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Book Review of The Best American Crime Writing: 2004 Edition : The Year's Best True Crime Reporting (Vintage)

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This book has its moments to be sure, but yet it does not come across as a full fledged crime book. Some of the authors are strictly reporting crime but quite a few get into thematics that frankly, for the avid crime book reader, have no impact on the subject matter. I guess that what I am trying to convey is that the title is possibly misleading in that it is not stories of crime one after the other. And that, in a nutshell, is the only reason why I wanted to read it. The academic aspects of law, politics and regional conflicts are to my humble opinion (but opinionated, never the less) subject matters that clearly belong under a different title. I found myself reading less and less, skipping some of the essays? for this was not what I had bargained for. Under one banner what the reader basically gets is a lukewarm collection of stories but not necessarily reflecting on the subject it so boldly advertises. 3 Stars for here and there some good crime stories were revealed.