theremightbecupcakes's Reviews (2.86k)

Couldn’t continue after the author, whose work I normally love, stopped discussing the case to claim colleagueship with Ann Rule and Jack Olsen. Then he unfavorably compared them for no reason, claiming all of Ann Rule’s victims were attractive and lit up a room, while Olsen’s writing was “nuanced”. Not only was this jab out of nowhere—he stops the case narrative to deliver it—but it’s not true. I’ve read most of Rule’s work, and found it to be most measured and fair, while Jack Olsen’s was uneven and repetitive sometimes; I have DNF’d one of his, but never, ever one of Rule’s engrossing books.

Even if I agreed with the author, this is highly inappropriate, throwing in his opinion about his area’s famous true crime authors mid-stream. He mentioned his first book, related to this one (again), lets the reader know both authors blurbed it for him, and then writes the above opinion for two pages, finishing with the unprofessional coup de grace:

“Not surprisingly, rivals Jack and Ann hated each other.”

And then swings right back into writing about Ida Stutzman’s murder. How disrespectful to the memories of all three people. Four, if you count the subject of the first book, Ida’s son, Danny.