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Too Beautiful a Day to Die
An account of the murdering spree of Laurie Dann describes how the Winnetka resident delivered poisoned cookies to neighbors, set fire to a home, and entered a local elementary school armed with three revolvers. Reprint.
- GenresTrue CrimeNonfiction
344 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 2, 2015
Sad that I swapped this book and that my copy has passed away in Canada I was told.
Checking my old bookcrossing shelf I see I gave it 7 out of 10 stars which sounds about right. Copied from bookcrossing:-->
Released 10 yrs ago (9/17/2004 UTC) at mailed in Casualreader.net, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases
RELEASE NOTES:
This book was accepted on casual reader's relay site in the International True Crime relay
Take a Look
The book was accepted by macdonv in Canada.
Thankfully macdonv did read it and gave it 8 out of 10 before the tragic event occurred..........................>
Journal Entry 5 by macdonv at Windsor, Ontario Canada on Thursday, February 24, 2011
Due to an unfortunate water damage incident in my book storage area, this book has sadly been relegated to that Big Reading Chair in the Sky.
Checking my old bookcrossing shelf I see I gave it 7 out of 10 stars which sounds about right. Copied from bookcrossing:-->
Released 10 yrs ago (9/17/2004 UTC) at mailed in Casualreader.net, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases
RELEASE NOTES:
This book was accepted on casual reader's relay site in the International True Crime relay
Take a Look
The book was accepted by macdonv in Canada.
Thankfully macdonv did read it and gave it 8 out of 10 before the tragic event occurred..........................>
Journal Entry 5 by macdonv at Windsor, Ontario Canada on Thursday, February 24, 2011
Due to an unfortunate water damage incident in my book storage area, this book has sadly been relegated to that Big Reading Chair in the Sky.
April 6, 2009
Laurie Dann is a mentally disturbed girl who's family, unfortunately just didn't see that their daughter needed serious help. The police had contact with this girl on numerous occasions for threatening type behaviour, making harrassing telephone calls, purchasing hand guns and possibly even stabbing her ex-husband with an ice pick while he slept. Yet, no one thought to seek mental help for this girl until it was too late and she walked into an elementary school armed with 3 guns and began shooting.
What does it take for authorities to recognize that people like Laurie Dann are just time bombs waiting to explode?
What does it take for authorities to recognize that people like Laurie Dann are just time bombs waiting to explode?
January 13, 2022
One of two books (that I'm aware of) on the Winnetka Hubbard Woods Elementary School mass shooting in 1988 (which, like most mass and school shootings pre-Columbine, has been largely forgotten and is little-discussed nowadays in the wake of far deadlier and frequent similar attacks that have become, tragically, almost routine in their coverage in the media), perpetrated by Laurie Dann, a likely genuinely psychotic attacker whose mindset, motives and exact mental illness(es) were complex, mystifying and difficult to precisely pin down. I've been fascinated with this case for some time, as Dann's status as a perpetrator of this type of crime stands out as highly unusual and atypical (being a woman, a 30-year-old "aberrant adult" shooter with no direct connection to the school she attacked, and a failed spree killer who carried out the shooting as part of a broader planned deranged homicidal rampage involving arson and poisoning as well--which was, fortunately, so incompetently executed it would've been almost comical if not for the critical injury of several children and sad death of one little boy at the school during the shooting incident).
While this doesn't really affect my star rating, a caveat to the prospective reader: while there are a few interesting anecdotes and tidbits of information about Dann leading up to the attack I was unaware of despite having extensively researched the case beforehand (such as when she told the driver of a car who gave her a ride home, almost blithely, that she was contemplating suicide during a characteristically erratic conversation), the central focus of this book is squarely upon the victims of her attempted murder spree, the responders, the effects on the surrounding community at large and so forth, much more than it's about Dann herself, her extremely mangled psychology or possible motivations. That's great and preferable I guess if you're one of the recent wave of pretentious, performative, politically-correct and virtue-signaling true crime enthusiasts who claim to be more interested in the genre from a "victims' advocacy" and "justice" sort of angle, but not quite as interesting or engaging for us dirty rotten honest true crime fans whose interest is more emotionally removed, focused upon perpetrators and based around abnormal/forensic psychology, morbid curiosity and the like.
