Unsolved Crimes: Follow the Trail of the Worlds Most Notorious Cases by John W. Wright


Unsolved Crimes: Follow the Trail of the Worlds Most Notorious Cases
Title : Unsolved Crimes: Follow the Trail of the Worlds Most Notorious Cases
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1606521829
ISBN-10 : 9781606521823
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 256
Publication : First published October 1, 2010

In 1990 two men wearing police uniforms took over the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. They stole works by Degas, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Manet and got away with the biggest art heist in history. In 1997 Christopher Wallace, the influential rapper known as Notorious B.I.G., was gunned down in Los Angeles. His killer remains free. And these cases are just two among many.
When a major crime is committed, investigators search for recent "hot" clues to track down the culprit. But what happens when the trail turns cold? Many unsolved criminal cases are closed and left dormant for years. On top of that, recent DNA advances and new forensic technologies are overturning guilty verdicts and creating more unsolved cases. "Unsolved Crimes" presents the victims, the details of the investigation, and the suspects in each case, and "Lingering Doubts" sidebars ask unanswered questions and let you assess the situation.
Included are sections such as:
Murder: High-school student Natalee Holloway; California's Zodiac Killer; the Black Dahlia; "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane
Political Assassinations: Communist defector Alexander Litvinenko; investigative Russian journalist Anna Politkovskava; Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme; Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto
Kidnapping: British child Madeleine McCann; Minneapolis socialite Virginia Piper: Moroccan leader Mehdi Ben Barka
Robbery: Airplane hijacker D. B. Cooper: the heist of the Irish "Crown Jewels"
White Collar Crime: Tainted Chinese toothpaste; the Vatican Bank Scandal

Unsolved Crimes: Follow the Trail of the Worlds Most Notorious Cases Reviews

  • Christina

    It was okay. More or less just a catalog of unsolved crimes.

    There is nothing really new or important about this book, and because there are several unanswered questions associated with these cases, the writing is quite repetitive (re-hashing the same few facts over and over again).

    This book is probably a good one to have in your collection if you are the kind of crime/mystery buff who'd like to cross the cases off a list as they are eventually solved - if they can be solved. Many of the cases are too old for new information or evidence to come to light.

    I would recommend this book to a young teenager, maybe, if he or she is just starting to become interested in crime stories and would like an introduction to true crime.

  • Katie

    Not much information and actually pretty dull.

  • Stephen

    What can I say? This was a piece of Reader's Digest fluff reading. It went over old cases giving just about what you would get from Wikipedia. It ranged from famous kidnapping, assassinations, to art thefts, and frauds. Of course it had the infamous D.B. Cooper job, and no new information, but all in all it was a fun read.

  • Nancy

    Most of the book was really interesting. The last few chapters about fraud, etc just aren't my thing, but it's a great book. Lots of interesting information.

  • Amy

    Interesting book, I liked how each case was short and to the point, great for holding the attention of my wandering mind.

  • Stephen

    Typical fluff coffee table book rehashing old cases with information that comes up in a normal google search.

  • Kimberly

    Nothing spectacular. Quick retelling of un solved crimes. No real substance. Author asked un imaginative questions.