The Crime Buff’s Guide series
by Ron Franscell and others (various)
Between 2010 and 2017, true-crime
writer Ron Franscell, sometimes working with additional researchers, published
a series of 8 volumes called “The Crime Buff’s Guide to…_____”.
Entries covered Los Angeles, Texas, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, The Rockies,
The Southwest, Arizona and New Mexico. The libraries have available the Rockies volume in paperback, and the Southwest and Los Angeles volumes as eBooks.
Each volume follows a similar
pattern — the books are broken into chapters, either geographically or
thematically. The Rockies volume, for example, has chapters on The
Denver Metro Area, The Colorado Front Range, The Colorado
Western Slope, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch,
and a final chapter on Wyoming. Each chapter starts with a map,
covering the wide area of all the crimes that follow. The crimes covered range
from relatively recent to historical, mostly murder but also sometimes bank
robberies, major fraud and disappearances. Each crime (or series of crimes)
receives its own set of pages — starting with the physical address and GPS coordinates
to locate it, where a crime took place, followed by a description of the crime
in question — ranging from simplistic to very detailed. Most entries then also
include photo illustrations — pictures of the victims, the killers, the
grave-sites, the buildings where murders took place, etc.
There are occasional sidebar
articles, related to the main focus articles, and Franscell includes booklists
that feature titles readers can track down for additional information on many
of the cases he includes. As the series grew, he tended to re-use entries from
earlier volumes in the later volumes, when there were thematically-appropriate
reasons (even if occasionally tenuous).
If you’re a true crime “buff” and
would like to learn tidbits about a LOT of different crimes in the areas
covered, rather than exhaustively researched full books on individual
crimes/criminals, this is definitely a series to sample — the 5 volumes not
owned by the libraries can be borrowed through InterLibrary Loan. (Disclaimer:
One of my best friends was Franscell’s co-author on the Pennsylvania entry, and
she has shared many discussions with me about how much research goes into
compiling volumes like these. Believe me…it’s a lot!)
(The true crime section in all
Lincoln City Libraries locations is generally under 364, with
murder cases being 364.152, in case you’d like to browse for
additional reading material. Also, a new library-sponsored book group — Once
Upon a Crime — started meeting once a month at the Gere Branch
library this Fall. Check out the link for their upcoming schedule and monthly
focus topics.)
( official Crime
Buff’s Guide page on the official Ron Franscell web
site — sadly, the series has been discontinued )
Recommended
by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service
Have you read or listened to
this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
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individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the
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