Actually, had the focus been more solely upon the direct victims/survivors and firsthand witnesses, this book would've probably been more riveting, though given that the kids at Hubbard Woods were still very young when the book was published and deserved the privacy that their well-to-do families likely insisted upon, it's understandable that it wouldn't go too in-depth in that direction. Instead, the author covers and delves into the thoughts, feelings, reactions and experiences of the community members, first responders (mostly, to my recollection, the cops) and various other peripheral figures (many quite 'peripheral' to the case indeed) in extensive, nearly exhaustive narrative detail that, in places, verges on being tedious and tiresome. Given that Dann's bizarre manifestations of murky and clearly underdiagnosed mental illness lie at the core of this case and why it's of public interest beyond Winnetka, I don't fully understand why Egginton chose to take this approach, out of everything, and run with it--one presumes that the law enforcement folks and assorted bit-players impacted after the fact were simply the easiest to interview and most willing to open up.
Still, there's some solid and well-researched information here, even if the subject matter (especially the author's approach to it as described above), drawn-out third-person omniscient point of view and style in which it's written make for a slightly...fatiguing read (for lack of a better term--this book is definitely best digested gradually in several sittings, which is something to keep in mind if you're more of a binge-reader like me who tends to devour books in one or a few frenetic, hyper-focused sessions) at certain points. Though this might seem nitpicky, there is some redundancy and ponderous description that gives the prose a repetitive, sluggish feel (yeah, yeah, we get it, it was an unprecedented, terribly tragic and shocking event that nobody ever imagined could happen in ultra-wealthy cloistered Winnetka--how many times and in how many ways and iterations does one have to say and emphasize that?).
Day of Fury contains a great deal of background information and history about socioeconomic character of the community/area where this took place, which is interesting to those seeking to understand the external factors that may have contributed to Dann's alienation, the reasons behind the nature of the attack and its rippling traumatic impact, though it also unfortunately falls somewhat into the pitfall of excessive exposition regarding the location(s) of the case in scene-setting detail of only little to tangential relevance that commonly seems to plague true crime books authored by journalists. There are some fascinating and more judiciously included nuggets of info that provide a better picture of the school (pre-shooting) than one can garner from any other resource on this case, and it's important to understand the truly exceptional affluence of Winnetka and Glencoe (which are in the top ten wealthiest areas in the country by per capita and household income, something that usually gets glossed over in superficial coverage of the case), but paragraphs and passages like the following could've (and should've) certainly been left out, to put it lightly:
"Architects who designed these places seem to have extended themselves to blend traditional European design with modern American comforts. Every week the real-estate advertisements in the local newspaper give a different variation of the theme...In the village's antique shops there is furniture of extraordinary quality to go with the houses. Some of it is early Georgian, as old as the republic. Some of it is adapted to suit the anachronistic decor of the north shore...Winnetka's charming little shops attract buyers from many surrounding villages, since the ambiance is so pleasant and the help so solicitous. In several of the stores customers are soothed by complimentary coffee or herbal tea, and an invitation to come back, whether or not they have bought anything..." (p. 43)
To summarize, if you're looking primarily for insight into the life and mind of Laurie Dann and a more snappily salient exploration of the events and factors directly leading up to the attack, read the other main book on this case, Murder of Innocence: The Tragic Life and Final Rampage of Laurie Dann (which, I feel obliged to point out, is also a considerably more captivating read with a quicker pace) instead; if for whatever reason you're seeking more of a journalistically plodding, broad-brush account of community and LE reactions and the inner mindscapes of more secondarily- and tertiarily-connected people in response to the tragedy in the immediate aftermath in addition to location background, read Day of Fury. I would recommend it to those like myself with a deeper interest in this particular case, but only those people, more or less--if your curiosity will be sated by reading just one book on Dann, opt for Murder of Innocence.
