Book Review: BURIED ALIVE by Jan Bondeson, W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

A classic horror story is Poe's "The Premature Burial" spawned out of a real fear that today, many either forgot or simply are unaware ever existed. Mr. Bondeson takes us through the history and the remedies concocted to shave some of the fear from man's greatest fear.

This is a scholarly written volume and is not light reading, but for those of us who don't resort to the more homogenized literary fare; to the more outline driven childish tome, this is an incredible gem of research in understanding the fear, the horror and the problem.

Book Review: "THE LONDON MONSTER: A Sanguinary Tale" by Jan Bondeson, De Capo Press, 2001.

An obscure book about an obscure crime spree and long forgotten trial. Predating Jack The Ripper by almost one hundred years, London of 1790 is besieged by a serial slasher. This is long and scholarly work, one that is not a light read; however, it is a fascinating tale of crime, society, class, punishment, and the sado-sexual world none of us studied in Western Civilization.

If you are as fascinated with the criminal mind and investigation as I am this a book for you.