... a riveting chronicle ... Weinman, who lays out the details with a prosecutor’s care, convincingly demonstrates Smith was the killer ... As a writer, she’s more interested in the lives of the victims than Smith’s psychology ... It’s hard to imagine anyone grasping the importance of [Knopf editor Sophie] Wilkins’s role as well as Weinman does ... The relationship between Wilkins and Smith is the surprising secret heart of this book, showing how a sensitive, intelligent person might fall for a con-man. It’s a mirror for all the others who believed his claims of innocence—the people who bought Smith’s books, his wives, his mother, his friends, and defenders ... Weinman is able to tell the story in vivid detail because of letters and their permanence ... Many of these letters are excerpted to lay out the story as it moves forward in granular detail.
... [a] powerful new book from Ottawa-born writer and editor Sarah Weinman ... Unlike many true crime accounts, Scoundrel isn’t a whodunnit, and doesn’t rely on twists or withholding information for its considerable power. It is, instead, an examination of relationships shaped and twisted by the words and actions of a master manipulator and killer ... Rooted in archival work and interviews, with extensive quoting from letters and other documents, Scoundrel demonstrates the full potential of the true crime genre: expansive and incisive, with deep attention (and respect) given to those affected by the crimes, rather than focusing on salacious detail. It makes for an unsettling, and enthralling, reading experience, and an important one.
In straightforward prose, Weinman diligently and chronologically recreates the judicial proceedings, literary lunches, letter exchanges, prison visits, stays of execution and romances (there were many!) that led from incarceration to exoneration and back again. Her research is meticulous and extensive, allowing us to witness step by shocking step how Buckley and Wilkins chose to believe and then hand a microphone to a murderer ... But in allowing her characters to self-incriminate, Weinman cedes a modicum of control. I found myself wishing she would indict those involved not just for being despicable but for being complicit ... Instead, Weinman makes Buckley out to be a well-meaning man duped by a cunning manipulator.
The narrative's goal isn't to grip readers using a what-happens-next approach...but rather to explore how and why things happened the way they did — and who helped him become one of the most famous convicted murderers of his time ... But why did Buckley become so committed to Smith ... Weinman's answer is complex, of course, but might be boiled down to two major ideas: first, that Smith's talent as a writer was impressive enough to win him friends and admirers and, second, that he was incredibly manipulative ... Smith clearly was manipulative ... Indeed, the excerpts of his letters that appear in the book were convincing enough to sow doubt in my own mind at first, and I found myself being disturbingly drawn to him and his writing. This is, perhaps, precisely why Weinman does so little editorializing ... Scoundrel is very much a hard-boiled true-crime narrative, detailed and careful. But although Weinman writes that it's Smith's victims who animate the narrative of the book...it doesn't quite read that way ... Still, it's clear that Weinman tried to breathe as much life into the women as she could, and the book certainly excels at being an in-depth exploration of how outside influence and support can affect the criminal justice system's slow-moving cogs, as well as the narrative of a con artist who managed to hurt a great deal of people.
... provocative and unsettling. It compels the reader to ponder weighty questions: Did a savage thug exploit smart, decent people? Can altruism sometimes be as lethal as psychopathology? Evil pervades this book, but it makes for a terrific read.
Author Sarah Weinman digs deep ... Meticulously researched, Scoundrel paints a portrait of a criminal adept at targeting people like Buckley who he could win over — but whose violent instincts eventually led to his downfall.
... meticulously researched ... Scoundrel, a fascinating true story that likewise mixes crimes against women and midcentury literary grandiosity ... Weinman does not do as much to explore this issue as I would have liked—what does it mean that Buckley loved and was loved by a homicidal misogynist? Why did the pro-capital punishment Buckley see Smith as worthy of his advocacy? ... I longed for more women’s voices ... Weinman’s style owes much to the true-crime podcast
boom; it is painstaking about the evidence, investigations, legal appeals. She lets the facts and the players speak for themselves.
As Sarah Weinman recounts in compelling detail in Scoundrel, there was to be a second act to this tawdry drama, one in which Smith, briefly and implausibly, played the role of wronged man ... The appeal of certain incarcerated people to random artists and intellectuals is a fascinating subject, by no means separating liberals from conservatives, and Scoundrel keeps its sharp eye fixed on the appeal’s mystery. What, for example, led Smith’s erudite, 50-something editor at Knopf to succumb to his psychopathic charm and indulge his sexual fantasies?