While this doesn't really affect my star rating, a caveat to the prospective reader: while there are a few interesting anecdotes and tidbits of information about Dann leading up to the attack I was unaware of despite having extensively researched the case beforehand (such as when she told the driver of a car who gave her a ride home, almost blithely, that she was contemplating suicide during a characteristically erratic conversation), the central focus of this book is squarely upon the victims of her attempted murder spree, the responders, the effects on the surrounding community at large and so forth, much more than it's about Dann herself, her extremely mangled psychology or possible motivations. That's great and preferable I guess if you're one of the recent wave of pretentious, performative, politically-correct and virtue-signaling true crime enthusiasts who claim to be more interested in the genre from a "victims' advocacy" and "justice" sort of angle, but not quite as interesting or engaging for us dirty rotten honest true crime fans whose interest is more emotionally removed, focused upon perpetrators and based around abnormal/forensic psychology, morbid curiosity and the like.
Actually, had the focus been more solely upon the direct victims/survivors and firsthand witnesses, this book would've probably been more riveting, though given that the kids at Hubbard Woods were still very young when the book was published and deserved the privacy that their well-to-do families likely insisted upon, it's understandable that it wouldn't go too in-depth in that direction. Instead, the author covers and delves into the thoughts, feelings, reactions and experiences of the community members, first responders (mostly, to my recollection, the cops) and various other peripheral figures (many quite 'peripheral' to the case indeed) in extensive, nearly exhaustive narrative detail that, in places, verges on being tedious and tiresome. Given that Dann's bizarre manifestations of murky and clearly underdiagnosed mental illness lie at the core of this case and why it's of public interest beyond Winnetka, I don't fully understand why Egginton chose to take this approach, out of everything, and run with it--one presumes that the law enforcement folks and assorted bit-players impacted after the fact were simply the easiest to interview and most willing to open up.
Still, there's some solid and well-researched information here, even if the subject matter (especially the author's approach to it as described above), drawn-out third-person omniscient point of view and style in which it's written make for a slightly...fatiguing read (for lack of a better term--this book is definitely best digested gradually in several sittings, which is something to keep in mind if you're more of a binge-reader like me who tends to devour books in one or a few frenetic, hyper-focused sessions) at certain points. Though this might seem nitpicky, there is some redundancy and ponderous description that gives the prose a repetitive, sluggish feel (yeah, yeah, we get it, it was an unprecedented, terribly tragic and shocking event that nobody ever imagined could happen in ultra-wealthy cloistered Winnetka--how many times and in how many ways and iterations does one have to say and emphasize that?).
