From underworld gangsters to homegrown terrorists, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has tracked down and arrested some of the most infamous felons in history.
In this second volume of Top Cases of the FBI, RJ Parker includes more recent and illustrious cases broken down into major criminal organized crime and gangsters, counterintelligence/espionage, violent crime/major thefts/bank robberies, civil rights, white-collar crime, and terrorism.
Some of the more notorious investigations detailed in the book Black Dahlia, Hurricane Katrina fraud, American traitor Robert Hanssen, Undercover FBI Agent Joseph Pistone, the KKK, and the anthrax attacks post-9/11.
RJ Parker, P.Mgr., MCrim, is an award winning and bestselling true crime author and co-owner with his daughters of RJ Parker Publishing. Inc. He has written 17 true crime books, available in eBook, paperback and audiobook editions, and have sold in over 100 countries. He holds Certifications in Serial Crime and Criminal Profiling.
ALL Paperbacks under RJ Parker Publishing are in the KINDLE MATCHBOOK program: When you purchase any print book, you get the eBook for FREE
Besides gifting books to his cause, Wounded Warriors, and donating to Victims of Violent Crimes, RJ has daily contests on Facebook where he gifts eBooks and autographed books.
I felt this was poorly written. It seemed like it was also hastily written, perhaps had no editing. Chapters seemed written in different styles, by different authors. One chapter seemed to say a hostage was turned loose without getting any ransom, then later talked about how the ransom was obtained. Sorry, I think this book is a hot mess!
Don’t buy. Simple and suspect analysis covering the details of these crimes. Much appears to be taken from newspaper and magazine articles. Poor writing style with inconsistent approach to telling the story. Bought on BookBub for $0.99. I over paid
If there were an option to give negative stars, this book would receive them.
I usually finish every book I start, even if it's poorly written. I couldn't finish this one. I was hoping for some exciting stories directly from the FBI files. Instead, I got poorly written, unedited, barely-held-together stories that read like high school freshman essays (and I was a high school teacher, so I know.) I can usually get through poorly written books based on subject matter alone, but not even here.
I read three of the cases covered, and it seemed like each was written by a different author. One was an objective retelling, the next was like the author was trying to be clever, funny, and speak directly to the reader. I understand that not everyone is going to be a master writer, but writing a sentence like: "They were doing a lot of truck hijackings" and not being able to see that and rewrite it as, "They were hijacking a lot of trucks" or "They hijacked a lot of trucks" is just lazy writing and lazy self-editing. I've never heard anyone say the phrase "do hijackings." This is just one small, early example of the horrendous writing in this book.
The author will often bring up details and not explain them. For instance, he mentions one of the criminals meets many strange and unusual-looking people in prison. Never does he mention these unusual-looking people again. He doesn't even mention ANY of the people met in prison. He mentions people by name without explaining who they are. Again, this is the kind of writing I expect from high schoolers--even middle schoolers: lack of detail, introducing ideas and never fleshing them out or even following up on them, almost directly repeating previous sentences or paragraphs less than a page later.
DO NOT bother with this one. Find a local seventh-grader to tell you these stories instead--I guarantee they'll do it better.
I eat almost any food. I watch almost any sport. I read almost any book.
But this beat me. Really beat me.
Normally I can forgive a multitude of mediocrity but I only managed a few chapters of this. It reminded me of one of the many true crime shows you find on TV at the moment and it seemed to be written as a script for such a show. I was expecting to turn over each page and find a summary of the previous page similar to the annoying summary you get after each ad break.
I am sure some will love it, but not for me. Not often I give up on a book but I just couldn't face any more.
I picked up this book because I enjoy reading about cases from the FBI but ended up not being able to finish the book. There was a decent amount of information included, but the stories were choppy and never seemed to flow. Also, the author kept throwing in cute little "quips" that were meant to be clever but ended up being grating. All the little side comments (there were many) actually detracted from the stories to the point that it became less enjoyable and more irritating to read. I enjoy the subject but not this book.
Volume 2 of Top Cases of the FBI does not disappoint. Cases like Machine Gun Kelly, the Black Dahlia, the Walker Spy Ring, and Pan Am 103 are discussed in understandable language. I learned much about the Enron scandal as well as the Hurricane Katrina fraud cases. I need to delve further into the Ku Klux Klan and the Brink's robbery, for there is more I want to know.
I was very disappointed in the author's choice of wording that seems to me might appeal to a 12 or 13 year old boy. I am unable to fathom why man who was awarded a Ph.D would write like an undereducated boy.