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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated A Cast of Killers in Books
Feb 15, 2019
A CAST OF KILLERS is a compelling look back into the 1922 unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor. The author tells the story through the eyes of director King Vidor, using his actual research of the murder during the years sixty-six and sixty-seven.
Once I picked this up, I could not put it back down, or rather, I didn't want to put it down for a second. Sydney D. Kirkpatrick knows how to grab ahold of a reader and keep them locked into the book until the very end. To make sure nothing spoiled the book for me, I didn't look anything up online (as I'm apt to do) until after I had read the last sentence. This proved to be for the best. Unfortunately, this is not the definitive answer to an unsolved crime, but just Vidor's (and I assume the author's) theory in a case that will likely never be truly solved. Also, the newsletter called <a href="http://www.taylorology.com"; target="_blank">Taylorology</a>, which specializes in the murder, found 175 errors and contradictions in the 1986 edition of the book (the one I read). According to their website, most of those errors were corrected in the Twentieth Anniversary Edition.
Still, I found the book to be absolutely riveting and was a good starting place to learn the basics of a crime I had never heard of before. A CAST OF KILLERS is written like a novel, therefore it's a fast read and very entertaining. I take the theory used in it with a grain of salt, but all-in-all, it was a worthwhile read.
Once I picked this up, I could not put it back down, or rather, I didn't want to put it down for a second. Sydney D. Kirkpatrick knows how to grab ahold of a reader and keep them locked into the book until the very end. To make sure nothing spoiled the book for me, I didn't look anything up online (as I'm apt to do) until after I had read the last sentence. This proved to be for the best. Unfortunately, this is not the definitive answer to an unsolved crime, but just Vidor's (and I assume the author's) theory in a case that will likely never be truly solved. Also, the newsletter called <a href="http://www.taylorology.com"; target="_blank">Taylorology</a>, which specializes in the murder, found 175 errors and contradictions in the 1986 edition of the book (the one I read). According to their website, most of those errors were corrected in the Twentieth Anniversary Edition.
Still, I found the book to be absolutely riveting and was a good starting place to learn the basics of a crime I had never heard of before. A CAST OF KILLERS is written like a novel, therefore it's a fast read and very entertaining. I take the theory used in it with a grain of salt, but all-in-all, it was a worthwhile read.