Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 22, 2022 16:00:51 GMT -8
A curative for the truly awful detective novel, "Death in the East," is the non-fiction The Case of the Vanishing Blonde, a compendium of six true-crime stories.
This book is proof that real life – real plots – can be bizarre, interesting, and quite creative. There is no reason to write stupid, dull plots when real life offers so many ideas.
I've read four of the six case studies so far. Each is written in an intriguing style. I'll give a brief summary of the four I've read without giving away anything. First off, you should know that this book is not politically correct.
The Incident at Alpha Tau Omega: This is about a group of fraternity guys in Pennsylvania accused of raping a woman at one of their drunken parties. This seems an even-handed account. Suffice it to say, the guys share some blame. There are no knights in shining armor here. Sadly, this was the case of a woman who was likely to some degree cooperating in the orgy and then had second thoughts (or was talked into those second thoughts by angry feminists) and decided she had been raped. Fine. Could be. But, sadly, this after-the-fact introspection of "what went wrong" never included feminism. It never included the idea that it had become "sexist" to caution a woman that getting high on LSD and then going to a drunken fraternity party (and very likely offering yourself up for sex to a least a couple of the men) could lead to bad consequences. If we are to backtrack, reconsider, redefine, and assign blame, much blame should be assigned to feminism and the terrible advice it imparts to women. Hard to find any heroes in this story but it's interesting nonetheless.
Why don't u tell me wht ur into: I've never been a fan of entrapment outside of national security concerns. I have no problem with the FBI entrapping terrorists by danging false scenarios or information. But when it comes to prosecuting people for crimes that never existed, I come down against that. This is a case of a guy being begged and cajoled, over weeks and months by a cop via the internet, to try to get him into sex with children. The guy had no desire. He wanted to have sex with an adult. But the undercover online cop refused to agree to anything like that unless her fictional 9 and 11 year old daughters were involved. He refused and dodged getting into anything like this. But to string the woman along, he made promises that he would do his daughters. But first wanted her. At the end of the day, although the guy is a dirtbag (and in this day of social media, not much different from most people), it seems clear (as told) that he had zero interest in children. Your Federal government at work entrapping people. Good story here even if the subject matter is unsettling.
The Case of the Vanishing Blonde: A good Agatha-Christie-like who-done-it. A girl, barely alive, is found by the side of the road by a utility worker. The police investigate but quickly hit a dead end. Then the motel (where the disappearing woman was staying at the time) hires a private detective. The concern of the motel is to avoid a lawsuit by showing that the woman was actually a hooker or something like that. But the detective on the case tells them he will not shade the truth to fit whatever narrative they wish. He will simply find the facts. And as he goes about it, you get a glimpse of some old-fashioned, real-life detective work. And although the cops probably don’t have the resources to delve into a case as deeply as a private dick, one comes away with the impression that this is usually just an excuse for being lazy and a cover for not being particularly intelligent. This is a very interesting case.
...A Million Years Ago: This case will also not bolster your view of the cops. I won't say much more because this is a real page-turner of a case.
I'll read the final two cases and see how that goes.
This book is proof that real life – real plots – can be bizarre, interesting, and quite creative. There is no reason to write stupid, dull plots when real life offers so many ideas.
I've read four of the six case studies so far. Each is written in an intriguing style. I'll give a brief summary of the four I've read without giving away anything. First off, you should know that this book is not politically correct.
The Incident at Alpha Tau Omega: This is about a group of fraternity guys in Pennsylvania accused of raping a woman at one of their drunken parties. This seems an even-handed account. Suffice it to say, the guys share some blame. There are no knights in shining armor here. Sadly, this was the case of a woman who was likely to some degree cooperating in the orgy and then had second thoughts (or was talked into those second thoughts by angry feminists) and decided she had been raped. Fine. Could be. But, sadly, this after-the-fact introspection of "what went wrong" never included feminism. It never included the idea that it had become "sexist" to caution a woman that getting high on LSD and then going to a drunken fraternity party (and very likely offering yourself up for sex to a least a couple of the men) could lead to bad consequences. If we are to backtrack, reconsider, redefine, and assign blame, much blame should be assigned to feminism and the terrible advice it imparts to women. Hard to find any heroes in this story but it's interesting nonetheless.
Why don't u tell me wht ur into: I've never been a fan of entrapment outside of national security concerns. I have no problem with the FBI entrapping terrorists by danging false scenarios or information. But when it comes to prosecuting people for crimes that never existed, I come down against that. This is a case of a guy being begged and cajoled, over weeks and months by a cop via the internet, to try to get him into sex with children. The guy had no desire. He wanted to have sex with an adult. But the undercover online cop refused to agree to anything like that unless her fictional 9 and 11 year old daughters were involved. He refused and dodged getting into anything like this. But to string the woman along, he made promises that he would do his daughters. But first wanted her. At the end of the day, although the guy is a dirtbag (and in this day of social media, not much different from most people), it seems clear (as told) that he had zero interest in children. Your Federal government at work entrapping people. Good story here even if the subject matter is unsettling.
The Case of the Vanishing Blonde: A good Agatha-Christie-like who-done-it. A girl, barely alive, is found by the side of the road by a utility worker. The police investigate but quickly hit a dead end. Then the motel (where the disappearing woman was staying at the time) hires a private detective. The concern of the motel is to avoid a lawsuit by showing that the woman was actually a hooker or something like that. But the detective on the case tells them he will not shade the truth to fit whatever narrative they wish. He will simply find the facts. And as he goes about it, you get a glimpse of some old-fashioned, real-life detective work. And although the cops probably don’t have the resources to delve into a case as deeply as a private dick, one comes away with the impression that this is usually just an excuse for being lazy and a cover for not being particularly intelligent. This is a very interesting case.
...A Million Years Ago: This case will also not bolster your view of the cops. I won't say much more because this is a real page-turner of a case.
I'll read the final two cases and see how that goes.
