Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry

In literature, a murder scene is often likened to a picture puzzle.  If one is patient and keeps trying, eventually all the pieces will fit into place.  Veteran policemen know otherwise.  A much better analogy would be two picture puzzles, or three, or more, no one of which is in itself complete.  Even after a solution emerges - if one does - there will be leftover pieces, evidence that just doesn't fit.  And some pieces will always be missing. - Vincent Bugliosi.

To read a true crime story, I believe one has to approach it with a clean slate, in other words, you must have no prior knowledge of it, period.  I am doing just that.  I want to approach it like a novice.  I want to see for myself how the events unfolded.  I want to form my own opinions and my own observations.  I want to ask my own questions.  Nevertheless, my intuition tells me that the story of the Charles Manson murders is not an easy one to decipher let alone comprehend.  It is dubbed "the most infamous and chilling mass murder case in the annals of American crime".  A cold-blooded case that is infused with cultism and satanistic rituals.  This is the first I have heard or read about it.  It is not pretty.  One can only wonder at the barbaric nature of a select few human beings and wonder why.

On 9 August 1969, seven people were found shot, stabbed and bludgeoned to death in Los Angeles.

On 18 November 1969, Deputy district attorney Vincent Bugliosi is assigned the (Sharon) Tate case and the related homicides of supermarket owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary.  For months, Bugliosi collects and sifts through the grisly evidence, listens to the chilling testimony of murderers and accomplices.  Slowly, he puts the puzzle pieces together - and emerges with a complete and horrifying picture of the man who ordered the killings, the girls and young men who carried them out, the motive for the seemingly incomprehensible crimes.

Helter Skelter (1974) became a bestseller and subsequently won a 1975 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.  It also became the basis for two television films released in 1976 and 2004 by CBS.  Helter Skelter was originally the title of a song by The Beatles which the killer (Manson) interpreted as a term associated with war and prophesied for an apocalyptic race war between the blacks and the whites.

If you are interested in true crime, trials and convictions, I would recommend any Vincent Bugliosi book.  His writing is detailed, precise, comprehensive, justified and analytical.  You cannot ask better than that of a book.

About the authors:

Vincent Bugliosi, American attorney and author, is a two-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the best true crime book of the year category for his No 1 New York Times bestsellers, Helter Skelter (1974) and Till Death Do Us Part (1978).  In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials and his most famous trial was the Charles Manson case, which became the basis of his bestselling book Helter Skelter (1974).  He lives with his wife in Los Angeles.

Curt Gentry, co-author, was born in 1931 and is an American writer.

Read, Read, Read Your Book

When I Grow Old...

No Going Back by Matt Hilton

I had been apprehensive about how Hilton would deliver in book seven of the Joe Hunter series after six exhilarating novels - one of which was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers' Debut Thriller of 2009 Award - but when I read the book jacket of No Going Back (2012), I had no qualms it wouldn't be a disappointment.  I have always loved missing persons stories and this one is set in the Arizona desert.

It reads like a typical Western cowboy movie with practically the whole book dealing with rescuing the abductees and avenging the baddies, particularly one who is abnormally hard to put down.  At times, it feels long drawn out especially towards the end of the book but as is typical with Hilton, there is never a moment where the action is let-up.

This story also touches on a rare condition known as congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) where there is an inability to feel physical pain for those who have this disorder.  I have yet to miss a Joe Hunter book and highly recommend the Joe Hunter series for non-stop vigilante action for that is who Joe Hunter is, a vigilante.  Could book eight (Rules of Honour) be in the works next year?  Watch this space.

From the hardback:  Two young women on a road trip to California.  But nothing has been heard from Jay and Nicole for three days - their last contact a phone call to Jay's father from New Mexico.

The cops aren't worried:  three days is hardly an eternity.  But Jameson Walker is not taking any chances and hires Joe Hunter to find his little girl.

The Arizona desert is badlands country and the friends have fallen foul of a sadistic bunch of men who are as brutal as their surroundings.

But Joe is on their trail and he'll do anything to free the women.  Even if it means dying, there'll be no going back.

Do visit www.matthiltonbooks.com for more information and for his stand-alones.

A Review of No Going Back.

Rating:  4/5

Braggers' Rights

The Sins Of The Father by Jeffrey Archer (Videos)

The long awaited book is finally out.  The Sins of the Father (15 March 2012) is the second book in the Clifton Chronicles series.

From the hardcover blurb:  New York, 1939.  Tom Bradshaw is arrested for first degree murder.  He stands accused o killing his brother.  When Sefton Jelks, a top Manhattan lawyer, offers his services for nothing, penniless Tom has little choice but to accept his assurance of a lighter sentence.  After Tom is tried, found guilty and sentenced, Jelks disappears, and the only way for him to prove his innocence would be to reveal his true identity - something that he has sworn never to do in order to protect the woman he loves.

