Rating: 
Summary: INTERESTING AND WELL WRITTEN BOOK
Review: Mr. French tells the story of Karen Gregory's murder by using a writing style that is able to pace a true story similar to a work of fiction. He is able to keep the reader interested while providing the necessary details demanded of a true story without losing the attention of the reader. This is very difficult to do with true stories, which is the reason that readers complain about the writing abilities of less talented writers than Mr. French. I would highly recommend this book to anyone because it is an intriguing story with little "smoking gun" evidence and no eye witnesses. The story also has the unusual twist of the killer being a friend of the main investigator of the crime. I can offer an update on the convicted killer of Karen Gregory. Three year ago, he was instrumental in developing a mobile crime lab vehicle that could perform various tests at the crime scene. He was applauded by the police officials that worked on the project for his tireless devotion to perfecting the crime lab and it seemed that he was somewhat content with his station in life.
Rating: 
Summary: What's that sound? Everybody look what's going down.
Review: On a May night in 1984, the residents in a Gulfport, Florida, neighborhood heard the dying screams of Karen Gregory. Most of them did nothing. One of them had already done too much. I just read the “St. Martin’s True Crime Classics” (2001) version of this book. It *is* a classic and the designation of “Classic” and the reprint is well justified. The writing style is quite good, it flows along within the conventions of the genre without getting in the way of the tale. Here’s a sample, which preceeds Part One in the “Classic” edition (Maybe not in the previous ed., as it is not included in the sample pages here on Amazon’s Item Page at the time I write this review): “She lay alone in the hall for a night and a day and another night. Finally someone saw her, and the police arrived and raised a circle of official yellow around the yard, and the neighbors stepped forward with their excuses, then retreated behind the walls of their front doors. The forensic experts came, and the forensic experts left, and at last the case was left in the hands of one who would not let go. During the day he would sit at his desk, examining and reexamining the photos of her on the floor, and ask her to help him see whatever he had missed. At night he would return to the house, wandering inside, hoping the empty rooms might reveal whatever they remembered. The weeks stretched into months. He eliminated one suspect after the other and ran down one blind alley after the other, and still he was no closer to understanding, until that day he stumbled across a single moment of stupid good luck. Then came the lie detector tests at the station, and the reenactments in the dark, and the anonymous phone calls that could not be traced, and the rounds of weary accusations and denials.
After all of that, he arrested a man and put him on trial for this life.
An investigator asked on of the neighbors:
“Does he look like a murdered to you?”
The neighbor said:
“What does a murdered look like?” The book includes photographs to answer that question. I feel cheated though, especially in these more enlightened days of “victims’ rights” and the shifting of all the focus away from the perpetrator, that there is not one picture of Karen.
Rating:
Summary: NICELY UNDERSTATED
Review: One of the nicest things about this book is its understatement: it's very level-headed & unexcitable ... one of those books that grows on you after you're done with it. French chose a crime that, on the face of it, might not leap out as fodder for a newspaper series, let alone the book it later became. It was grisly & no doubt devastating for everyone whose lives it directly touched (what murder isn't?) but it hardly seems sensational ... & that's French's achievement in "Unanswered Cries." He makes you care about the victim, the crime, the do-nothing neighbors &--yes--even about the murderer. French does a particularly good job of illuminating the victim & her friends & family without overdoing it. Murderers' actions have consequences far beyond the death of their victim ... & French documents that very well.
Rating:
Summary: Personally memorable and a revealing study of justice
Review: The young man, his manner so well described by French, asked me if his girlfriend, Karen Gregory, who he introduced to me, could sit in on my class so that she would know more about him and his major, criminal justice. I still have a vivid visual memory of them and where they sat-- "in the back" so they would not be intrusive, he said. Much later, her brutal rape and murder shocked me when I read about it in the first series in the St. Petersburg Times. It took place near where I had lived, too. And then, later, French did a 7 part series, which this book is based on, that captured not only the crime, but the slow and improbable way the case wound through the criminal justice system, so filled with human error and with human caring. Her artist friend's portrait of her in the first installment of that series was extraordinary. There are pictures in the book, but not of her. Since its publication, whenever I have taught the introductory criminal justice course at the University of South Florida and elsewhere, I have required my students to read the book and to write a critique of the system based on it. What do they think should have been done differently? What was done right? The students get caught up in the book, much as have the other reviewers on this page. And I recommend this book, as I know they would. But it is special to me, it haunts me as does my memory of Karen and her boyfriend, a decent guy who now has a Ph.D. in social work. French has now won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of another St. Petersburg murder tragedy; and his latest book might help you understand something of how the school boy murders at Colombine happened, though it is not about them. But read Unanswered Cries, it is real and it is revealing.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!! Remarkably written
Review: This book grabs you from the beginning and won't let go! The story is one of horrific nature and of the great sorrow that Karen Gregory's family and friends suffered. George Lewis proves that he is a deceitful liar. He changed his story each and every time he learns that the police have evidence to prove him wrong. This proves to be his biggest downfall.
Rating:
Summary: Should be a movie.
Review: This is a great book about real life detective work. I think it should be made into a movie. It is about a crime and an unexpected criminal that was so close the detective could have reached out to touch him. In the aftermath, the structure of a small town is left scared and in disbelief. The author, Tom French, later won a Pulitzer for his reporting of another famous Florida murder case.
Rating:
Summary: You won't be able to put it down
Review: This is the kind of book that will stay with you for a long time. The chilling account of neighbors blocks away, who heard her screams will send chills up and down your spine. It will also teach you to be wary of everyone! You will look at people (even your neighbors) with a different eye. I am not saying you will become a paranoid zombie but you will look at things differently. A well written book that will scare and enlighten you at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: You won't be able to put it down
Review: This is the kind of book that will stay with you for a long time. The chilling account of neighbors blocks away, who heard her screams will send chills up and down your spine. It will also teach you to be wary of everyone! You will look at people (even your neighbors) with a different eye. I am not saying you will become a paranoid zombie but you will look at things differently. A well written book that will scare and enlighten you at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Unanswered Cries, Unanswered Motive But a Good Read
Review: This was a interesting book written by Thomas French. Karen Gregory was finally moving in with her boyfriend. Although, he was out of town she still chose to move in alone. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Her killer for reasons unexplained (but how well can murder be explained anyway?) watched her as she moved in. He knew she was alone, and made his move. Her blood curtling scream filled the air, yet no one called police. In a neighborhood that boasted community watch, Karen was ignored. A sad tale, that challenged my very sense of safety. I also was left asking myself how well do I really know my circle of friends? French did a good job with this book. I found his descriptions and depictions to be startlingly detailed, and not emotionally driven or one sided. Not like some true crime books that take a side, and present it only. Need a good book to curl up with in the dark, alone? This is it.
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