A thoroughly reported procedural too much repetition and heavy-handed foreshadowing.
Thorough account of a quadruple murder in a Houston suburb in 2003.
Veteran true-crime author Phelps (Kill for Me, 2010, etc.) chronicles the story of the killing, which took place inside a home on a usually peaceful street, of best friends Tiffany Rowell and Rachael Koloroutis, both 18; Tiffany's boyfriend Marcus Precella, 19; and Marcus' cousin Adelbert Nicholas Sánchez, 21. For more than two years, Houston police and related law-enforcement agencies seemed stumped by the crime, and it took three years from the day of the slaughter to publicly identify two suspects. Two Houston homicide detectives provide the focal point for Phelps, with numerous other law-enforcement officers entering and leaving the narrative. The author is respectful of the police, never suggesting they are incompetent, but he points out shortcomings of the investigation with admirable detail. The book is primarily a police procedural, but it is also a tribute to the four murder victims. Readers completely unaware of the case will begin to suspect the identity of the murderers, despite numerous other persons of interest as the police pursue a theory of a drug deal gone bad. Illegal drugs were important in the case but not the key to finding the perpetrators. Phelps explains how police, despite their diligence and compassion, might never have found the murderers without guidance from calls to a crime-solving hotline. After police began seeking one suspect, he committed suicide before apprehension. The other one faced trial, which Phelps reports in unimaginative, sometimes overwhelming detail. A jury found her guilty quickly, and she received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
A thoroughly reported procedural too much repetition and heavy-handed foreshadowing.Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7582-7338-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Adults-only rendition of the lives of two pioneering pornographer-brothers and how one came to murder the other, related in live-wire prose by California journalist McCumber (The San Francisco Examiner, etc.). When Jim Mitchell, 45, shot dead his brother Artie, 43, in 1991, the X-rated film world was stunned: How could this have happened to the dynamic duo of sleaze, who brought the world Ivory Snow-girl Marilyn Chambers and the porn classic Behind the Green Door? Drawing on interviews with the Mitchells' family, friends, and stars, McCumber weaves an unusually lively true-crime chronicle that doubles as a eulogy for innocence lost. For at first, the Mitchells were innocents of a sort, riding the wave of free love that washed over San Francisco in the late 60's, ``having fun'' turning out porn loops and opening up a theater whose troupe of exotic dancers eventually included many disciples of the notorious guru Rajneesh. In 1972, the Mitchells filmed Behind the Green Door for an unheard-of (for a porn film) $60,000; the film grossed $35 million—and everything changed. Though reveling in his new money and power, Jim kept an even keel—but Artie went hog-wild, living life on a manic, sadistically sexual edge, and wallowing in drugs. McCumber traces Artie's descent in rich style, drawing in-depth portraits of the women he used and abused; and the author's snappy writing continues into his coverage of the trial that ensued when Jim, at last half-crazed himself over his brother's madness, pulled the trigger. (Of the prosecutor, McCumber says, ``He looks tough, intense, feral, predatory. Hell, he looks like a vampire.'') Convicted only of manslaughter, today Jim is free on bail, pending appeal. There's a strong moral about the wages of sin here but McCumber doesn't belabor it, instead letting this sad and sleazy story—one of the most gripping yet told about the world of pornography—speak for itself. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-75156-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An utterly captivating story of wine, wealth, and a family destroyed by accusations of incest. Johnston (Roller Coasters, 1990, etc.) cuts through an amazingly tangled web of recovered memories and warring therapists to bring to life the story of the Ramona family. Gary and Stephanie Ramona were enjoying the American Dream in Napa Valley, where Gary had a top sales job at Mondavi. But their daughter Holly developed bulimia in high school. A random choice led her to Marche Isabella, a newly minted therapist with no training in eating disorders or depression. She first met Holly in 1989, just as a tidal wave of recovered memories—visual images purported by some therapists to be repressed memories of childhood abuse—began. Soon Holly was taking sodium amytal, a questionable form of therapy, and declared she had been raped repeatedly by Gary. The stunning lack of proof (including the fact that Hollys hymen was practically intact) was no obstacle to what became a Job-like turn of events for Gary: His wife and three daughters left him, his newly constructed dream house was sold for legal fees, and he was fired from Mondavi. Holly filed suit against her father, and he, devastated, filed a malpractice lawsuit agains her therapists. His suit was ultimately successful, and Johnston offers high drama in her account of jury selection, competing expert witnesses, and courtroom testimony. Her research into memory science is meticulous, and she does a brilliant job of presenting both sides to this story, presenting Gary as not the best of fathers, but no rapist, and Stephanie as a weak-willed trophy wife whose long-brewing anger at Gary found its expression in incest accusations. Johnston is a bit thin on some of the legal context for this case. Still, a frightening look into what happens when pop psychology is mistaken for therapy, and when the dubious fruits of that therapy are mistaken for truth. (Author tour)
Pub Date: June 20, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-71822-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997
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