UBC: Rule, A Fever in the Heart

A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases by Ann Rule

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

• "A Fever in the Heart": Yakima WA 1975: the murder of Morris Blankenbaker & the highly ambiguous death of Talmadge Glynn "Gabby" Moore
  
• "The Highway Accident": Salem OR 1976: man tries to make his wife's death look like a car accident, not knowing the police have already found the murder scene
  
• "Murder Without a Body": Rainier OR 1976: Vicki Brown's body was never found, but the cops found a sufficient corpus delicti to prosecute and convict her murderer.
  
• "I'll Love You Forever": Auburn WA 1974: woman falls prey to sociopath; her daughters brought a successful civil suit against him before the cops could put together a criminal case--but after he managed to squander most of the wealthy victim's estate. He died in prison and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
  
• "Black Leather": Roy WA 1979: a sadistic sexual psychopath's last victim manages to turn the tables on him
  
• "Mirror Images": the horrific lives of Carl Harp (rapist and sniper) and James Ruzicka (rapist/murderer), who met in prison, became friends--insofar as either of them was capable of it--and shared a pseudonym, "Troy Asin." Harp died in prison (most likely suicide, but there's an outside chance he had help) and Ruzicka is serving consecutive life terms.

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UBC: Fletcher, Every Contact Leaves a Trace

Every Contact Leaves a Trace by Connie Fletcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really liked this book, but I don't have much to say about it. It's an oral history of forensics, and I especially loved the feel it gives you for the voices of the people who do this work and the language they use (which varies widely, as one would expect) in talking about what they do.



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