Rating: 
Summary: A Fact Filled Good Read
Review: If you are interested in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, this would be a good book to read for the facts. It's a good read and it capture's the reader's interest. If you want to be taken step-by-step through the investigation, this is the book for you.
It is a bit difficult to remember all the names. You may find yourself flipping back and saying to yourself, "now who is this guy again?"
One thing that occured to me as I read is that the investigators in the Boulder Police have an ego problem. They seem to not be open to an intruder theory.
I didn't really have a keen interest in this case until May 2001 when Lou Smit came on the Today show and discussed his intruder theory. Lou Smit seems to be very intelligent, thorough, and a true professional in his line of work. After watching him on the Today show, I bought Perfect Murder, Perfect Town. The Boulder PD spent too much time pointing their finger at the Ramsey's from the very beginning (not to mention botching the investigation).
What the police (and most of the public) are forgetting is that Patsy had survived cancer. I'm sure she had a renewed appreciation of life and her children--including negative things like bedwetting. Her flying into a rage over a bedwetting incident (as Steve Thomas thinks)is ridiculous. John Ramsey had already lost a child (he had books on how to cope). If he knew that Patsy did it, he would have turned her in and gotten a divorce in a heartbeat. Anybody who is a fan of Colombo, Murder She Wrote, etc., would be meticulous about wiping down fingerprints, and stage the scene from the beginning to look like it was someone else. Why would a potential kidnapper/murderer (especially one who would want to implicate the Ramsey's) drive to the house with an already drawn up note and rope etc.? What if he got pulled over by a traffic cop and his car searched? I think it was an intruder(but not a stranger, it was someone who knew them) that wanted to implicate the Ramsey's. That's why it looks like the Ramsey's did it, but there is no concrete evidence proving their guilt. If you want facts, this book is worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that it wasn't a good read...
Review: I've followed this sad case since Day 1 and I feel in my heart and soul that Jon-Benet's parents are innocent of this crime and that they have been through a particular kind of hell since their beloved daughter was brutally murdered by an intruder. That being said, I appreciate Lawrence Schiller (a very interesting guy) for leaving that avenue open. Unlike others, he did not jump to conclusions about "who dunnit." On the other hand, I didn't think that his approach (through the eyes of an unscrupulous tabloid journalist) was all that effective. I couldn't identify with the guy, and I've worked as a reporter myself. He describes the city of Boulder very well, and presents a story that to this day is a mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Too much enhancement, disassembled facts
Review: The things I am looking for in the JonBenet case are the facts, so that I can reach my own conclusions. Schiller includes all kinds of relatively irrelevent information that makes getting to the truth a painstaking process. Give me the facts, just the facts.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS IS A LOUSY BOOK !
Review: This is unquestionably the worst true crime book this reviewer has ever read. I can only surmise that the author was paid by the word. Silly, irrelevant quotes from persons who had no reason to be interviewed. To compare this book to "In Cold Blood" is an insult to Truman Capote.
Rating:
Summary: VERY DEEP
Review: This book, to put it bluntly, is too detailed. I have to admire Schiller's research and the time it must have taken him to do such a work, but it is too much for your average reader. I picked this book up looking for a reconstruction of the case and the evidence found. What I got was a tragic murder and every possible sidebar you can imagine. The information was compiled in a very organized manner, but with all the information and people mentioned, I found myself flipping backward very often. Due to this and the fact I began reading other books silmultaneously, I will not finish the book. The information was too extensive to just pick up where your left off. This is for someone who has enough time to read and comprehend every detail.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
Review: There is nothing more inviting and compelling than a well-written true crime account. Schiller is the quintissential "on the beaten path" journalist. Imagine him in a long trench coat trudging through the streets of Boulder uncovering and discovering more pertinent information than any other reporter has to this point unveiled. After having read the equally riveting "American Tragedy" his O.J. Simpson murder trial account, I was jumping to pick up this book. I was not disappointed and would highly recommend this book to anyone who really savors tedious but important details.
Rating:
Summary: perfect murder, pefect town
Review: This is an incridable book. I would have to give it four stars. Even though it is a terrable thing for what happened to JoBennet, how the police worked on her investagation to try and find out who had murdered her. The author did a great job of explaining how everthing went and how it all worked out to be a perfect murder, in a perfect town. I believe that after everything I've heard and read about this book that JoBennet's mother murdered her own daughter. It's sad but that's what I believe to be the truth.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Murder, Perfect Town
Review: This is an incredable book. I would have to give it four stars. Even though it is a terrable thing for what happened to JoBennet, how the police worked on her investigation to try and find out who had murdered her. The author did a great job of explaining how everything went on and how it all worked out to be a perfect murder in a perfect town. I believe that after everthing I've heard and read about this book that JoBennet's mother murdered her own daughter. It's sad but thats what I believe to be the truth.
Rating:
Summary: interesting read
Review: A book has to be pretty well written and interesting for me to read the whole thing. This book was both. While I expected it to cover more of the grand jury proceedings because of the sub-title, it still presented insights into what the investigators had to deal with. This book left one with the impression that this case will never be solved. It leaves the reader with the knowledge that every and any little thing one does can be presented in a negative manner if need be, to prove that one acted suspiciously. If suspected of a crime, every single previous and current mannerism, action, conversation, etc., can be put into a negative context...ex: why didn't you hug eachother?, why did you peek out between your fingers?, why didn't you cry more, use a word in the past tense, wear lipstick, put the same clothes on in the morning that you wore the night before (as I do EVERY day and I am also one who doesn't like to be seen without make-up, etc.). It is really scary that any one of us could be critiqued in this way should we happen to be "under the umbrella" of suspicion in a crime.This book is totally unbiased in my opinion and thus leaves the reader to decide whether the Ramseys killed their daughter...But, it just doesn't provide enough details of John and Patsy to form an opinion. Only other peoples impressions of slight nuances. At the end, I find it hard to believe that John or Patsy could have done to this child what the murderer had done. The police couldn't find even one witness to either John or Patsy scolding or punishing JonBenet. Patsy had survived stage 4 cancer thus she'd be hardpressed to get angry at her daughter for anything when she had once been on the verge of not seeing her again... The only possible way, in my opinion, that either John or Patsy had murdered her was if one had had multiple personality disorder. The book itself is worth the money, is well written, and is worth reading which is more than I can say for a lot of books I've purchased lately. HJK
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious, slack writing with no conclusion, yawn!
Review: Not really an expose of the JonBenet murder as someone below stated, but a boring, historical re-hash of events. The book just churns out the historical details without much thought, and without any interesting analysis. As always with these books, the author obviously thinks that great weight and size is a pre-condition for a good book - wrong! Most of this stuff could be cut out, and still wouldn't be any the wiser. A real time waster. In the end, the following scenarios are my view on the matter: If it really was a kidnapper (as the ransom note would indicate) why was the dead girl trussed up and left in the basement? Why not take the girl, even if dead, with you and still demand money, and why the Tolstoy-esque ransom note? No, it doesn't make any sense to leave the girl and the note, so it was never a gang of kidnappers. What about a perv? Why would he risk capture by writing a lengthy ransom note, and why leave a clear piece of evidence -his handwriting - at the scene? No, if it was a perv he would just run for it surely. Nobody would hang around and write that note, or even leave it in handwriting - it would have been typed or made up of clippings. The note was a prepared in a hurry and thought up on the spot, hence the ramble, and the only logical possibility is that someone from the family, or very close friend committed this crime.
|