Day of Fury contains a great deal of background information and history about socioeconomic character of the community/area where this took place, which is interesting to those seeking to understand the external factors that may have contributed to Dann's alienation, the reasons behind the nature of the attack and its rippling traumatic impact, though it also unfortunately falls somewhat into the pitfall of excessive exposition regarding the location(s) of the case in scene-setting detail of only little to tangential relevance that commonly seems to plague true crime books authored by journalists. There are some fascinating and more judiciously included nuggets of info that provide a better picture of the school (pre-shooting) than one can garner from any other resource on this case, and it's important to understand the truly exceptional affluence of Winnetka and Glencoe (which are in the top ten wealthiest areas in the country by per capita and household income, something that usually gets glossed over in superficial coverage of the case), but paragraphs and passages like the following could've (and should've) certainly been left out, to put it lightly:
"Architects who designed these places seem to have extended themselves to blend traditional European design with modern American comforts. Every week the real-estate advertisements in the local newspaper give a different variation of the theme...In the village's antique shops there is furniture of extraordinary quality to go with the houses. Some of it is early Georgian, as old as the republic. Some of it is adapted to suit the anachronistic decor of the north shore...Winnetka's charming little shops attract buyers from many surrounding villages, since the ambiance is so pleasant and the help so solicitous. In several of the stores customers are soothed by complimentary coffee or herbal tea, and an invitation to come back, whether or not they have bought anything..." (p. 43)
To summarize, if you're looking primarily for insight into the life and mind of Laurie Dann and a more snappily salient exploration of the events and factors directly leading up to the attack, read the other main book on this case, Murder of Innocence: The Tragic Life and Final Rampage of Laurie Dann (which, I feel obliged to point out, is also a considerably more captivating read with a quicker pace) instead; if for whatever reason you're seeking more of a journalistically plodding, broad-brush account of community and LE reactions and the inner mindscapes of more secondarily- and tertiarily-connected people in response to the tragedy in the immediate aftermath in addition to location background, read Day of Fury. I would recommend it to those like myself with a deeper interest in this particular case, but only those people, more or less--if your curiosity will be sated by reading just one book on Dann, opt for Murder of Innocence.
May 30, 2016
This was a good read, focusing a lot less on Laurie Dann's pathology than MURDER OF INNOCENCE and spending a lot more time on the ripple effect she caused in Winnetka. Tells you what the police, emergency-service people, hospital staff and the victims of the crime went through. This is a great one for those interested in the long-term societal effects of a crime on a community.
January 18, 2016
What a fascinating story of this bizarre and shocking crime which uncovers a plethora of puzzles surrounding the events and the people involved. It is a well-written detailed account of horror that stays in your mind and never leaves. This author did a superb account in the telling of it. I recommend it.
June 4, 2011
I thought I knew a lot about the Laurie Dann case, but I truly didn't. The depth Egginton goes into, both in Dann's life, as well as those of the victims, police and doctors involved in the crimes is impressive. This is well done true crime, although it does feel a bit dated.
September 12, 2016
This is definitely one of my top 10 True Crime Books.
Egginton was so thorough and full of detail and life within her words it was almost as though I was there. From beginning to end it was a fantastic "couldn't put it down" book.
Egginton was so thorough and full of detail and life within her words it was almost as though I was there. From beginning to end it was a fantastic "couldn't put it down" book.
December 26, 2012
Uninteresting for a book about a mass murder, the author failed to grab my attention long enough for me to finish the story, which is sad because I'm a true crime buff.
January 18, 2016
This book is about Laurie Dann and the horrible acts she did in Chicago's northern suburb of Winnetka. It took place in 1988. Very good but very sad and and sometimes hard to read book.
August 2, 2019
a sad telling of a true tale about a mentally ill woman, who goes into a grade school in the USA, with a gun and shoots 5 children in 1988. The author is very detailed in her account, interviewing every person that had even the slightest connection to the event, and then going into great detail, about each individuals own personal trauma in their past and the event as well. Sadly if this shooting occurred today it would barely warrant a mention in the news, or a small paragraph buried somewhere in the newspaper. Still an interesting enough read, as it does shed light, on how these tragedies affect so many people, not just the victims and their families, but the police, first responders, doctors, nurses,teachers, administrators,neighbours,and many more. There were many red flags why didn't anyone see them.
February 5, 2025
This should have been a a long article in a magazine or newspaper about a crazy lady that went crazy one day and shot a few kids in Illinois in 1988. I guess the intervening 30 years of unrelenting gun violence in this country has innured me from being shocked by such an event, but this book was interesting to read in that *at the time* this was a big deal. And it is, I don't mean to minimize a tragedy, but today it would barely be a passing alert on your phone. And the day and woman in question aside, that was my main takeaway from this book: the death of an upper middle-class neighborhood feeling immune from such senseless violence. The loss of invulnerability and innocense. The realization that that you can no longer leave your front door unlocked. We've come a long and terrible way since 1988.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews