I received a free Kindle copy of The Man from the Train by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James courtesy of Net Galley and Scribner, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.
I requested this book as the description sounded very interesting. It is the first book by the authors that I have read.
The subtitle, The Solving of a Century Old Serical Killer Mystery, is an adequate description of the book. It is a rather dull read due to the writing approach of the authors presenting the material in an almost “Joe Friday” format from the Dragnet television series (I know I am showing my age). Another slightly annoying detail is the authors briefly discussing a crime and then telling the reader that it will be covered in more detail in chapter xxx. They also included murders that were not part of the pattern or associated with individual that they identified as the serial killer. Again, I ask why include it other than fill pages.
In summary, this book just did not grab me or engage me. It is unfortunate becaus I had high hopes for the book. I will say that others have given it rave reviews on Goodreads so they must have found value in the book that I did not.
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