Murder of Innocence

Murder of Innocence

Do you ever meet someone and think, "He's a little creepy, but whatever."

TRUST YOURSELF, HE'S PROBABLY CREEPY FOR A REASON.

 

Andrew Luster is one of those people. He's living off a trust fund, which pays for his Cali bungalow and extravagant night life. Is he charming or is he just showing off?

 

There's a lot of red flags when meeting people like this.....I mean, why is a 30 something year old man hanging around the college bars, throwing money around, and hitting on girls more than a decade younger than him? It's weird. 

This case has a few parts to it because Andrew Luster sexually assaulted dozens if not hundreds of young women. Some of which literally did not know until they were shown the tapes of him assaulting them while they were unconscious. What makes this even more insane, is he escaped his house arrest and made it to Mexico where he stayed undetected for almost 6 months.

But a little budding bounty hunter, who we now know as Dog, was determined to track Andrew Luster down and hopefully make a name for himself in the reality television world.

A Murderous Affair

This one made me sick.

 

An FBI agent murdering one of his informants....it was unheard of.

Mark Putnam was a rookie FBI agent who took a job in a Kentucky field office. He moved his family out there, determined to make a name for himself. He had a case waiting for him and just the informant to help him crack it wide open. Susan Smith, a young woman in an abusive relationship looking to make a little money by getting her "friends" to confide their illegal escapades to her. Which is just what a bank robber, Cat Eyes, does while he's living with Susan and her family.

Mark takes her tip very seriously and realizes he actually had a shot working with the FBI. He's grateful to Susan and wants her to know how much he appreciates her flipping on the people who trusted her. But Susan takes his appreciation to be affection and thus begins their illicit love affair.

When Mark realizes he's falling for Susan, he knows it's time to go.

His wife is starting to assume he's having an affair and she's absolutely miserable in Kentucky. Sounds like a recipe for disaster and she wants him to transfer immediately. So they pack up the kids and move on down to Florida. But Mark still has a few loose ends to tie up in Kentucky. On a trip back, his ex-partner set up an impromptu meeting between Mark and Susan, during which Susan reveals she's pregnant with his child.

 

Mark couldn't have her getting in the way of his new career, so he did what he had to do.....

 

Over a year later, the Bureau began investing one of their own agents.

That's when Mark led them to what remained of her body.

 

Looking for the rest of the Murder is Forever series?

Murder, Interrupted

Home Sweet Murder

Murder Beyond the Grave

Murder Thy Neighbor

Till Murder Do Us Part

I Killed Zoe Spanos

I bought this book on a whim one day.

I don't know if it was the blue pages that drew me in or maybe it was the girl on the cover. Regardless, this was 100% a cover buy. But oh my god, it was amazing.

Anna Cicconi wants a fresh start.

When the opportunity to nanny for a family in Herron Mills pops up, Anna jumps at the chance. It will help her leave her reckless, partying lifestyle behind. Plus she'd be taking care of an eight year old, so she'll have to start taking on some responsibility.

What Anna didn't know was that 6 months earlier, a girl named Zoe disappeared from this tight knit community. Even weirder, Anna and Zoe share striking similarities. Anna and Paisley's first trip into town brings some wariness among the residents. People constantly doing double takes when they see Anna. She just looks so much like Zoe.....

Weirder still, Anna thinks she might have killed Zoe.

The more time she spends in the area and around the people who knew Zoe best, she begins questioning her entire life. She has detailed memories of how Zoe was killed. She knows the floor plan to Zoe's house. She even knows the exact tiles that line the Spanoses indoor pool. She shouldn't know these things but somehow she does.

Anna tries to convince herself that listening to Missing Zoe, a podcast about her disappearance, and doing google searches on her family has somehow created false memories. There's no way Anna could have killed Zoe, they had never even met.

I love the podcast included in I Killed Zoe Spanos.

It reminded me of Courtney Summer's book, Sadie.

 

The alternating chapters of "then" and "now" definitely added an extra layer of suspense to the overall story. It's honestly one of my favorite reads of 2020.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

 

I'm going to write this while trying not to cry again.

I had a weird reaction reading this book.

It reminds me of something my aunt and I discussed while reading Looking for Alaska. We romanticize the life these women lead. It's dark, it's sad, it's honest. But we can't help wanting to be them.

Breakfast at Tiffany's follows party girl, Holly Golightly.

Better recognized as the iconic Audrey Hepburn.

 

You guys probably remember bits and pieces from this novella and movie. Things like the allure of New York City, the fashion, the glamorous parties....but I think many of us missed the overall theme of the book. Instead of giving an actual review, this is going to be an analysis, I guess you could say.

