A difficult read but an eye-opening story best suited for die-hard true-crime fans.
A true-crime book set in late-1990s Italy focuses on the phenomenon of “Satanic Panic.”
Italian journalist Trincia introduces readers to “the Devils of the Bassa Modenese,” a series of criminal cases in the Bassa region of Italy centered on alleged ritual acts of pedophilia and terror against at least 16 children. The author narrates a complex tale of children—mainly from poor and/or troubled families—who were forcibly removed from their homes by the regional bureaucracy. These removals, which seemed to occur like falling dominoes, began with the testimony of Dario, one boy who shared truly horrific tales of “ritual satanic abuse and sexual violence.” In addition to his stories of sexual abuse, Dario described how young victims were threatened, beaten, tortured, and forced to take part in acts of violence, including the murders of other children. Due to his testimonies—and then those of other children—several families were broken apart, many parents were imprisoned, and various suspected pedophiles were also charged, often on little evidence aside from the words of the children. Trincia explores the local view that, in many cases, what was at stake was an ideological battle between church-influenced families and the communist-influenced state, which often subverted traditional family values. Indeed, Trincia explains how most accused individuals were acquitted due to the questionable nature of much of the evidence, including physical exams that failed to prove abuse despite initial reports. Though Trincia deftly avoids making his own judgement, it is clear that most questioning of the children was highly unprofessional, at best, and aggressively interrogative, at worst. The well-researched narrative is choppy in certain sections, and readers must deal with an onslaught of names and facts. Given the disturbing nature of the content, this one is not for the faint of heart.
A difficult read but an eye-opening story best suited for die-hard true-crime fans.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-542-03911-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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