I downloaded this book more on the strength of the narrator’s skill, than for any other reason, and very nearly gave up on it about a third of the way through it (something I almost never do). From a disappointing beginning, the book became overwhelmingly compelling as a consequence of what was something of a side-plot… but became the focus of fascination for me.
The story of Macdonald Smith, a psychopathic serial rapist, began with a lengthy, detailed narrative of his upbringing in a family impoverished both in finances and morality. The author’s attention to detail was both excruciating and disturbing in many ways, but stretched credulity and struck me as very highly contrived, with far too many details and characterizations that seemed likely to have been extracted from the author’s interviews with the subjects. I almost felt, at times, that I was reading thinly disguised fiction.
However, the book completely turned around, for me, at the point where an innocent man was wrongly arrested, tried, and convicted for one of Smith’s rapes. The story of this poor man’s struggle, the way in which the efforts to clear his name so destroyed his personality and relationships, was so compelling, that I found myself sitting in my parked car in my own driveway for several hours because I just couldn’t set it aside for the next day’s commute. The narrative of his eventual exoneration was tinged with tragedy, as well; but I don’t want to be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that the middle third of the book was some of the best true crime I’ve listened to in quite a while.
Kevin Pierce does an excellent job in the narration; as I mentioned, I selected this book partially on the basis of his performance in another audiobook. His voice lends itself remarkably well to crime stories, with it’s plain-speaking, almost ‘cop-like’ character.