Weinman is reluctant to try to explain why Smith committed the crimes he did. Instead, she lets him speak for himself, quoting extensively from his correspondence to show how he flattered the prejudices of those around him. This builds a dramatic irony more tasteful than the kind one often expects in this kind of story, though even so it’s never quite clear to what extent Smith was deluding himself as well as his confreres, or to what extent he even thought of himself as a criminal ... The loose connections between Smith’s story and the larger questions of criminality and criminal justice make Scoundrel a curious book, more a portrait of historical oddity than anything else ... The attraction of this story comes from a truth that Weinman hints at but doesn’t say outright: No matter what they may have told themselves, Wilkins and Buckley were drawn to Smith not in spite of but because of the fact that he was convicted of a heinous crime.
... gripping and affecting ... He emerges so vividly from the pages of Weinman’s book, often through his own words, that the doubts about his guilt that eventually led to his release seem almost comically hazy and insubstantial compared to the evidence of his true nature ... Except for an electrifying coda, Scoundrel takes a chronological approach, falling naturally into parts covering the different phases of Smith’s life and career. The first and rightfully the most powerful of these is the opening section, which deals with the brutal murder and its immediate aftermath. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Weinman does Zielinski justice where generations of lawmakers largely failed to do so ... a fascinating and compulsive narrative and an absorbing, sometimes deeply unpleasant book which, in the end has nothing extenuating whatsoever to say about Edgar Smith. He may have fooled people in his lifetime with his articulacy and modicum of charisma, but on the page he is revealed as he really was. A deeply unpleasant man, a sociopathic murderer who was callous, manipulative, selfish and self-aggrandizing ... The book leaves a lasting, tragic impression behind it of the wasted years and wasted lives of everyone drawn into Smith’s tawdry little world: his wives and family, Smith himself and, most of all Vickie Zielinski, just a normal teenage girl with normal teenage interests, whose future was stolen when her life was brutally cut short.
Weinman weaves a strange and compelling tale about murder, deception, fame, and friendship ... Weinman makes great use of the many letters that exist between all three of them. This is a psychologically fascinating must-read for true-crime buffs.
Electric ... Despite his crimes happening more than 60 years ago, Weinman paints a complete portrait of Smith in all his complexity, with an unsettling ending that left me breathless. A chilling and deeply satisfying read, Scoundrel injects life into a story nearly forgotten by time.
With this enthralling book, Weinman details the twisted, extraordinary story of a murderer who manipulated his way to freedom and fame ... Weinman thoroughly covers Smith’s deception and his eventual return to crime. She writes with empathy for Smith’s victims, including those left in the wake of his lies, and a critical eye toward the systems that allowed him to continue committing offenses. The book is a must-read for true crime fans, but it will appeal to nonfiction readers across genres ... An immediately absorbing story of crime, manipulation, and influence.
... a near-flawless account ... The question Weinman’s book fails to answer, perhaps because there is no answer, is why a criminal’s talent for turning a phrase confers on him an air of innocence — at least to the more naïve among the literati? Are these writers’ egos so large they cannot imagine that a fellow man (or woman) of letters would be anything other than morally upstanding? It is particularly incongruous that a law-and-order guy like Buckley took up Smith’s mantle ... Weinman’s prose is spare and direct throughout. Her fast-paced story reads like the true-crime thriller it is, but she is not content to simply 'rip from the headlines.' She dug deep, combing through primary source materials...What she did with that material demonstrates her fine skills.
This is a captivating history on several levels. Impressively detailed and wonderfully written, it chronicles the Edgar Smith case from all aspects. In its own style, it exposes celebrity and the criminal justice system from a different perspective. Sadistic criminals often have another character trait --- they are extraordinary con men. Great books have been written about them. Scoundrel is such a book, and Edgar Smith is such a man.
... meticulous, well-researched, sometimes overlong ... Hardcore true-crime buffs will wallow delightedly in her frequent excerpts from the Buckley-Smith correspondence and from courtroom testimony. For others, the lengthy, unnecessary quoting sometimes becomes tedious ... A bit lengthy, Weinman’s absorbing and highly readable book succeeds in capturing the full story behind a notorious murderer’s brazen quest to avoid the death penalty by any means possible.
Weinman’s book is not only a disturbing study in how 'brilliant people' and the institutions they serve can be successfully conned. It is also a reminder of how society has always used talent as a way to excuse male acts of aggression and violence against women ... Wholly compelling reading from an author well versed in the true-crime genre.
In this mesmerizing account, Weinman does a masterly job resurrecting a stranger-than-fiction chapter in American criminal justice ... Weinman’s dogged research, which included correspondence with Smith, who died in prison in 2017, and a study of Buckley’s papers, enable her to craft a deeply unsettling narrative about how a clever killer manipulated the justice system to his benefit. This instant classic raises disturbing questions about gullibility even on the part of the very bright.
