Instruments Of Murder

by Max Haines

In Instruments of Murder, his twenty-sixth book, the inimitable Max Haines describes more than fifty shocking crimes from around the world—many committed with the least likely of instruments. The stories include that of fifty-three-year-old Styllou Christofi of Cyprus, who was furious with her son Stavros for moving to England in 1937 and starting a family with a German named Hella—the ultimate betrayal of family and homeland. One night, while Stavros was at work and the two women were at home cleaning the kitchen, the older woman struck her daughter-in-law on the back of the head with a metal plate, rendering her unconscious. Using a scarf belonging to one of the grandchildren, Styllou strangled Hella and burned the body in a backyard bonfire. Haines also recounts the notorious case of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who during the early 1990s drugged all seventeen of his male victims, cut up their bodies, and kept body parts as mementos in his refrigerator. Whether it's murder by rattlesnake, poison, umbrella, or strangulation, these tales of murder will surprise and unsettle you, but each satisfyingly ends with a perpetrator brought to justice.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2004

About the author

Max Haines was a syndicated crime columnist.
His "Crime Flashback" column made its debut in the Toronto Sun in 1972 and was syndicated across Canada and in several Latin and South American countries.. His first column was about Lizzie Borden. He was awarded the Derrick Murdoch Award, one of the Arthur Ellis awards, by the Crime Writers of Canada.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy and reeling. I found myself sickly interested in the way people kill other people. The stories are dark and tragic, and if you read too many of them, you can really be brought down. This book is a buzzkill.

I still love the way the author writes and how he attains such knowledge, and the thing about these kinds of books is that it can cause 3 things to happen:

1. You become manically depressed and take your life and/or others lives.
2. You learn from the mistakes of others and do a better job at the crime and clean up all their mistakes (which is illegal and will result in jail time if caught (and you WILL get caught because you can't hide from it forever. It may take time, but you will get caught, so don't even try it, besides, you'll go to hell)and no one wants that right?)
3. You appreciate the life you have and love your family more. Aww Brownie points. :P

Basically, take books like this in moderation. God Bless cops!

PS. This book took a long time to read because it is at my summer cottage and I only read it when I go every year and I finally finished it this year! Crap, now I need to find a new book...

[VaughanPL]

Click here to find it in the catalogue.

[Patricia Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book love his writting