Popular Crime

I enjoyed Bill James' "Man From the Train" so much that I decided to see what else he had written. Sadly, mostly baseball books, but a few years ago he did write a book called "Popular Crime", looking at what cases have captured America's attention over the last several hundred years and trying to determine what made these cases different. The same snarky sense of humor that made "Man From the Train" so good is here as well, so it was an enjoyable read. He made some interesting conclusions about why crime stories wavered in popularity for awhile (I've oversimplifying, but the press was ashamed of themselves after the Lindbergh trial, so they backed off printing salacious news for the good of the country, which ended up backfiring because people thought they were safer than they were. Violent, ugly crime was still happening in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s, but because it wasn't being reported as nonstop as it used to be people didn't realize it). While I disagree with him about some of his conclusions to unsolved crimes, he makes a good case for his arguments. I do hope he decides to write more crime books, he's a gem.