass me a pillow, I'm going to bed. Nighty-night.

I don't usually feel so strongly about a book that I take the time to write a review, but I do feel that other potential readers must be warned!
I can tell you that I made it all the way to Page 150 before I abandoned the mission of trying to finish this book.
The author was really beating a dead horse (yes, the pun was intended) with his use of cliche's and in his descriptions of Rogers and his victims. For example, how many times do I have to be informed of how much Rogers drank, what he drank and what his reaction was to all of which he drank? The author also goes off on little rants that really aren't relavant to what is really going on (like going into an in-depth history of "Carnies") and his over-use of adjectives really got on my nerves. At one time, a description of the victim and a crime scene was given and all I could think was "Was this actually written in the reports?".
Who edited this book, anyway? And exactly who was the intended audience? This story could have really been interesting, but the entire thing read like a badly written magazine article.

How boring. I agree with one of the other reviewers who said it was written over and over about Glenn's drinking habits. Who cares? We got the picture...he was a nasty drunk. Want good true crime....."An Hour to Kill", "Dead and Buried" or "Salt of the Earth".

well this book was good until about 3 quarters of the way through then it just got tedious and i actually skipped pages!! i read these types of books all the time and theres a few things i must say. first what happened to the rest of the girls that were killed?? i mean they talked about 1 conviction so how am i to know what happened to the other cases because really i cant say oh yes this guy did it if the author didnt even tell us what happened to the other victims(as far as court)! now i have to go search the net now to see if im missing something! thats something the author forgot to tell us. 2nd why was so many pages spent on extradition? who cares?!?!?!? it couldve been done in 2 pages and then there was some tiny blurb at the end about what happened at trial, almost like the author ran out of time and paper!! i didnt get that because although i dislike too much rambling done in books about trials i do like more that a he is guilty he got death! there shouldve been at least 40 pages spent on that. other than the end i thought the book was pretty good but i now that i feel i got jipped at the end i dont recomend this book or the author as i feel the writing was very mediocre.

I don't know what made me pick this book up but I'm glad I did. Glen Rogers, the killer, fascinated me. He is good looking, and could easily be mistaken as a softie or even my big brother but he's actually a violent mass murderer who traveled from state to state, barely being missed by police on the look out for him. Once, he was even taken into a police station for a different reason than the violent murders he had commited but unknown to the police, they just let him walk free. This is an 'edge of your seat, page turner' and the only reason Glen was even caught, was because he spoke to the wrong person about his crimes. I recommend this book fully if you enjoy true crime.

I was facinated with the main character. I have seen many high school boys like him. Sad.

The book about Glen Rogers is well written but I personaly think that maybe if he did these things that he was having black outs. The book was well written and your heart had to out to these women. You can feel the loss that their family feels the horror of it all happening. I write to Glen also and I think that there is more to the story.

The information in the book was fairly accurate and it did jump around a bit. Readers not knowing something about this case might have found it harder to keep on tract. Justice was done....

Glen Rogers was a smooth operator until he told the wrong family member and got himself caught. Very well written. keeps you in suspense. Excellent photos.