Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession

As I read this book, all I could keep thinking of was the Dirty Dancing DVD. Why, you ask? Well, back when audio commentary tracks were all the rage, Dirty Dancing writer Eleanor Bergstein did the best one I ever heard. I truly enjoyed listening to the sparkle in her voice as she excitedly raced to jam in years and years worth of her every thought about the film. Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, a fanatic about true crime stories, brings that same passion to the printed page as she pours all her energy and enthusiasm for the subject into this big thick book.

I found myself swept up in her musings and reflections about what this obsession means about her and people like her. I was drawn into her recaps of some of the cases that had the most show more impact on her. I smiled at the banter between her and her mother.

Keep in mind, this is more a fan rant than a scholarly work. I imagine you'll either immediately fall in love with her wit, humor, and candor in the first few pages or you'd best set the book aside because it's the same all the way through.

I'm not a true crime fan and I've never watched an episode of Law & Order, but thanks to Campbell's cheerleading, I'm tempted to at least try an Ann Rule book sometime in the near future and maybe a couple of the other books she mentions. show less

Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell is a 2021 Andrews McMeel Publishing publication.

With just a few exceptions, this book could have been about me!

Well, to clear- I’d be the mother in this book- and I’ve made my daughter a true crime addict, too. (As you will discover- that’s not a bad thing, at all)

So, I could relate to this book quite a bit. I have watched the movies, read the books, watched all the crime shows and documentaries.

Two things I don’t do, though, are- Nancy Grace- and podcasts- but I have tried to add the podcasts in on occasion.

But alas, this story is not about me…

The story is about a woman, Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, who is obsessed with True Crime. She show more thinks she inherited this interest in crime from her mother, but wants to try and figure out the psychology behind why people find true crime so entertaining.

High profile cases like that of the Zodiac and Ted Bundy are profiled and analyzed, for starters, moving on to other cases, like Anne Marie Fahey.

Hilary lists the authors she loves, and crime shows she watches- both fiction and non-fiction and then of course, as her life progresses, she discovers the true crime podcast.

The author attempts to make her obsession sound not all that strange, while admitting there’s some weirdness about enjoying the genre.

Other than one warped religious remark, early on, I thought the book was hilarious, and so true. The author nails the obsessive behaviors of many true crime enthusiast, most of whom are women, and many of us can see ourselves in this book.

The illustrations are in black and white, perhaps more like something you might see in a newspaper or magazine, than the traditional graphic novel.

I enjoyed the criminal cases she chose to examine and got a kick out her defense of the true crime genre and understood her need to explain why she enjoys it and can relate to feeling a certain amount of guilt about that, as well, occasionally wondering what it said about me that got into what Hilary calls “all that murder s**t”.

As her investigation deepens her findings will give all us ladies who enjoy true crime a better understanding of what it is about the genre that attracts us, and we can all breathe a great big sigh of relief because I agree wholeheartedly with Hilary’s findings! No need to explain or feel guilty anymore!

Women really have made true crime better!

The Thanksgiving scene at the end was hilarious and brilliant and I loved, loved, loved the way the book ends!

Anyone up for an episode of Law & Order? Dun Dun! show less

The art style really did not work for me - not only is it not to my taste aesthetically, I found it very confusing that Hilary, her mom, and many other female characters were practically identical to one another. It looks messy and rushed and like she couldn't be bothered to make any of the lines straight. It isn't always clear which order the text should be read in, and at times the handwritten text itself is hard to read. The storytelling is disjointed and jumps around a lot without clear transitions between topics. I thought that I might like this book because I like true crime, but my previous knowledge of true crime meant I really didn't need to be told about Ted Bundy yet again. This book might be better suited to people who show more aren't into true crime themselves and want to understand the appeal. I did appreciate the exploration of why people, especially women, are interested in true crime, and the acknowledgement of how messed up it is that people care more when the victims are pretty white girls, but she could have gone a lot deeper on those topics. show less

In this graphic novel, comedian and New Yorker cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell attempts to do several things:

- Explore the roots of her true crime obsession (and why others, particularly women, share her obsession)
- Provide overviews of some of the murder stories (Zodiac killer, Ted Bundy, etc.) that got her interested in true crime
- Look at the history of the true crime genre, loosely organized by format, including books, movies, TV series, and podcasts. This also touches on true crime-adjacent stuff like crime dramas and police procedurals

One thing she isn't interested in spending much time on is addressing the problematic aspects of true crime obsession, in part because she seems to think that, if she recognizes it as show more problematic, she'd have to back off from it (page 294 - I'm aware she's at least partly joking, but still). Instead, she very briefly highlights the ways in which true crime storytelling has progressed in the way both victims and perpetrators are written about.

I've been drawn to a lot of nonfiction and autobiographical graphic novels lately. This one caught my eye because the person I supervise at work listens to a lot of true crime podcasts, and we've occasionally chatted about it. I told her a little about this graphic novel while I was reading it, and she'd said she'd like to give it a shot herself. I'm interested to hear what she thinks about it.

This graphic novel was at its most coherent when Campbell was writing about murders. As someone who reads murder mysteries and has watched a lot of police procedurals but who hasn't gotten into true crime (I listened to most of the Serial podcast and that's about it), I learned a bit, even though most of the killers Campbell wrote about were well-known. That said, the tone was a bit too light and flippant for me, and Campbell's efforts to humanize the victims generally boiled down to giving them each a slightly more realistically drawn portrait and listing two or three of their "likes." The one story that centered the victim more was the murder of Anne Marie Fahey, possibly because Campbell more closely identified with the victim.

When it came to writing about true crime as a genre and the roots of her own interest in it, this book was much more scattered - the author poked fun at herself several times for this, but it really was true. It was kind of a mess. In terms of its format, it also wasn't the easiest graphic novel to read, and I say that as a long-time reader of graphic novels. There are quite a few "wall of text" pages, but the worst were the pages with lots of text crammed into badly arranged panels. I couldn't always figure out the order in which I was expected to read the text.

I thought the exploration of why Campbell and others enjoy true crime stories was interesting, although I doubt her conclusions were earth-shattering, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were laid out and examined better in other works. Like I said, this graphic novel was pretty rough at times, both in terms of organization and physical readability.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Disclaimer: I read this as a NetGalley ARC. I received no compensation other than the chance to read this work.

Murder Book is about the author's exploration of what attracts her, and other women, to the true-crime genre. Told from her viewpoint and interspersed with facts from infamous true-crime cases, this graphic novel covers what she tries to see as possible motivations for her true-crime fascination and if it really could be harmful to wallow in the details of other women's deaths.

This book was a good read, but the narrative style (as the author herself admits) is very meandering and circular. This may frustrate some readers to where they're willing to walk away from finishing the book, but it wasn't so much confusing as it was a show more feeling of wanting to say 'get to the point!'.

Recommended for fans of true-crime novels and podcasts. show less

Pretty good considering I'm not fond of graphic novels.

Author considers source of her obsession, shared with many women. Gives details of some cases.