Let me start by saying, the novella and movie are VASTLY different.

Some lines are taken directly from the text, but overall it lost the darker theme of the book.

Paul Varjack is actually never named in the novella, and he most definitely is not in love with Holly Golightly. They do become fast friends, but I think their friendship was one that fit perfectly with Truman Capote's writing. The queer undertones of their friendship permeate from the pages, while it's completely cut from the movie. 

 

Holly leads a life of luxury. She makes her living as a call girl and an unwitting messenger for mafia leader, Sally Tomato. The man upstairs is a typical struggling writing trying to make ends meet. He's drawn in by Holly's carefree lifestyle. But he sees Holly for who she truly is. 

 

In my opinion, and it is just an opinion, Holly struggles with Bipolar Personality Disorder (BPD). Her "carefree" lifestyle, her manic episodes, her constant need to stay aloof....they all point to BPD. She avoids settling down anywhere, she's living out of suitcases, she's constantly looking for someone to sweep her off her feet and away from all her problems. 

 

I also believe that Holly may have been pansexual and/or asexual.

Now before y'all jump up about me ruining a classic, hear me out.

Throughout the book she mentions that she enjoys spending time with "dykes". She even goes as far as to move a rather masculine woman into her apartment. Which would make sense why her upstairs neighbor is drawn to Holly, because he's modeled after Truman Capote himself, an openly gay man.

They're drawn to each other because they feel they understand the struggles they're both going through. Another interesting aspect is that Holly hardly ever is seen having sex outside of the gentlemen she was escorting for the night. That could point to the idea that she avoids sexual relationships with men/women because she is afraid of getting attached to someone.

To quote Holly, "You can make yourself fall in love with anyone."

 I honestly loved this novella. All 87 pages of it.

The movie is obviously iconic, but there is a reason Capote hated it and I completely understand why he felt this way. I highly recommending reading this fantastic piece of literature.

Looking for other books by Truman Capote?

In Cold Blood

Other Voices, Other Rooms

The Grass Harp

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

Music for Chameleons

Answered Prayers

Looking for other books about Truman Capote?

Tru & Nelle (Tru & Nelle #1)

Tru & Nelle: A Christmas Tale (Tru & Nelle #2)

No Saints in Kansas

After the Fire

YA historical fiction loosely based on the Waco Siege?

Oh yeah, count me in.

 

After the Fire is told in alternating time lines, simply Before and After the fire.

The whole book is told through the eyes of Moonbeam, a seventeen year old survivor. She, and a handful of other child survivors regularly attend therapy to work through everything that went down at The Lord's Legion. They have one on one sessions with their psychiatrists and supervised social interactions with their Brothers and Sisters.

Moonbeam feels partially responsible for all the death her Brothers and Sisters witnessed, all the lives that will forever be altered, all the kids without parents, and it's all her fault. But she plans on keeping that secret close to her heart for a long time. But those secrets will eventually weigh her down. She just needs a little bit of faith and a good bit of trust.

Obviously the therapy takes place during the chapters titled After. Whereas Moon's firsthand account of what happened at the base is told during the Before chapters. Both coincide very nicely with each other. I was a bit skeptical, but the flow of these chapters were almost like following Moon's train of thought.

In Will Hill's Author's Note, he makes the comment that many YA readers have probably never heard of the Waco Siege that left 82 Branch Davidian members dead, as well as 4 law enforcement agents. This attack went on for nearly three months. I highly encourage anyone who does not know about Waco to look into the horrors both parties felt as fire was opened on their own people.

Check this exclusive excerpt of After the Fire!

Looking for other books about The Waco Siege?

Stalling for Time

Waco

Colorblind

This book was absolutely disgusting.

It's not a bad premise, but the execution was terrible.

Let me set the scene.

It's set in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1968.

So yeah, segregation was very much still alive.

The idea is that some black teachers would teach at all white school and some white teachers would teach at all black schools. This process didn't sit well with many of the parents, students, or teachers. However, our main character, Lisa, happens to be the daughter of a lawyer who defends black people in the community. She also has a cleft lip and cleft palate, so she is the most likely person to understand what it's like for her new teacher, Miss Loomis, to be absolutely terrified to begin working at their school. It's a stretch though.

This book literally teaches nothing about racism.

It paints an elder black teacher as a woman who is afraid of her students.

It shows that punk as white boys run this shit show.

It had so many oddly placed racist remarks that are quickly explained away by some vague description that didn't address the root issue.

Honestly, I tried to reason with myself on reading this book.

I really had to push myself to finish it.
I ignored the terrible reviews, the indie publishing house, the countless grammatical errors, and the formatting problems.

