A well-researched, compelling book that uncovers many mysteries about a media tycoon.
A portrait of one of the most enigmatic figures in the annals of white-collar crime.
Preston uses his adroit reporting skills to investigate the life of British media mogul Robert Maxwell (1923-1991). Born Jan Ludwig Hoch to Jewish parents in Czechoslovakia, Maxwell was barely out of his teens when he was forced to endure the deaths of his parents, grandfather, and three of his siblings at Auschwitz. These experiences contributed to his considerable paranoia; years later, he would bug his office and those of his employees at the headquarters of his company. Preston explores these and other unethical business practices, including Maxwell’s use of company funds for personal reasons. As he constructed his business empire, he gained influence and power, and he became a Member of Parliament for Buckingham in 1964. He hobnobbed with Donald Trump and other flashy big names, and he collaborated with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Preston devotes substantial attention to Maxwell’s competition with Rupert Murdoch, chronicling Murdoch’s takeover of News of the World and the tabloid battles in New York. Murdoch purchased the New York Post in 1976. Following his purchase of the New York Daily News in 1991, Maxwell forced the publisher to call Murdoch and tell him, “Mr. Murdoch, Bob Maxwell would like you to know that he’s just bought the New York Daily News.” After moving through the major events of his life, the author digs in to the shadowy circumstances surrounding his death. In early November 1991, while on vacation near the Canary Islands, the burly man fell off—or was pushed off—his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, named after his now-infamous daughter. After his death, investigators discovered that he had purloined at least 763,000,00 pounds from his firms. Crimes of that magnitude make people do crazy things, so perhaps Maxwell was murdered. Preston examines this scenario in addition to accidental drowning and suicide.
A well-researched, compelling book that uncovers many mysteries about a media tycoon.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-299749-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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