Mary Kinney Branson

Finished today. I did think it was an interesting read but not extraordinary. Not worth the raving reviews I read on amazon.com to be honest. Writing was okay, the story not so much. Except if you are in the middle of it of course.

One thing that annoyed me. There were 3 people that gave tips to the whereabouts of the killer. The author only praised one of them because this person had said to give his or her reward money to charity. The author thought he/she was a hero. Well I do not agree. The other 2 also picked up the phone. You do not know how they live, if they were poor and maybe the one who she thought to be a hero, was rich? In my eyes all 3 were hero's. not just the one who did not want/need the reward.

Another thing I noticed the tone of the author towards Earl got meaner and meaner during the book lol. Even that he took just one zip of water meant he was acting. (and this is just 1 example)
I do not know how many times I've read that Jack, the author's husband was definitely the victim's favorite cousin.
Those are the things why I prefer my true crime books not to be written by family though.… (meer)

When town native Ann Branson was found murdered in her basement in Madisonville, Kentucky townspeople were shocked. Crimes like murder just didn't happen in Madisonville. It was unheard of. A retired federal agent, Ann's nephew Jack Branson will not let his aunt's case die; and it is unheard of to Jack that all clues in his aunt's murder start to point to a member of his own family.

I have to say that the plot of this true crime book was a little slow for me and even though the crime was horrible, the writing was somewhat fanciful in parts. I give this story a B+!… (meer)

Meh. I don't think this book was very well presented. From the dust jacket material I thought it would be a collection of stories about cold cases and how, after years or decades, they were solved (or not solved). But, while such stories were certainly in there, the book was more like a collection of lists: lists of reasons why cases become cold, reasons why a cold case can suddenly heat up again, new advances in forensic science that help cold cases, ways to re-activate a cold case, etc. There's nothing wrong with this and much of what the book said was interesting, but it wasn't what I was looking for.… (meer)

I found Murder In Mayberry to be a slow read and rather a slog to get through. When reading about a fictional murder the author is free to introduce suspense, mystery and even humor to the story, but in real life you find pathos, plodding, and family prejudices. This is the story of the brutal murder of an 85 year old woman and a true family tragedy, but due to the quality of the writing, I found myself just turning the pages in order to get to the end and see the murderer brought to justice and the family get the closure they deserved.

The case itself seemed fairly straight forward, the police had a very good idea who was responsible early on but the wheels of justice turn slowly and the suspect had time to get out of the country which then involved the long process of getting him back to stand trial. As this book was written by a family member I thought the writing was poor and padded out to stretch the story to book size which resulted in long boring parts.

Not a book I would recommend unless the reader has a personal interest in this case.… (meer)