Meanwhile, the young woman in question travels to New York, leaving their son behind in England, having decided she'll do whatever it takes to find the man she was to marry - unwilling to believe that he died at sea.  The only proof she has is a letter.  A letter that has remained unopened on a mantelpiece in Bristol for over a year.

Jeffrey Archer tells us what it is about in these five-part videos:











Jeffrey Archer, whose novels and short stories include Kane and Abel, A Prisoner of Birth and Cat O'Nine Tales, has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 270 million copies.

He is the only author to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (fifteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries).

The author is married with two sons and lives in London and Cambridge.  For more information, visit jeffreyarcher.com

Rating:  5/5

Next Of Kin by David Hosp

Next of Kin is an excellent read and a vast improvement from the first one, Dark Harbour (2005), which I must say I struggled through but at the same time, felt that there was something about the author's idea of the book which I needed to tap into further.  I am not disappointed.  Hosp can write and he can write a convincing story.  Apart from being an excellently plotted legal thriller, Next of Kin also "explores the issue of negative biological connections and the ways in which fundamental family bonds and instincts are hugely influential to how we live our lives, even those bonds to parents who disowned and neglected their children in ways that ruined their children's lives" - (Richard and Judy).  I highly recommend this series.


Paperback blurb:  When Boston attorney Scott Finn agrees to defend the son of notorious mobster Eamonn McDougal, he knows he's putting his reputation on the line.  But he also knows he can use him as bait to reel in the prize catch.

In a city where mob crime once ruled, a core of corruption, greed, lies and deceit still lingers.  And it seems there are those in power who will stop at nothing to achieve what they want.

Finn, who grew up an orphan on the meanest streets in the city, is determined to solve the murder of the mother he never knew.  In his search for the truth he uncovers a sinister trail of murder, betrayal and revenge left by someone who could neither forgive nor forget.

But who can be trusted, and who can be believed?

And can Finn find the answers before it's too late?

About the author:  David Hosp is a trial lawyer who has spent a portion of his time working pro bono on behalf of wrongly convicted individuals.  He finds time to write his novels on his daily commute by boat across Boston Harbour.  He lives with his wife and family outside the city.

Next of Kin is the fourth book in the Scott Finn series published in 2011.

Richard and Judy talks to David Hosp:



Rating:  4/5

Call Me!

Refuge from the Miseries of Life

Phantom by Jo Nesbo (Video)

A revealing video by Jo Nesbo:



September 2011 - Harry Hole is back in Oslo from Hong Kong.  He's been away for some time but his ghosts have a way of catching up with him.  The case that brings him back is already closed because there is no room for doubt:  the young junkie was shot dead by a fellow addict and the murder has been solved.  Denied permission to reopen the investigation, Harry strikes out on his own.  Beneath Oslo's eerie tranquility, he discovers a trail of violence and mysterious disappearances seemingly unnoticed by the police but at every turn Harry is faced with a conspiracy of silence.  Harry is not the only one who is interested in the case.  From the moment he steps off the plane, someone is watching his every move and tracing his every call.  The police don't want him back.  The criminals don't want him back.  Someone definitely wants him silenced.  (from the hardback)


Phantom (2012) is the ninth book in the Harry Hole series and the seventh translated from the Norwegian into the English.

About Jo Nesbo:  He is a musician, songwriter, economist and prize-winning author.  His first crime novel featuring Harry Hole was published in Norway in 1997 and was an instant hit and since then, his bestselling Harry Hole series has been a huge success in the UK and across the world.  Visit www.jonesbo.co.uk for more information.

About Don Bartlett:  He lives in Norfolk and works as a freelance translator of Scandinavian literature. He has translated, or co-translated, Norwegian novels by Lars Saabye Christensen, Roy Jacobsen, Ingvar Ambjornsen, Kjell Ola Dahl, Gunnar Staalesen and Pernille Rygg.

Rating:  7/5

Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World's Most Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker

A window into what I am currently reading:



What is the book about? (from the hardback)

Antarctica is at first sight the most alien place on Earth, the only part of our planet where humans have never been able to live.  And yet in its silence, its agelessness and the sublime beauty of its landscapes lie the secrets of our past, and of our future.

In Antarctica (1 March 2012) Gabrielle Walker weaves an amazing story of many threads into an intricate tapestry made up of natural history, poetry, science, exploration and epic adventure.

She describes what it feels like to be there in sub-zero temperatures, contemplating the achievements of Amundsen and Scott, Mawson and Shackleton, staring in wonder at the Southern Lights or zipping across the snow on a skidoo - she made five trips between 1999 and 2008 - and why it draws so many different kinds of people back there, again and again.

Delighting equally in the science, the wildlife, the people who run the bases, and above all the sheer wonder of the place, she paints a revealing portrait of the most mysterious of Earth's continents:  the valley of meteorites;  the South Pole astronomers staring through a unique window in space to the origins of the Universe;  waterfalls that run uphill;  and ice cores that hold our planet's climate history in tiny bubbles of ancient air.

