corrigan's Reviews (451)

The problem with this book is the author himself. Throughout the story, it became clear that ultimately he thinks that the justice system works super well and there's just a few cases where things go wrong. And while, as he puts it, that he started to have doubts about Smith does show that he was interested in having an open mind and finding the facts, I think it very much came across as "well, who could really blame them for thinking it was him? It wasn't racism, he just fit the profile." The interview at the end of the audiobook really drives this home, where he refers to Smith as "the black guy," uses the term "reverse racism," and talks about how beautiful the legal system is and how a very small portion of people might be innocent who go to jail for crimes, which he says kind of dismissively. Like, oh well, that's gonna happen, but what can ya do? Really rubbed me the wrong way and felt like in writing this book he went from actually understanding systemic racism as it had been taught to him by his family, and came out the other side thinking its actually not that big a problem. 

On the one hand, the smog stuff is FASCINATING, and the overlap with government response to covid is striking. That's not explicitly in the book, obviously, since this was published 3 years before the pandemic, but I kept finding myself going, jfc, this is just ALWAYS how things are handled, isn't it? 

On the other hand, there is really no reason for the serial killer narrative in here except that I'm guessing the publisher was like, listen, people only read history if it looks like an Erik Larson book. 

This book needed a far better editor and more eyes on it before being published.