Book Review: "The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession, & Revenge" edited by Mitzi Szereto (2021)
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Published by Mango Publishing
Edited by Mitzi Szereto
Stories by Joe Turner, Edward Butts, Dean Jobb, Priscilla Scott Rhoades, Tom Larsen, Mitzi Szereto, CL Raven, Anthony Ferguson, Craig Pittman, Iris Rheinbacher, Mark Fryers, Chris Edwards, Jason Half, Shashi Kadapa, and Stephen Wade
2021, 280 pages, Nonfiction
Published on August 24th, 2021
Review:
Have I ever mentioned that I’m unequivocally NOT a true crime fan? I can’t recall if I’ve stated that before; it simply struck me looking back through my previous review of Mitzi Szereto’s previous few books (The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues, and Criminals, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns, The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers, and Ladies of Gothic Horror: A Collection of Classic Stories) that Mitzi and her carefully articulated collections have gotten inside my gray matter and taken a place of permanent residence quite under my nose. My initial intention was to read something that was out of my wheelhouse from a critic’s perspective (whatever in Hell that means) and challenge myself.
Instead, I just ended up becoming a bit of a true-crime junkie just like my Mom. Thanks a lot, Mitzi!
Seriously, though- Mitzi’s collections have become a treat that I enjoy over long lunchbreaks, one wonderful shocker at a time. She’s garnered a host of regular contributors at this point; Dean Jobb, Anthony Ferguson, Shashi Kadapa, Tom Larsen, CL Raven, Edward Butts, Mark Fryers, and Mitzi Szereto herself all make repeat contributions to this sublimely scholarly series that continues to increase in both quality and quantity with each outing while remaining ferociously entertaining.
Every Szereto collection comes with a connecting theme, and this one is all about crimes of the “I just couldn’t help myself” and “they had it coming” variety. That covers a lot of ground. People lose their shit and do awful things every day, so I dove in eager to feast on a variety of tales about just what the human heart is capable of, hoping that I’d get a slew of nasty narratives from out of left field. Crimes of Passion, Obsession, & Revenge delivers just that and more.
With “Petit Treason”, Edward Butts gives you an evocatively written and thoroughly researched tale of a woman in Victorian-era Canada who just couldn’t take one more beating but couldn’t beat the inherent sexism and prejudice of the times. Dean Jobb delivers a straight up history lesson complete with political conundrums in “The Crime Passionnel of Henriette Caillaux”, an early twentieth century case of surprisingly justifiable homicide in the French press that asks some damn good questions (it also pairs quite well with Mark Fryers’ piece, “A Crime Forgiven: The Strange Case of Yvonne Chevalier”). The always methodical Anthony Ferguson steals the show with “The Gun Alley Murder”, a morally gray story of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old Australian girl wrongly pinned on the shady bar owner of a back alley watering hole full of the disreputable and salacious. Mitzi Szereto’s “FACEBOOKMOORD” is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read, honestly. The dark side of social media is real, folks.
Every Szereto collection also comes with an underlying (and often unexpected) theme that comes bleeding through, and this assemblage is no exception. The common thread of just how stacked the deck is against women (no matter the time period of the crime) is illustrated with vicious clarity. “Death By Chocolate” by CL Raven is one of the most batshit stories you’ll ever come across; a tale of a woman who tries to poison an entire town in 1871. It shows the era’s obsession with physiognomy, medieval mental health treatments, fashion-crazed reporting in the midst of a murder trial, and insane legal concessions in a way that makes you genuinely ask if the system wasn’t the equal of the crime. Stephen Wade’s “A Tale of Self Control and a Hammer” infuriates and shocks with the heinous crime of a British war hero who was essentially untouchable because of his WWII hero status. And most notably, the ever hard-hitting Shashi Kadapa blew my mind with “Revenge of the Nagpur Women”, which is quite simply the most righteous tale of mass female vengeance against a gang of Alex DeLarge-esque hooligans that you’ll ever read.
“The Life and Demise of England’s Universal Provider” by Jason Half is the educational favorite in the crop of new contributors; I intend to learn more about William Whiteley. Chris Edwards delivers the “so crazy it has to be true” piece with a first person perspective that echoes Joe R. Lansdale in “Bad Country People”. Iris Reinbacher introduced me to Japanese castration specialist Sada Abe with her essay, “Because I Loved Him”, and I may never be the same for it. Craig Pittman’s “The Beauty Queen and the Hit Men” shows that the tale of the bumbling idiot never goes out of style. “The Madison Square Garden Murder: The First Trial of the Century” by Tom Larsen is that story…the one that makes you ask yourself how you didn’t know about it already!
The absolute standout is “A Young Man in Trouble” by Priscilla Scott Rhoades. The personal touch that comes from both being a part of the story personally as well as being so deeply a part of the gay community of San Francisco in the early ‘80s that was affected by the crime makes it truly authentic. It doesn’t hurt that Rhoades tells the hell out of that story, either. There are even cool Easter eggs about famous rock bands, and I bet you didn’t see that one coming!
Top to bottom, The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession, & Revenge is Mitzi Szereto’s most thoughtfully constructed and fully stacked collection I’ve yet to read. There’s no filler. Everyone writes something deeper and also scratches that true crime itch that you came for.
Even if you didn’t know it needed scratching until now.
