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Gruesome!: A Novel Drawn from True Crime
A cheating husband. His faithful wife. His exciting mistress. Two strong mothers.
A talented reporter and the alluring woman who wants him. The scene is set
for murder and astonishing repercussions in the timber country of southwest
Alabama in 1959. John Ed Tomlinson is convicted of killing his wife, then he isn’t. Two
more trials follow, which engulf all five remarkable women, two rival families, and
vulnerable reporter Dan Anderson. One element overshadows everything—Jo Dell
Tomlinson’s first burial place, an abandoned well, her body coated in slimy mud. No
one will forgive that.
A talented reporter and the alluring woman who wants him. The scene is set
for murder and astonishing repercussions in the timber country of southwest
Alabama in 1959. John Ed Tomlinson is convicted of killing his wife, then he isn’t. Two
more trials follow, which engulf all five remarkable women, two rival families, and
vulnerable reporter Dan Anderson. One element overshadows everything—Jo Dell
Tomlinson’s first burial place, an abandoned well, her body coated in slimy mud. No
one will forgive that.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 20, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 24, 2014
There's a page of this book dedicated to detailing how Dan Anderson (Donald Brown himself) got so good at his job. Okay. I'm sure he's a great reporter, but he's not a novelist.
This isn't a bad book. The story of "John Ed Tomlinson" and his trials is truly fascinating. Unfortunately, too much of this book isn't about that.
I'll ignore grammar/punctuation errors. I'll ignore the way Brown changes from past to present tense for no apparent reason. I'll ignore the fact the weak dialogue (no good ole' boys in Alabama have ever spoken like this). I'll ignore the almost silly descriptions of certain characters, because the average reader won't know that they're incorrect; it's a work of fiction, after all.
It's the unnecessary additions that annoyed me. Brown's own character, as well as his sexy lamp of a girlfriend named Lindsey, could and should have been left out completely. I would like to know more about John Ed's family; how the trials affected his children, his brother and in-laws. Fortunately, my mother is a Butler native, but most readers probably can't just ask someone to verify a random line in a random novel.
This isn't a bad book. The story of "John Ed Tomlinson" and his trials is truly fascinating. Unfortunately, too much of this book isn't about that.
I'll ignore grammar/punctuation errors. I'll ignore the way Brown changes from past to present tense for no apparent reason. I'll ignore the fact the weak dialogue (no good ole' boys in Alabama have ever spoken like this). I'll ignore the almost silly descriptions of certain characters, because the average reader won't know that they're incorrect; it's a work of fiction, after all.
It's the unnecessary additions that annoyed me. Brown's own character, as well as his sexy lamp of a girlfriend named Lindsey, could and should have been left out completely. I would like to know more about John Ed's family; how the trials affected his children, his brother and in-laws. Fortunately, my mother is a Butler native, but most readers probably can't just ask someone to verify a random line in a random novel.
Displaying 1 of 1 review