J. North Conway

Disclaimer: I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. I received no compensation aside from being able to read the book.

Crime Time contained twenty summaries of various crimes from around the turn of the century (mid 1700s to early 1900s), with a focus on New England and New York City.

The summaries themselves were a solid peek at the crime committed, the investigations and the results (if any). The author chose to not go in a more salacious direction, unlike some crime anthologies and compilations, which resulted in a slightly drier, more analytical read. This approach made the summaries feel more direct in terms of narration, rather than twisting through the various personalities of the criminals. (That approach can sometimes overshadow the crimes being discussed, as can be seen in other true crime works).

Overall this was an informative read. While some crimes are more well-known (such as the Sophie Lyons case), others are a bit more obscure.

Recommended for readers that enjoy true crime writers such as Jerry Bledsoe and Diane Fanning.… (meer)

On page xiii of the introduction, the author states that he is "just trying to tell as good a story about George Leslie as I could possibly tell" and that this book is an example of fictional realism. The author goes on to compare himself to [a:John Dos Passos|4778|John Dos Passos|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1234455298p2/4778.jpg]. ROTFL. Comparing this book with works by [a:John Dos Passos|4778|John Dos Passos|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1234455298p2/4778.jpg] and [a:George MacDonald Fraser|14220|George MacDonald Fraser|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1234739655p2/14220.jpg], fiction with footnotes, King of Heists came up short.

This book is just acceptable as a novel. I might have enjoyed the book more if the newspaper clippings, photos, and other additions had not continuously interrupted the story. They became so intrusive that they drew unwanted attention to the places where the story and reality parted company and went their separate ways. In real life, the "King of Heists" was dead before the bank robbery of 1878 was carried out and it seems that we have only heresay from the people who actually did rob the bank that he was involved in planning that robbery or any other. The gimcrack called "Little Joker" that was the secret to his bank robbing success was never seen by anyone and there are only conflicting descriptions that ultimately make no sense.… (meer)