DOUGLAS PERRY is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The San Jose Mercury News, Details, and The Oregonian. He is the online features editor at The Oregonian and the co-author of The Sixteenth Minute- Life in the Aftermath of Fame. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
"The recounting of the murders is gripping stuff, but where Perry
shows a particularly gifted touch is in the sights and smells of a
1920s newsroom."
-The Portland Oregonian
"The Girls of Murder City spans several categories-true-crime,
comedy, social history. It turns out that behind "Chicago" there
was a sexy, swaggering, historical tale in no need of a soundtrack.
Liked the movie. Loved the book."
-The Wall Street Journal
"Fans of true crime and popular history will enjoy the book's
oversized female characters and its hardboiled background of crime
and no punishment."
-The Boston Globe
"For true crime buffs, history fans or anyone interested in the
roaring 1920s, this one's a sure-fire hit."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Perry takes a sturdy foundation of murder, sex and Chicago's
scandal-happy newspapers and builds a nonfiction marvel. His
bouncy, exuberant prose perfectly complements the theatricality of
the proceedings, and he deftly maneuvers away from the main story
without ever losing momentum...The Girls of Murder City not only
illustrates the origins of a new media monster, but reminds us that
we've never been that innocent."
-BookPage
"A jazzy reprise of a time when the criminal justice system in
Chicago let good- looking killers off the hook and newspapers
exploited every lurid detail of dalliances turned fatal for their
front pages."
-Shelf Awareness
"As entertaining as Chicago (on stage or screen), and far more
informative, The Girls of Murder City recaptures a moment in which
the Victorian feminine ideal was (and wasn't) giving way to the
"churning change" of the flapper lifestyle - and ebulliently
elucidates the emergence of the criminal as celebrity. It's this
summer's "not guilty" pleasure."
-NPR, Books We Like
"Consistently entertaining...A chronicle of the wild spring and
summer of 1924, when Chicago was afflicted with a seeming epidemic
of female murderers."
-Kirkus Reviews
"[A] well-researched, fast-paced story behind the story."
-Booklist
Ask a Question About this Product More... |