It’s heavy stuff, but something about the way Bowden approaches these topics makes this book an unexpected salve during this age of anxiety. It feels a little loathsome to refer to this book as a joy; after all, each story revolves around the worst moments in someone’s life. But that’s exactly what the book is: an absolute joy to read. Bowden’s writing is a reminder that, in all the complexity of an age of upheaval, there is still good, and there is still evil, and the most interesting parts of humanity lie in the gulfs of gray in between ... Best of all? His stories are serious literary journalism, but they won’t send you into despair like so much in today’s world. You may feel a bit guilty for enjoying them, but Bowden’s stories of humanity’s darkness double as fast-paced mysteries, and it’s easy to simply kick back and enjoy.
The Case of the Vanishing Blonde is excellent work from a true master of the craft. These punchy crime stories are told with few frills and no romanticism. Bowden does not indulge in the usual salacious tripe of other true crime scribes. Rather, as he shows in every essay in The Case of the Vanishing Blonde
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Though Bowden...notes that crime stories serve to titillate, he proves that the genre is more than voyeuristic thrills. The six pieces found here, taken from over the course of the author’s career as a crime reporter, are uncomfortably thrilling—as good crime writing should be—but they contain insights into our often sexist and racist society, the criminal justice system, and who gets the privilege of having their stories told and believed ... This true crime master expands the limits of the genre, digging to find answers and revealing that even the most horrific crimes are often linked to a larger story about America.
For all of the podcasts and Netflix docu-series that brought true crime into the modern zeitgeist, this genre solidly thrives where it began: in print journalism. Here, best-selling Bowden...collects six of his long-form articles, most from Vanity Fair, each delving the intricacies, patience, and persistence of detective work ... [a] slim and satisfying volume. While humanizing the victims...these are, at their core, detective stories. Bowden writes with journalistic efficiency and a matter-of-fact admiration of the investigative work—from the ingenious to the tedious—of his detectives, whose mystery solving 'creates order from disorder, salves our ache for moral balance.'
Veteran narrative journalist Bowden resurrects a half-dozen works of true crime, ranging from merely creepy to palpably fascinating ... While Bowden’s writing is solid and sincere, his attempt to parse the moral implications of the gang rape of a female college student comes off as both overly disturbing and painfully sympathetic to the perpetrators ... The author’s reporting in ...A Million Years Ago...about the investigation into a decades-old cold case, has attracted some controversy, but there’s no skepticism about his portrayal of the investigation itself, resolutely documented and as incisive and enthralling as any true-crime podcast or episode of NCIS ... Readers are likely to have encountered some version of the title story...in popular media. However, that piece and its companion stories...are as gripping as any murder mystery and feature shades of Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe ... An uneven but often enthralling collection of true-crime investigations.
The six previously published true crime stories in this engrossing collection from Bowden...showcase his gift for narrative nonfiction ... Bowden reconstructs an online sting aimed at child predators via interviews with the FBI agent and the man eventually arrested, and raises thought-provoking questions about entrapment. New readers will want to seek out Bowden’s book-length nonfiction after devouring this.
