John Woodrow Cox’s Children Under Fire: An American Crisis (Ecco, 2021) is an unflinching look at gun violence in the United States. Cox, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his Washington Post series Children Under Fire presents a detailed account of two elementary school children—Ava from South Carolina and Tyshaun from Washington, D.C.—and explores how they have both been affected …
Author: jessleonamae
The Violence Project by Jillian Peterson and James Densley
There are many books that discuss mass shootings and their causes, and I have read a few. What I have not seen in most of these books are solutions to prevent mass shootings. Jillian Peterson’s and James Densley’s The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic (Abrams Press, 2021) is that book—it is the book …
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Murder in the Family by Jeff Blackstock
I first became interested in Jeff Blackstock’s Murder in the Family: How the Search for my Mother’s Killer Led to my Father (Penguin 2020) after I picked up the book in a bookstore and read the first line of the prologue: “I think that my father murdered my mother” (1). It was equal parts tragic and intriguing …
“Strange Piece of Paradise” by Terri Jentz
In 1977, the summer after her sophomore year at Yale University, Terri Jentz and her friend (whom she refers to by the alias Shayna Weiss) set off on the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, a 4,200-mile route established the year before in celebration of America’s Bicentennial. Just seven days into their trip, they stopped to rest at …
Blood in the Water by Silver Donald Cameron
I was excited to read and review Silver Donald Cameron’s Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes (Viking 2020) because its story takes place in Petit de Grat, a small Acadian fishing village off the coast of Cape Breton Island. My family is spread across Nova Scotia, but my roots are in …
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True Crime Addict by James Renner
The current popularity of true crime has raised many ethical questions about the consumption of works with the genre. Is it moral to be entertained by such horrible things? What does the public owe the victims and their families? Unsolved cases raise even more questions, because it is easy for people to get caught up …
A Descending Spiral by Marc Bookman
Marc Bookman’s essay collection A Descending Spiral: Exposing the Death Penalty in 12 Essays (The New Press, 2021) is a brutal and illuminating look at the death penalty in the United States. Bookman is the executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, an organization dedicated to reducing the number of death sentences in Pennsylvania. Prior to …
The Lady of Sing Sing by Idanna Pucci
In her recently re-released book The Lady of Sing Sing: An American Countess, An Italian Immigrant, and their Epic Battle for Justice in New York’s Gilded Age (Simon & Schuster 2020), previously published as The Trials of Maria Barbella (1996), Idanna Pucci recounts the harrowing story of young Italian immigrant Maria Barbella. After being convicted of murdering her lover, …
The Murders that Made us by Bob Calhoun
As someone who is currently writing a dissertation on California literature, I couldn’t wait to pick up Bob Calhoun’s The Murders that Made Us: How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers, and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area (ECW Press, 2021). My work focuses mostly on Southern California, so I was eager to see what Calhoun …
Death on Ocean Boulevard by Caitlin Rother
Death on Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case (Kensington Books 2021) by Caitlin Rother is a deep dive into the infamous Rebecca Zahau case. Rebecca was found hanging nude from a balcony at San Diego’s Spreckels Mansion with her wrists and ankles bound. Her hands were behind her back, and she was gagged with a …
