Burns

multiple great stories in one book

Revisado: 01-25-24

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. Casey Cep. Knopf, 2019. 336 pages.

In 1977, the Reverend Willie Maxwell was attending his step-daughter's funeral in rural Tallapoosa County Alabama when the girl's uncle pulled a gun out and shot him dead. Reverend Maxwell had become a well known figure in eastern Alabama over the previous decade. He first built a reputation as a handsome, well-dressed man who was often called upon to preach in country churches and at revivals throughout that part of his state. Then, his wife was found murdered in her car on a dark road. Over the next decade, other relatives of the minister died under mysterious circumstances, and, lo and behold, each one had a small life insurance policy in his/her name, with the beneficiary named, you guessed it, the Reverend Willie Maxwell. Alabama investigators were sure that Maxwell was responsible, but they were unable to prove it. Insurance companies fought claims, but they couldn't prove anything either. Meanwhile, Maxwell's neighbors all knew what happened. According to the rumor mill, Maxwell was not only a serial killer committing insurance fraud, but he was also a practitioner and priest of Hoodoo, the peculiar Alabama brand of spiritualism that blended Christianity, with African, Caribbean, and southern beliefs, rituals, and magic.

Author Harper Lee grew interested in the story as it played out in court, and she decided that it would make a great subject for a book. Unfortunately, that book was never published. Casey Cep's book tells the story, but they're actually multiple stories in one, and each story is great. There's the story of Maxwell and the murders, and his own murder. Then, there's the story of Tom Radney, the progressive liberal white Alabama attorney and politician, who defended Maxwell throughout his legal troubles due to the deaths and the insurance claims and THEN defended the man who killed Maxwell. Finally, there's the life of Harper Lee, her personal and professional struggles, and her incredibly complex and interesting relationship with Truman Capote, the childhood friend whose most famous work, In Cold Blood, would probably not have been as successful - or even published, without her involvement. All the stories make Furious Hours a great read.

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great stories

Revisado: 12-22-23

The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder. Douglas Preston. Grand Central Publishing, 2023. 320 pages.

I have read most of Douglas Preston's collaborative novels written with Lincoln Child and a couple of his nonfiction works, particularly The Monster of Florence and The Lost City of the Monkey God, and I have enjoyed them. Preston is more than a novelist though; he is a journalist, often published in National Geographic, The New Yorker, Natural History, Smithsonian, and others. His deep interest in archaeology and history is evident in everything he writes. The Lost Tomb is a collection of 13 of his past articles, from 1989 forward. These are stories that have special meaning for Preston; they have inspired and shaped his novels over the years.

The stories are about mysteries that are familiar to many like Dyatlov Pass where a group of Soviet mountain climbers were mysteriously killed, the discovery of ancient Egypt's largest tomb complex in the Valley of the Kings, and the mysterious money pit of Oak Island. Several of the stories deal with ongoing archaeological debates about the peopling of the Americas. Exactly who were the First Americans and how and when did they arrive? Who were the Clovis and Folsom peoples and where did they come from? He also investigates major paleontological discoveries like Hell Creek Montana and the site of the asteroid crash that ended the Cretaceous Period and the Age of the Dinosaurs. There are even stories about two of the biggest crime events in recent Italian history, the "Monster of Florence" serial killer case in which Preston found himself inadvertently deeply involved and the murder for which American student Amanda Knox was prosecuted. Those stories leave the reader with serious doubts and questions about the Italian legal system.

Each and every story is fascinating, and each one is updated at the end. For Preston and Child fans, it's extra fun to get a glimpse of the "origin stories" of several of their novels. One can see direct lines from germination to fictionalization.

#histocratsbookshelf #histocratsread #histocratsbotd #douglaspreston #thelosttomb #archaeology

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nothing new

Revisado: 11-29-23

Written well, but there's nothing new here if you've read anything about the events in the past. The author fails to deliver any meaningful connections, the whole point of the book.

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Great story!

Revisado: 10-02-23

The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel:  Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I.  Douglas Brunt.  Atria Books, 2023. 384 pages.


Like the author, Douglas Brunt, I initially knew next to nothing about Rudolf Diesel, what a diesel engine actually is, or how the invention of the engine was really one of the greatest technological advances in human development.  I also had no idea that Diesel's body was fished out of the North Sea in 1913.  He was on a steamship headed from Belgium to the UK when he mysteriously disappeared.  Was it an accident, suicide, or murder?  


Diesel's engine was absolutely revolutionary. It was powerful and efficient. It cut down on noxious fumes and smoke created by burning coal and traditional petroleum products. It could power factories and vehicles. It allowed for immediate starts.  It could be fueled by nut or vegetable oils. It transformed military and commercial navies, provided more power and speed, saved space once taken up by tons of coal, eliminated the need for many refueling stops and for the dozens of crewmen who were normally required to shovel coal, and making submarines more feasible.  All of these factors made Rudolf Diesel the leading engineering superstar of the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Did his engine also make him the target of a murder plot?


The chief suspects were very powerful men.  John D. Rockefeller saw the diesel engine as an existential threat to his business and to his fortune.  Kaiser Wilhelm II was determined to make Germany a world superpower, taking over the UK's supremacy.  Although his ancestral home and home for much of his life was Germany, Diesel preferred to think of himself as a "citizen of the world" rather than a German.  He worked to make his technology accessible in every country.  He was on his way to the UK to offer support to that country's growing submarine development program.  Did Rockefeller of Wilhelm decide to eliminate the engineer ?


Douglas Brunt's book is an excellent biography of Diesel, and it tells the story of the engine's development, both the science and the business, without bogging down into too much technical detail.  He explains the significance of the engine and expertly puts it into the context of the age, the eve of WWI, with great insights into the lives and personalities of Rockefeller and Wilhelm, with sketches of Edison, Ford, Marconi and others along the way.  Finally, he puts forward his own theory as to what happened.  I highly recommend this book.

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Thought it would be funny

Revisado: 06-13-23

I've always been a fan of Wright's stand-up. I thought it would be funny. It's not.

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Great Story Well Told

Revisado: 04-23-23

I knew the basics of the story but learned so much more. Woo also provides great info on the abolitionist movement, its divisions, and its struggles. She presents a wide range of characters, each of which has a phenomenal story to tell.

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A+

Revisado: 03-30-23

Great compare and contrast essay. succeeds at making a comparison of two seemingly disparate geniuses and their places in popular culture during their lifetimes and now.

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mostly held his political prejudice incheck

Revisado: 03-28-23

I like the author's previous books. This book is hard to read, full of horrible things done by people to people. These are events that nobody learns about in history class but should be. It was on track to be one of my best reads of the year, until the author's obvious political bias emerges in the epilogue. I caught hints here and there before, but it was blatant there.

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Interesting story but,

Revisado: 03-26-23

The author and the narrator both think they are singlehandedly bringing back Detective noir. The plot, though predictable, is interesting. WORST NARRATION EVER. Awful. The guy thinks he's doing 40s radio. Horrible. also, there was an annoying glitch in the revirding/playback that dragged out random syllables for no reason.

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Gave up after 5 chapters

Revisado: 09-15-22

Reading that it's supposed to be humorous. and a brilliant allegory. sounds like it was written by the writer of Smokey and the Bandit's Sheriff Buford T. Justice's dialogue. or may by a couple if middle school boys.

And, as a previous reviewer pointed out, "y'all" is a plural pronoun, never used in the singular.

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