Usually it’s the case with true-crime books that the story is compelling, but the writing is crap.   This one’s the other way around — a well-written book that is nonetheless some of the least credible crime writing I’ve ever read, and Hodel’s insistence that he’s made his case doesn’t make it any more true, particularly since he dismisses John Douglas out of hand.   Son, Douglas founded the FBI profiling program; if he thinks your crackpot theory about your dad isn’t relevant, it doesn’t make him the idiot.   All due respect to Hodel’s police background, but the connections are all so tenuous as to not even qualify as “circumstantial evidence”…I mean, I’m not all that well read on this particular case, but the fact that Hodel’s father was a son of a bitch and a pedophile does not convince me that he killed Beth Short, or anyone else.   Frustrating book.   (9/19/05)

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