Afbeelding van de auteur.
20 Werken 456 Leden 24 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

Over de Auteur

Ron Franscell is the acclaimed author of numerous books, including the true crime work, Morgue: A Life in Death (coauthored with Dr. Vincent Di Maio), which was a 2017 Edgar Award finalist. An award-winning newspaper journalist for thirty years, Franscell is a native of Casper, Wyoming, and lives toon meer in San Antonio, Texas. toon minder

Reeksen

Werken van Ron Franscell

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1957-01-29
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Woonplaatsen
San Antonio, Texas, USA

Leden

Besprekingen

The drama, humor, and plot twists in this book had me hooked from beginning to end. Even though I had never read anything by him before this book, he has since gained a place in my list of favorite authors. It is engaging and well-written, I highly recommend.
 
Gemarkeerd
JKJ94 | Jul 27, 2023 |
Alice & Gerald by Ron Franscell is a highly recommended true crime drama that reads like a novel.

Alice and Gerald Uden murdered at least four people and thought they had gotten away with it for almost forty decades. Between the two there were multiple failed marriages before they met and married. Alice killed husband number three in 1974. Gerald met and married her in 1976, a few weeks after his third divorce was final, and she became his fourth wife. The two were an oddly suited-for-each-other couple, with Alice firmly controlling their lives. When it seemed that Gerald's third ex-wife, Virginia, and mother to the two boys he adopted, might be wanting more child support, Alice wrote several insulting, unsettling, and vaguely threatening letters to Virginia. Then, in 1980, Virginia and the two boys mysteriously disappeared.

With Virginia's mother, Claire, suspected foul play - and Gerald. She was asking questions and insisting that the police investigate, although their initial investigation seemed perfunctory. After all, Virginia was living a nomadic lifestyle and she could have just decided to move on to somewhere else. It seemed Gerald got away with murder. And then, even when her children were telling authorities that Alice told them she killed her ex-husband, It seemed that this murder case would also go cold. Even when suspected and questioned, Alice and Gerald weren't talking. It took decades and the determination of several investigators to finally get the answers after a skeleton is found

What follows is a long investigation by authorities trying to bring murderers to justice. They also uncovered a lot of background information about Alice and Gerald. When the two cases break open in 2013, it is a relief to the readers that justice is finally served, and it is satisfying, even when served cold.

Franscell writes this true story in a matter-of-fact style that reads like a police procedural crime novel, although the reader will have more inside information than the police did while working these cases. The book is extremely well-researched; Franscell spent two years researching it and interviewing Gerald. Alice & Gerald contains chapter notes and sixteen pages of color photos. This is a fascinating case.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Prometheus Books/Penguin Random House.

http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/04/alice-gerald.html
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
SheTreadsSoftly | Apr 14, 2019 |
3.75 stars

In a town in Wyoming in 1973, 18-year old Becky and her 11-year old sister Amy went to pick up some groceries. By the next morning, Amy was dead in a canyon, thrown of a high bridge, and Becky somehow managed to survive the night with a broken pelvis after having been raped and also thrown off the bridge. The author was the girls’ neighbour. The book not only looks at the crime, but it also looks at Becky and Amy’s lives, the lives of the two convicted murderers/rapists, and the author thinks back on his own life in the small town where it happened.

The first half of the book was the most interesting, where it focused on the crime and aftermath, including the trial. The next part of the book follows Becky’s life, as well as Ronnie’s and Jerry’s, in jail for their crimes. The books slips a little (at least I found it less interesting) as it looks closely at an autobiography written by Ronnie; as the author scrutinizes the autobiography, it becomes more clear why he includes as much of it as he does in the book. But, it is due to this section that I brought my rating down to just under 4 stars.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
LibraryCin | 7 andere besprekingen | Feb 7, 2018 |
As the title states, this book is designed to be a guide to crimes and assorted mishaps that took place in the Los Angeles area. At the start of each entry, we're given the address and GPS coordinates of the location where the crime took place. The author then gives us a brief account of the story and the people involved. If you live in or plan on visiting the Los Angeles area, this is a handy book to use for a self-guided tour of the locations of some notorious crimes. I don't live in or plan on visiting LA, but it was fun to take a Google Earth tour of the locations as I read each entry.

I have to say that it must suck for the new(er) owners of the homes mentioned, having found themselves on a crime buff's tour. The author stresses the issue of private property, so do follow his advice and only look from a distance.

The events discussed span a couple of centuries, from the very old to the fairly recent. The book's layout is not in chronological order, and there is no date with each entry's title and location. Consequently, it often took me a paragraph of so to orient myself in the time of the event. I would have liked an ordered timeline and/or headings clearly stating the dates.

The writing style is conversational, with no formality. At times sentence structure is a little awkward but, in fairness, I read a review copy and wording might have changed before publication.

Whether you're interested in LA's criminal history or you enjoy true crime in general, this book offers some interesting stories. Many are infamous, while others I'd never heard of. Some are gruesome and a few made me laugh. This is definitely a well balanced assortment of stories.

*I received a review copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Darcia | Oct 4, 2017 |

Lijsten

Prijzen

Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk

Gerelateerde auteurs

Statistieken

Werken
20
Leden
456
Populariteit
#53,831
Waardering
3.9
Besprekingen
24
ISBNs
56
Favoriet
1

Tabellen & Grafieken