I wanted to give this book the benefit of the doubt. But at the end of the day, Leah Harper Bowron choose to make the title of her book Colorblind and then went on to use the same word as a derogatory remark towards the end of the book.

Do not waste your time or money on this.

Murder Thy Neighbor

Murder Thy Neighbor

The latest installment of Murder is Forever, includes this insane story. My mouth was hanging open for 90% of this story. Murder Thy Neighbor tells of the feud between neighbors Ann Hoover and Roy Kirk. Roy has bought eight fixer-upper homes in a very short amount of time. Given the state of disrepair, he bought the houses for rock bottom prices. Being a newly licensed contractor, he's beyond excited to start doing all this work. Ann is grateful that someone has finally bought the derelict home attached to hers. Roy seems to be just the man for the job. Soon he becomes the Home Owners Association's President, and soon after he begins cancelling their meetings as his "work" ceases to a halt.

Ann has tried countless times to give him contacts to help move his work along. She even paid to have the front porch worked on so the front of the houses would match. But Roy's leaky roof becomes a problem when it begin leaking into her home as well. This begins their feud. Roy begins leaving heaping piles of trash and various tools and equipment in the front yard. The trash becomes a rat haven, which results in Ann losing work, as she is an in-home piano instructor.

Ann finally offers, as a last attempt, to buy Roy's home and fix it up herself. She offers to pay exactly what he paid for it, so he won't lost near as much money. She just wants this eyesore removed from the neighborhood. She wants her safe haven back. When this doesn't work, she finally takes Roy to court. Here, he is fined $50,000, stripped of his contractor's license, and ordered to get the work done in a timely fashion. But that isn't what he plans on doing.

He has another idea.

All he needs is sledgehammer, a hacksaw, and a few trashbags.

Murder IRL

Man, this story tripped me out too.

I'll try to keep this review shorter because according to my husband, this is the longest story I've ever told him. So, here it goes!

Jenelle is nearly 30 years old when her family moves from Pennsylvania to Tennessee. She's never really been popular, especially with her intellectual disabilities. Her favorite past-time is scrolling through her Facebook friends' endless posts. Soon, a local drugstore clerk befriends her. Tracy takes Jenelle to meet some of her friends, when Jenelle falls head over heels in love with Tracy's brother Billy. Her Facebook friend list grows, and her confidence does too. She finally has a group of friends to spend time with, she even has a boyfriend, Jamie.

During a BBQ with her new friends, Jenelle notices Billy with another girl. When she spies them holding hands and kissing, she demands to leave the party. As she logs into Facebook that night, she has a mission. Find Billie Jean Hayworth's page and befriend her. Then the cyber-bullying attacks start. Jenelle can't imagine what Billy sees in Billie Jean. A variety of fake accounts begin posting horrible rumors about Billy and Billie Jean, and shouting praise for Jenelle, all in the same post.

Jenelle uses this virtual harassment as a way to manipulate her parents and boyfriend into believing her side of the story. She not only created fake profiles to attack her crush-turned-enemy, but she created a CIA persona to encourage her parents and boyfriend to protect Jenelle at all costs.

Whatever it takes, her daddy is going to protect her.

Looking for the rest of the Murder is Forever series?

Murder, Interrupted

Home Sweet Murder

Murder Beyond the Grave

Murder of Innocence

Till Murder Do Us Part

Kingdom of the Wicked

Oh. My. Goddess.

Kingdom of the Wicked is filled with witches and demon princes.

Oh yeah, all Hell is breaking loose.

Twins, Emilia and Vittoria have had their heads filled with stories of the underworld. Stories like bloodthirsty demons striking bargains with witches and werewolves. Princes of Hell tempting every woman they meet. Grimoire's filled with ancient spells to escape from evil. Their Nonna even has them recharge their protection charms every full moon.

But all those stories go out the window when Vittoria is killed.

Emilia is hellbent on finding the man she saw standing over her sister moments after her death. It's her mission to find him, to find her murderer and make him pay for taking her sister's life. When Emilia gets word that Vittoria isn't the first witch to be killed, but the THIRD, she takes matters into her own hands. This must be the work of the Devil.

In an attempt to find answers for all Vittoria's secrets, Emilia finds herself bound forever with her very own Prince of Hell, Wrath.

Looking for the rest of the series?

Kingdom of the Cursed (KOTW #2)

Kingdom of the Feared (KOTW #3)

Looking for other books by Kerri Maniscalco?

Stalking Jack the Ripper (SJTR #1)

Hunting Prince Dracula (SJTR #2)

Escaping from Houdini (SJTR #3)

Becoming the Dark Prince (SJTR #3.5)

Capturing the Devil (SJTR #4)