Welcome to Litsy!

If you love listening to true crime podcasts, this is a great book about Sharon Faye Smith and Debra May Helmick. You get to hear how the Police and FBI figured out what absolutely garbage excuse of a human caused havoc in a small town..

Super interesting read! The way the profile matched up with Bell is amazing. The story is fascinating and devastating, and I very much enjoyed the legal aspects of the book.

I used to read a ton of true-crime books. I don‘t know if it‘s the book or if my tastes have changed dramatically, but this one was an uneven read for me. Written by an FBI agent who was a pioneer in profiling, I expected more detail about the hunt for the killer. Instead I found myself skimming over pages about what clothes Douglas picked to wear to interrogate the suspect.

#Nonfiction2023
Killing in the Name

2.5 stars this book was okay, as long as you were doing something else while listening to it. It was boring if not. It was simply too long and repetitive for me. Especially if you already know about the case I would not recommend this book.

An exhausting work week meant next to no brain power for my normal audiobook routine; only true crime podcasts or old Dateline eps would do, until I remembered that true crime books are a thing and that I had several waiting on my Libby shelf. 😆 This was a well done narrative and I liked how much we learned about the surviving family. Enjoyed it a bit less in the memoir-y moments (even though I love memoirs), but those were relatively rare.

I knew nothing about these horrifying 1980s South Carolina cases. Once I started reading, I did not want to stop. Completely gripping with fascinating insights into the investigative and criminal profiling process. If you are a fellow true crime reader, add this to your TBR!

@Chelsea.Poole Thank you so much for the recommendation! I loved Mindhunter (Netflix) and will now have to give their other books a try.

Tuesday true crime #bookmail. @Chelsea.Poole made me do it! I think I might need to start this one right away.

This was an excellent true crime book about two cases I knew nothing about. Abductions and then subsequent calls to the victim‘s home…chilling descriptions of the killer‘s conversations with the family are featured throughout. This author duo have collaborated on several others that I‘ve enjoyed as well, but this is my favorite of theirs.

Well I devoured that one! This was one of the strangest, most horrific cases I‘ve read about. Just the trial, alone, is mind boggling. He was reminding me of GSK in the creepiness that he displayed.

The work of Douglas is always fascinating and his skill set is amazing. I will always grab one of his books.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My audiobooks have been largely ignored lately, so we are jumping back in! The plan was to finish the back log this year! 17 more to go (not including unused credits 🤦‍♀️).

I loved this book. While the subject matter is decidedly morbid, I found this story completely fascinating. From the case files of John Douglas, the founding father of the FBI‘s behavior analysis unit, this story follows John Douglas and his group of profilers as they build a picture of the unknown assailant that abducted, assaulted and murdered Shari Smith in 1984. This is an exhaustive step by step of what it took to solve this case.

When a Killer Calls tells the story of two murders that take place in rural South Carolina and has connections to Charlotte, NC. The proximity to my hometown was just an added bonus. Much like American Predator and I‘ll Be Gone in the Dark, the writing is propulsive. I can't recommend this book enough, and it‘s absolutely one of my top books of the year. Go ahead and preorder this one. It comes out 2/22, and you're going to love it!

Y‘all, this one is reallllllllllllly good! About a quarter in and I can‘t put it down. 🤩✅ Coming out 2/22

Yayyy!! This #goodreadsgiveaway came with a tote bag. Totes are fun! And I‘m always down for a good true crime story. Looking forward to this one 🤩