Using what he calls ``novelistic strategies,'' Milwaukee Sentinel reporter Stephenson vividly recounts events surrounding the July 4, 1987, murder of five members of the bizarre Kunz family of northern Wisconsin. Stephenson opens with the 1905 murder of one Mary Kunz by her ``imbalanced'' son, J. Wenzel. It was Wenzel's nephews and nieces- -Clarence, Irene, Marie, and Helen, all in their 70s and 80s—as well as Helen's 30-year-old son, Randy, who were murdered at the family home in 1987. The bodies—except for Helen's, which was found nearly a year later—were discovered by Helen's oldest son, Kenny, whose father, it was believed, was his own murdered Uncle Clarence, Helen's brother. Kenny told investigators of observing his mother and uncle having sex, and the murdered Randy was known to share his mother's bed as well. Apparently, it was Randy's watching of pornographic videos that prompted Helen to complain to a local merchant that she ``could kill them all.'' At first, Helen was considered a prime suspect, but when Kenny mentioned some teenagers he'd sold old cars to, the information led to the arrest of Chris Jacobs III, an auto thief and ``kind of a troublemaker'' who, the cops believed, murdered the five Kunzes during a robbery gone wrong. Jacobs owned several .22-caliber weapons of the sort used in the murders; at his home, police found shells that matched those that killed the Kunzes; his car's tires matched tracks found near the scene; and Helen's body surfaced near his family's farm. But since the murder weapon was never found and so much of the evidence was circumstantial, a jury found Jacobs not guilty, and the killings remain unsolved. Stephenson intelligently pieces together autopsy and police reports, newspaper accounts, and court testimony to tell his grisly and creepy, but irresistible, story. (Thirty b&w photographs—not seen)
Pub Date: June 15, 1993
ISBN: 0-929387-91-0
Page Count: 220
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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