The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime

The Best New True Crime Stories:
Partners in Crime
296 pages
Book 5 in series of 5
 
            
 
            As most of my readers know, I am very interested in true crime. Human behavior and their reasons for said behavior fascinate me. So far, this book makes the third that I have read of the five currently available in this series. So far, each installment in the series has been incredibly interesting, very thought-provoking, and fairly disturbing at times.

In this particular collection, we have a vast array of types of crimes. These crimes include acts such as murder, robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault, and more. The one thing all of the dastardly deeds described in these pages is that for each crime there was a pair of perpetrators, not a single person. This focus on various atrocities committed by people that not only partner together to commit these acts but also feed off of each other and thrive on being together and involved with each other in each crime. 

This book shows that some people while fairly harmless individually can become something dark and dangerous when paired with the right person. Somehow some people just have chemistry that drives them into the depths of depravity together as one solid unit. Apart from and without each, other these offenders probably wouldn't have ever ventured to hurt another. But together? Together they can combine to become a very lethal and formidable duo.

And still, some of the cases presented show us that when bad people pair up with other bad people they can behave worse than before. They can embolden each other, challenge each other, push and pull at egos and insecurities. Whatever it takes to get what they want. 

I once heard something to the effect of 'when two damaged people come together no matter how much they love each other you can expect more damage'. Now, I don't know if that is truly 100% correct but the cases laid out in this collection certainly show that the people who were already on a bad path seemed to only exacerbate that by joining together with another damaged person. (I'm not talking about normal dysfunctional kind of damage. I'm talking about people who already lack moral psychology, have a skewed measurement of right and wrong, and who have already forgone the basics of humanity.)

While perpetrating their violations upon innocent victims each of these pairs were willing participants with no regard for anyone or anything, nor did they have any real concern about any consequences that may arise from their criminality. They become very wrapped up in each other and almost seem to live through their crimes in a fantasy world where nothing bad can happen to them and there will be the fairytale ending where they live happily together forever and ever. But the reality is very different.

I found this book to be just as interesting as the other two that I have read. I like that each case is written by a different author. This gives the reader a variety of writing styles to keep the information stimulating and appealing. This is also a valuable way of letting the stories be told in different voices. Each person, especially authors and true storytellers, tells their account of the events in their own way. Some people are more fact-based. Others are more descriptive with vivid imagery created for the reader. Some are a combination of storyteller types. But we all have our own voice. 
Furthermore, the cases are from all over the world at different times in the past. It's not just current crimes or crimes committed in just one region. Again, this is a technique that is beneficial to the reader as it exposes them to events they may not have otherwise known about or even thought to research. There were several cases in this edition of this series that piqued my interest and I made notes to try to find even more information in addition to the large number of facts already presented to me.
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For the true-crime buffs, this is one you will definitely want to read. It's not filled with horror and gore, although yes there are many appalling tragic events detailed. But it truly is more of a written documentary of people who, when they paired up, were nothing but bad news, detailing their crimes and histories, both personal histories and each couple's histories leading up to their crimes. I hope this series continues to grow. I'm very anxious to see what special subset of criminals Szereto chooses to educate us about next.
 
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

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