Crim 279

Rating:
Summary: Helter-Skelter Revisited
Review: A spooky narrative with wonderful views of California highways! The author has found a terrific venue for his tale (is truth stranger than fiction)?

Rating:
Summary: Superb reading!
Review: Definitely worth your time... I rarely get a chance to read casually, so it was a good book for some downtime. The author has an interesting perspective to share. I recommend highly!

Rating:
Summary: Superb reading!
Review: Definitely worth your time... I rarely get a chance to read casually, so it was a good book for some downtime. The author has an interesting perspective to share. I recommend highly!

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Enjoyed this book immensely... Great read!

Rating:
Summary: The Breakfast Club Gone Bad
Review: Remember the movie "The Breakfast Club", where a small group of high school kids spent a Saturday in detention talking about their problems and anxieties, and making mischief behind the principal's back? Imagine a similar group, grown up several years but still emotionally immature, taking a graduate level Criminology class at the University of California, under the sinister guidance of a downtrodden professor. Instead of talking about their peer groups, these youths have lengthy philosophical discussions about justice, death, and personal conscience. Instead of making mischief, they conspire to commit the "perfect" murder. Of course, in this sense, "perfection" is different for each of the characters involved, and they have varying degrees of satisfaction in the events that unfold.

The novel (or is it a novel?) is heavily character-driven, and each character seemingly has enough emotional baggage to keep the University's psych department busy for years. The writing style is hard-boiled, even graphic at times. The author's narrative voice, which opens and closes the book, is especially jaded, evoking thoughts of Holden Caufield a few years removed from prep school, enrolled at Berkeley and still uninspired by the larger world around him.

Overall this book is a fairly quick read, with memorable characters and plot, with a nice nostalgic flavor of Northern California several decades removed.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: This is a great story. I could not put the book down after I started. It's an imaginative murder mystery and I think its a wonderful commentary on our higher educational system as well. It certainly gives an insight into CAL Berkeley from a completely different perspective. I think it's a black comedy of sorts because it had a lot of very very funny aspects. Also a lot of very intelligent discussions of murder, crime, punishment, justice, etc. I would really recommend this book to anyone who went to Berkeley or any University for that matter. It's 5 star on ALL levels!!