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The Best American Crime Reporting 2007
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Fans of crime reporting will devour this diverse collection, featuring 15 of the year's best crime stories, written by noted journalists such as Tom Junod (Esquire magazine), Sean Flynn (GQ) and Steve Fishman (New York). Articles (and the crimes they detail) vary widely, one of the book's chief strengths; covering the darkest, most unspeakable crimes is not one of the entry qualifications (though they're certainly represented). One of the brightest pieces, by the Boston Globe Magazine's Neil Swidey, covers the astonishing embezzlement of nearly $9 million by a construction company temp. Several articles examine the possibility of reformation and redemption: Atlanta magazine's Steve Fennessy reports on the perpetrator of a horrifying kidnapping who is now a physician dedicated to helping the underserved, and the late-coming faith of David Berkowitz-the infamous Son of Sam-is cunningly but compassionately examined by Fishman. The uniform quality of research and writing in this collection is startling; stories are so fully fleshed and detail is so rich it's often hard to believe they're non-fiction. For example, Douglas Preston's article for The Atlantic Monthly catches the revealing moments of his subject ("The Monster of Florence") like a gem catching light: "He sketched his thoughts-I later learned it was a habit of his-the pencil cutting and darting across the paper, making arrows and circles and boxes and dotted lines." Fans of true crime will want to make this book last, but will likely have trouble putting it aside for even a moment.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Fans of crime reporting will devour this diverse collection...it’s often hard to believe they’re non-fiction...” (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )
26/02/2009
I too have read every one of this series from 2002 through 2008 and I have to say this one is the best of the bunch. Linda Fairstein, probably best known as the prosecutor of the infamous "Preppie Murder" case in New York turns out to be a brilliant editor. The selections are all outstanding and the sift from a crime in Beslan, Russia to a crime in Odessa, Texas is sublime. From nursing homes, to doctors to priests the arrangement of stories in unfailingly good and translates into a smooth read. These are stories that will stay with you long after you've finished. Kudos to Ms. Fairstein and all involved in the production of this volume. I cannot reccomend it highly enough.
28/11/2007
I have read all the books in this series since 2002 and this is one of the best. All of the "true-crime" stories here are extremely well-written, taken from various magazines throughout the year, and provide background information that you will never get from the news headlines.
The book begins with the story of Sal and Mabel Mangano, the New Orleans nursing home owners who were accused of abandoning their residents to Hurricane Katrina. The article addresses this story from many angles, not the least of which concludes that the Manganos are far from the monsters that they were made out to be in the media. There is another fascinating story of a New York writer who unwittingly shares his apartment with a subject of "America's Most Wanted," and another story of a young female medical intern who disappeared the day before 9/11 and whose fate is still unknown. There are a couple of great whodunits, and a heartbreaking account of the Russian school hostage seige in Beslan.
Every story in this book is a page-turner, and I highly recommend it.
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 The Best American Crime Writing 2006 (Best American Crime Reporting) Mark Bowden, Otto Penzler, Thomas H. Cook |
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