Review: People Who Eat Darkness, by Richard Lloyd Parry

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo- and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up, by Richard Lloyd Parry. 2012. Farrar Straus and Giroux.

Lucie Blackman was a young Englishwoman in her early 20s when she and a friend decided to travel and work in Japan to have fun and earn some money. They each took a job in a "hostess club," where young women chatted up and entertained (mostly) Japanese men and thereby encouraged them to buy expensive drinks. Part of their job also involved going on dates (dōhan) with the club's customers, to encourage further visits and patronage of the bar. Then one day Lucie disappeared. 

When Lucie's story starts, it's so ordinary. Parry describes her normal family, predictable path through school and early career, regular friends and boyfriends. Going abroad should have been just another fun chapter in her life- not something everyone does, but not that unusual. I went to Ireland for a summer after college, not to pay off debts but just to travel, have an adventure, get away from home and be independent for the first time. Lucie had traveled as an airline hostess but this was her first time living in another country and everything should have been fairly straightforward. And it was, until she crossed paths with a predator.

When Lucie disappeared, her family sprang into action to find her. What follows is frustrating and drawn out, made more complicated by a slow-lurching Japanese justice system along with other factors. Parry describes the action in page-turning terms and he brings everyone to life on the page, from Lucie to her father to the alleged killer. I really wanted to see how this story would turn out even when it felt like disappointment was looming.

As true crime goes it's gripping and intense and filled with detail about the Japanese police, court system and hostess bar scene. I felt like I learned a lot. There's a lot of weird stuff that happens, but Parry's writing is immersive and will keep you reading well into the night. I've had this book on my radar for a long time and enjoyed it, insofar as you can enjoy a story like this.

Review: El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord, by Noah Hurowitz

El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord, by Noah Hurowitz (2021) Atria Books.

I'm not sure what exactly prompted me to pick up El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord, by Noah Hurowitz. I bought it earlier this year from Greenlight Bookstore, where I used to work; it was kind of a big-deal book at the store and it piqued my curiosity as a true-crime reader. I think he's local to one of the stores and did some signing. It's a pretty good read.

The first half or so centers on the various players in the Mexican drug scene, their relationships, their fights, the incredible amounts of violence they generate that affect each other and innocent bystanders. This part of the book is page-turning but also incredibly depressing. Awful people being awful to each other and others. We also learn about El Chapo's big escape from prison in Mexico and how truly unbelievably corrupt the whole system is, from the very top all the way on down.

Then we get into what was for me the more interesting part of the book, about the operation to take El Chapo down, which starts with the most unlikely of players- El Chapo's IT guy. The story of this guy, how and why he was persuaded to cooperate with the FBI and the details of the efforts to take El Chapo down are fascinating and compelling. This part of the story also gets more into El Chapo's personality and his personal relationships because these details figure prominently in El Chapo's online life and how he managed the technology that ran his empire. Soap-opera-worthy doesn't even begin to describe it.

And I learned a lot of (depressing) things along the way about the drug trade, the gun trade and governments of both Mexico and the United States. 

Anyway I would definitely recommend El Chapo to the true crime reader or anyone interested in any of the topics I mentioned above. Hurowitz's reporting will keep you tied to and turning the pages. It's a book I stayed up past my bedtime to keep reading more than once!

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

Review: A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON, by Luke Harding

A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvenenko and Putin's War with the West, by Luke Harding. Published 2017 by Vintage. Nonfiction.

If you want to read something that will keep you up at night, A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvenenko and Putin's War with the West is as good as any thriller out there- with the additional zing that this is a very true story about an inept but ultimately successful plot to kill a journalist and the investigation that went all the way to the top of the Russian government.

Alexander Litvenenko was a journalist who became an enemy of the Putin government when he threatened to expose its role in scandals that shook Russia, in particular an apartment bombing that killed several hundred Russians and may have been orchestrated by the Kremlin to promote public support for the war in Chechnya. Litvenenko ended up fleeing Russia with the help of oil oligarch Boris Berezovsky, himself an enemy of the state, and lived for a time in London with his wife and son until two bungling henchmen poisoned him with polonium, a radioactive element that is only produced at a couple of labs within Russia. So while from an official point of view no charges have been pursued against Putin, from another point of view there's really no question who's responsible.

Journalist Luke Harding tells this harrowing and tragic story with verve and enough detail that the reader will feel fully immersed in the details of the killing, the investigative aftermath and the bureaucracy and corruption surrounding the whole affair. It's also incredibly frightening on any number of levels. Litvenenko's is not the only dead body in the story and though I will say it loses some momentum about 2/3 of the way through it picks up again right towards the very end.

I really couldn't put the book down. It probably took me about a week to read it and I wanted to be reading it every waking minute of that time. Last year I read Masha Gessen's scary The Man Without a Face, her story of Vladimir Putin's rise, and the Litvenenko murder was part of that story; this book fleshes it out and gives us a level of detail Gessen could not, but you don't need to have read her book for this one to chill you to the bone. If you're interested in the current head of the government who is so admired by the head of our own, A Very Expensive Poison will make it hard to sleep at night, one way or the other.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.

REVIEW: In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. Originally published 1966. This edition published 2004 by Random House/Blackstone Audio. Narrated by Scott Brick. Nonfiction.

In Cold Blood is a true classic of American nonfiction; in my opinion it should be required reading for anyone interested in American literature, period.

Truman Capote, author of such seminal fiction as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Voices, Other Rooms, turned his hand to journalism for the New Yorker magazine when he traveled to Kansas to report on the murder of a wealthy farm family, the Clutters, in the town of Holcomb. Two films have been made about his trip, which he undertook with fellow writer Harper Lee: Capote (2005) and Infamous (2006); there have been film adaptations of the book itself as well. But none of these are any substitute for this masterful book.

The book is structured in two overlapping circles. In plain, unvarnished prose, Capote alternates between the story of the murder and the story of the murderers, building tension slowly as we see the doomed family slowly careening towards their encounter with their killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. The details of the murders aren't revealed until Smith and Hickock are caught but the discovery of the bodies by neighbors is one of the most haunting passages I've ever read.  From there, Capote rejoins the fugitives and the investigators as they begin their own slow-motion collision. Finally, Capote covers the trial, imprisonment and eventual fate of the killers, ending on a note of poetry.

Capote fleshes out every person mentioned in the book, just about; he goes into great detail about the Clutters, their character, their life together and their place in the community. It's a little hard to imagine how much research must have gone into the book to obtain the level of detail Capote shares. And he gives the investigators a similar treatment, but he saves his most thorough journalism for the killers. We learn a great deal about Smith and Hickock's background, psychology and motivations; their journey before and after the murders is recounted meticulously.  He also spends time discussing criminal psychology, cases similar to the Clutter murders and the role of the death penalty. He doesn't quite create empathy for the killers but he tries to show the reader how such a crime, and how such killers, might come to be.

I listed to the audio version of the book over a two-week period. Scott Brick does a great job narrating, building suspense and bringing the narrative to life. Certain production choices, like where to end a disc, add to the drama. And Brick has a great voice for true crime. I read the book in print several years ago; I think it works best on the page but with Brick's skillful narration, audio was a fine way to experience it too.

In Cold Blood is one of my all-time favorite books. Besides being fascinating, thought-provoking and well-crafted, it's a page-turner like no other. I can't say enough good things about this incredible, essential book. If you're not a regular reader of literary books, you owe it to yourself to make time a few times in your life for a work of this caliber. Otherwise, why read?

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.