Victim: The Other Side of Murder [Paperback]

Gary Kinder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 1999

Now a classic of true crime, Victim is a compelling and tragic look at how lives can be changed forever by a random act of violence. During an armed robbery, several hostages were brutally tortured, shot in the head, and left for dead. Victim focuses on the members of one family -- including a mother who died after the attack and a son who was left barely alive -- as they fought for his survival and struggled to rebuild their lives. Victim was the first book to go beyond the headlines and statistics about violent crime, to tell the victims' dramatic story of love, loss and courage. It remains one of the most influential books in the victims' rights movement and has become required reading in criminology courses across the country. It may be more relevant now than ever. "Victim is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood turned inside out." -- Newsweek; "Just as Capote did, Kinder has somehow created a story that is truer than true." -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

First published in 1980, Victim was, and remains, a landmark turning point in the then-newly emerging victim's rights movement. When Gary Kinder (who would achieve even more fame and bestsellerdom in the 1990s with Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea) wrote this littérature vérité account of an execution-style bloodbath during an armed robbery, his emphasis on the victims' perspectives changed the true crime genre forever.

In 1974 two men walked into an Ogden, Utah, music store called the Hi-Fi Shop and took the manager and his assistant hostage while they methodically robbed the store. During the course of the robbery, three other people--16-year-old Cortney Naisbitt, his mother, and the father of the store's manager--walked in by chance and were also taken hostage. Before the end of the ordeal, the hostages would be forced to drink Drano ("It's some kind of German chemical that makes you sleep," one of the killers tells them), one of them would be repeatedly raped, another would have a pencil kicked into his ear with such force that it bulged out at his throat, and three of the hostages would die from close-range gunshot wounds. Naisbitt would effectively spend the rest of his life attempting to recover from brain damage, paralysis, and the loss of his mother, shot dead as she lay on the ground next to him. It's almost incidental to the story to note that the killers were quickly discovered and brought to justice before eventually garnering death sentences. Most of Victim is concerned with Cortney Naisbitt's second-by-second struggle to remain alive ("No Code," an ER physician writes on his chart, meaning no attempts to resuscitate him should he stop breathing), and the equally grim battle of his relatives to tape back together the ripped tapestry of their lives. Utterly compelling from first paragraph to last, this edition contains Kinder's 1990 update. --Tjames Madison

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1 edition (May 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871137356
• ISBN-13: 978-0871137357
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for True Crime Lovers, November 9, 1999

By 

Crislee Moreno ([e-mail]) (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Victim: The Other Side of Murder (Paperback)

While a Psychology student in 1993, I was required to read this book. Not being one to enjoy reading, I was amazed. I could not put this book down. I stayed up till 4 am to finish with classes the next morning. Very well written. You really feel you know what these people experienced. No detail was left out. So many books read in Psychology classes are from the criminals point of view. This was not.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this if you are writer, read this is you are a reader., March 8, 2000

By 

Teraisa J. Goldman "truecrimefan" (truecrimefanatic.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Victim: The Other Side of Murder (Paperback)

I read this book when it first came out, in the very early 1980's. I can never forget the pictures this awesome author painted in my mind. They are horrible, and without giving the book away, everysingle time I hear the words "Hi-FI," or see a pencil or a bottle of Drano, I think of this book. Ugh, giving me the chills thinking about it. By the way, I am wondering how the author liked the movie, if at all?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An accurate account of what happened...sadly. :(, June 10, 2002

By 

Brett (SANDY, UT, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Victim: The Other Side of Murder (Paperback)

I actually live in Ogden, and this is a very big deal here. Everyone seems to know about it, or actually knows someone who was impacted by these events. This book does show a very, albeit grim, accurate account of what happened, and the afterlife of the crime. Although Cortney's life was horribly changed, he tried to make the best of it, as did his family, and beat the odds!