starts off well with self professed “sexist slob” leonard lake expounding on his philosophy – a monologue for the benefit of a home video tape – but then, with expectations raised high, the rest of the book becomes an unfulfilling bore – there’s NO details of the actual murders (!) – barely even a mention of torture – what you do get is a parade of females who lake tried to charm the bras off for photo album souvenirs – and assorted complete humdrum life stories of anyone who had any remote connection with lake and/or ng – always stopping abruptly at “and then he disappeared never to be heard from again” dot dot dot – we’re left to presume killed by lake and ng – but he might just as well have jumped in a lake – who knows? – this book certainly won’t tell you – second half of the book devoted to ng’s trial, even less titillating (i was reading but the words were no longer particularly sinking in) – okay, it seems maybe nothing at all is known of the murders (not even a hazard guess here offered as to motive) but I’d have preferred not to have read over 400 pages (promising to be “the terrifying true story”) to discover that – if you’ve no information and no insights, at least indulge in some tantalising speculation – it’s standard for true crime books – bah!, give me back the two weeks wasted reading this
Do many of these “true crime” sagas actually live up to the hype? I tend not to bother with them as not many criminals are all that interesting. An unusual artist’s biography and some hot fiction is more my taste. Still, I’ll keep an open mind and take heed of any good reviews.
i like gordon burn – just ordered his book of essays on pop and yba artists – he did good books on the yorkshire ripper and fred and rose west – and brian masters books on dennis nilsen and jeffrey dahmer – those spring to mind – i used to read lots, but then i got a girlfriend : (
I’ll look into those.
May have mentioned it before, but I was impressed by Neil Schaeffer’s Sade biography. Much better than the Thomas one. But then Sade as a Character is heroic. He was no mere criminal.
http://neilschaeffer.com/sade/index.htm
This case has always fascinated me. I\’ve seen two documentaries on the lake/ng case. Very disturbing. A different book I had a hard time getting through is the Gates of Janus. One of my favorite true crime writers is Harold Schecter. He did a great book on Ed Gein and Albert Fish. The human mind is truly a fascinating place.