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Originally Posted by pwalker8
So what did you think of the Murder Room? The subject sounds interesting, but the reviews on Amazon are pretty mixed.
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I finished it, I liked it, and thought it had unusually high relevance to forensic science compared to the typical true crime book. So I recommended it to our forensics student, Amiieey.
Here's what I gather from glancing at the Amazon reviews: Some people who probably have no subject matter expertise loved it, with 38 percent giving it the highest rating. Others, who likely have just as little subject matter expertise, couldn't finish it. That doesn't tell me anything of great importance. About half the books I start I don't finish, and every one of them got multiple positive reviews.
Here is the kind of review I like:
Michael Capuzzo's 'Murder Room' belongs on the same shelf as David Simon's 'Homicide'
Here's how the review ends:
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One footnote: For a couple of pages deep into The Murder Room, Capuzzo writes about a local case that I know quite intimately, having been the first reporter on the scene of that crime. Capuzzo has made, according to my memory of the case, a couple of fact errors in the short description of the investigation. Did it give me pause about the veracity of the rest of the book, considering he has details that make you wonder how on earth he ever got them? Yes.
Did I end up giving Capuzzo the benefit of the doubt? Sure.
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So, it's not perfect.
As for the Amazon reviewers who say they finished
The Murder Room and found it to be poorly written and edited: I don't recall being annoyed by the writing. Still, they may be right. But maybe they don't know enough about the subject matter to judge the book more broadly.
Maybe the review I linked, in this post, isn't all that well-written either. But, as with the book it is about, I like it.