There have been many books about Antarctica in the last hundred years, but where most have previously focused on one aspect of the continent, none until now has managed to capture the whole extraordinary story.

The book is divided into three parts:  Part 1 - East Antarctica Coast, Part 2 - The High Plateau and Part 3 - West Antarctica.  Suggestions for further reading at the back of the hardback contains a good medley of books on Antarctica which would suit every appetite.  I would recommend this book for all first-time readers on this most enigmatic continent of Antarctica.

A review by The Telegraph (15 March 2012)

Who is the author?

Gabrielle Walker has a PhD in natural sciences from Cambridge University and has taught at both Cambridge and Princeton universities.  She is Chief Scientist of strategic advisory firm Xynteo, a consultant to New Scientist, contributes frequently to BBC radio and writes for many newspapers and magazines.  In 2009 and 2011 respectively she presented the Planet Earth Under Threat series and Thin Air for BBC Radio 4, and in 2011 she presented The Secret Life of Ice for BBC4.  She lives in London.  Other books under her belt are Snowball Earth (2003), An Ocean of Air (2007), The Hot Topic (with Sir David King) (2008).

And The Sea Will Tell (True Crime) by Vincent Bugliosi with Bruce B Henderson

Have you ever heard or read of this grisly true story of murder on an atoll located in the Pacific Ocean of all places?  If so, you are ahead of me.  If not, neither have I, until today.  On my part, it is hardly surprising as the murder occurred way back in 1974 when I was only a wee bairn.

I picked up this book for three reasons:  first, I have heard that Bugliosi is a Master at putting pen to paper and also an eloquent orator to boot.  Second, I want to read Bugliosi's meticulous and detailed account and arguments on the events surrounding the murder.  Thirdly, I am curious as to what happened on that "ghost-type island" nearly forty years ago.

When I come to the end of the page, I cannot shake the thought that the prosecutors and defense could only rely on the testimonies of the only two people concerned (Buck Walker and Jennifer Jenkins) in the murder case to prove the facts that what they were alleging were true.  Apart from various witnesses who could merely vouch for them, no one, apart from Mr Walker and Miss Jenkins, were on the island with the two victims.  Walker and Jenkins knew exactly what took place on that mystery-shrouded atoll in the Pacific Ocean in 1974 or at least one of them knew.  Without them confessing and I do not see that ever happening, this is what the theft and murder trials had boiled down to - their word.  

I would recommend this book to all crime enthusiasts, if only to get a deeper insight into America's criminal jurisprudence and Bugliosi's probing and extensive analysis, whether you concur with him or otherwise, of an utterly complex and alarming true crime story.  I am glad I read it.


And The Sea Will Tell, a New York Times No 1 hardcover bestseller, was published in 1991.

What is the story?

(a riveting opening from the book)  Palmyra Island:  At once beautiful and forbidding, this uninhabited tropical atoll is off the well-traveled path of the trade winds.  Situated dead center in the Pacific Ocean, Palmyra was discovered by accident only in the nineteenth century.  If one were to search the high seas for a setting that would lend itself to impenetrable mystery, this lonely outpost would not disappoint.

From afar, Palmyra is seductive:  tall coconut trees and stretches of beach are enveloped by a coral reef and the brilliant shallows of the tropical ocean.

Once ashore, however, one finds that the vegetation that looks so lush and inviting from a distance is impassable except with a machete.  Hordes of land crabs claim squatter's rights to much of the island.  The beaches are not sandy, but rocky, and surrounded by coral as sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, capable of shredding the ribs of the sturdiest vessel.  Only a narrow passage in the reef on the south-western side allows access to a lagoon populated by schools of colourful fish, temptingly meaty but poisonous to eat.  And it doesn't take long to notice in the crystalline waters the menacing gray shadows of nature's most perfect eating machines.  Sharks.  There is, finally, no escape from the blazing sun and stifling humidity.

Only the most adventuresome, or desperate, would plan an extended stay here.  This is the true story of two men and two women who did.  One married couple, two lovers.  Four lives forever changed on an island that never wanted company.  Each of the visitors sought escape from the world, but for very different reasons, their destinies intersecting on this deserted atoll.  Not all of them would leave alive.  The mystery shrouding their fate would be as dark and chilling as the ocean floor deep beneath Palmyra Island.

About the authors:  

Vincent Bugliosi, American attorney and author, is a two-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the best true crime book of the year category for his No 1 New York Times bestsellers, Helter Skelter (1974) and Till Death Do Us Part (1978).  In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials and his most famous trial was the Charles Manson case, which became the basis of his bestselling book Helter Skelter (1974).  He lives with his wife in Los Angeles.

Bruce Henderson is the author and coauthor of more than twenty nonfiction works including True North (2005) and Fatal North (2001).  He is a member of the Authors Guild and American Society of Journalists and Authors.  He lives in northern California.  For more information on the author and his other works, go to www.brucehendersonbooks.com

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Why Can't?