Unsolved: Great True Crimes of the 20th Century

by Kirk Wilson

The reader meets or comes close to identifying the killers in this well-written and researched crime anthology. Among the cases included are those of John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Hoffa, Marilyn Monroe, and Claus von Bulow. "An accomplished amateur sleuth's handbook...a solid fix for crime addicts...thought through with Holmesian passion."--Kirkus Reviews.

274 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

Kirk Wilson’s books include the story collection OUT OF SEASON, the poetry collection SONGBOX, the poetry chapbook THE EARLY WORD, and UNSOLVED, a nonfiction crime study published in six editions in the US and UK

Kirk’s fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are widely published in literary journals and anthologies.

His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Elixir Press Fiction Award, the Trio House Press Trio Award, Editor’s Awards and other prizes in all three genres, and two Pushcart nominations.

Kirk’s website is www.KirkWilsonBooks.com.

Reviews

[maddie patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because I saw Hoffa and Kennedy on the front. Definitely has some interesting cases, but can be dense reading, and it is fairly easy to lose track of people and what their role was

[U02awf2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's ok as an introduction to the crimes covered. I actually first picked up the book in the early 1990s when I was in my mid-teens, I only remember reading the JFK chapter, although I likely read the Marilyn one too.

It was this book the first alerted me to the mystique and intrigue surrounding the JFK assassination and I've been fascinated ever since (even visiting Dealy Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository).

However, I discovered the book again lying about, and read the whole book this time. I do find the well-known cases, JFK, Monroe and Lucan more interesting than the rest of the book though which is why I've only given it three stars.

It should be readable in a week at the most, it's just a small book, but it took me a couple of months which shows that I wasn't fully immersed in topics that would usually hold my attention.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought there'd be a little more variety in the mysteries -- the first half of the book was about famous crimes against powerful people, all of which had generated conspiracy theories involving the Mafia, the CIA, Cubans (either pro- or anti-Castro factions), and / or the Kennedys.

The second half was mostly stories about rich women whose husbands (or other men close to them) were the only real suspects in their deaths. In these cases, the killers managed to avoid legal convictions, and in some cases, the suspects themselves are murdered or disappear in the end.

The writing wasn't terrible, but it didn't really hold my attention as much as I expected it would, considering that the subject matter sounded interesting.

[Major · Rating 4 out of 5]

우와ㅏㅏㅏ