The Best American Crime Writing: 2003 Edition : The Year's Best True Crime Reporting

Rating:
Summary: 'Blah' is the word you're looking for
Review: Eh. A bit disjointed, uneven - not every story is good, no story is great. This being my first foray back into crime writing since renouncing the genre after a bad meeting with an account of the Bernardo murders (I believe they were known as the Ken and Barbie killers in the Yoo Ess of Aye), I swore I wouldn't bother again.

But this collection seemed sedate enough, with credits from such magazines as GQ, Harper's and Vanity Fair. The pieces collected are well-written for the most part, but vary from being only mildly interesting to boringly lurid.

I'm looking forward to my next read.

Rating:
Summary: This Collection is Hard to Put Down
Review: Simply stated, the "Best American" series is a national treasure. This is only the second volume of the Crime Writing entry, and it is already up there with Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Sports Writing in terms of quality. All of the Best American books feature great use of the written word, regardless of subject matter. In that sense, this book is a home run.

The book starts out with "Big Shot," the tragic tale of former NBA star Jayson Williams, and of the less famous man he unfortunately killed while showing off a gun in his home. "The Counterterroist" is about a wourld renowned FBI counterterrorism expert who retired to become head of security at the World Trasde Center, only to die in the attacks two weeks later. "The Last Ride of Jesse James Hollywood" is a disturbing spectacle of bored modern youth. "The Enron Wars" provide a great insiders view of that scandal. "How Two Lives Met in Death" is a heartbreaking tale of an Israeli and Palestinian teenager, one of whom killed the other in a senseless suicide bombing. And "The Bully of Toulon" describes how a psychotic resident of a small town instituded an atmosphere of fear among his neighbors until it exploded into violence.

These great tales and much more await those who decide to sit down with the 2003 edoition of Best American Crime Writing.