Murder In Amsterdam Book Summary

In Katherine Ramsland’s article “Murder by the Book: The Murder of Karyn Slover,” she tells the story of the mysterious murder of a 23 year old mother who seemed to vanish with no reasoning in central Illinois back in 1996. Ramsland begins by telling how an abandoned car was left on the side of the road with it still running, the headlights on and the driver door still open. Police searched the car and found a drivers license with Karyn Slover’s name on it, yet the car belonged to David Swann. The police reached Swann and told him of Karyn’s disappearance, which he then told the police how she was borrowing the car to pick up her son at the Slover’s household. The author continues on about how Swann filed a missing-persons report

In the book, The Christopher Killer, a seventeen year old girl named Cameryn Mahoney wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a forensic pathologist. She becomes the coroner’s assistant, her dad, and helps him when a situation comes up in their town. The setting takes place in Silverton, Colorado. During her second case, she realizes that one of her friends, Rachel Geller, is involved in a killing which is known as The Christopher Killer. They know that it is a killing from the Christopher Killer because they found a Saint Christopher medal on Rachel’s body during the autopsy. Knowing that her friend was involved, drives her to work even harder and do whatever it takes to find the murderer. Dr. Jewel, a famous and well-known physic visits

Natalee Holloway was an eighteen year old girl from Mountain Brook,Alabama who suddenly went missing in Aruba on a graduation trip on May 30, 2005. Joran Van der Sloot being accused for the murder of Natalee Holloway is not an example of a witch hunt because there is no mass hysteria and, there’s only one man that has been accused. Also the only reason Van der Sloot is being accused is because he’s a possible suspect, he was responsible for the murder of a young woman named Stephany Flores Ramirez on May 30, 2010 and he was at the bar where Holloway went missing back in 2005.

James Swanson’s intent in writing Bloody Crimes, The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse, is to compare the journey and fanfare that followed the funeral pageantry of Abraham Lincoln with the desperate escape attempt made by Jefferson Davis. Swanson states that, “The people of the Union and the Confederacy both shared a common belief and could agree upon one thing. In the spring of 1865, an era of bloody crimes had reached its climax.” (Swanson xiv) Abraham Lincoln’s death pageantry directly affected over seven million people, leaving a lasting impact on generations to come. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was the event that reinvigorated the North, giving them the strength and determination to win the war.

Kiowa was against it, he felt like it was wrong and since he was religious he felt like setting up camp and base of operations in a church was bad news. Dobbins however wasn’t all that religious, he believed in god but it was just being nice to people that mattered to him. Kiowa grew up loving churches and carrying The Bible around but Dobbins hated churches.

The film “Murder on a Sunday Morning” is a documentary on the murder of Mary Ann Stephens. This murder took place on May 7, 2000, in Jacksonville, Florida. Mary Anne Stephens was at the Ramada hotel with her husband when a dark male wearing a dark shirt, shorts, and a flat brim hat approached her and demanded for her purse. Within 5 seconds she was shot in the face by the bridge of her nose and killed. It was later that day hat Brenton Butler was stopped by police and identified by husband of Mary Anne Stephens. Brenton Butler was taken into custody where he remained for the next six months facing charges of murder in the first degree and armed robbery. Through evidence such as the clothes Brenton was wearing on the day of the murder, an alibi of going to blockbuster to hand in an application, and lack of forensic testing, Brenton was found not guilty in the case of Florida v. Brenton Leonard Butler after the jury convened for forty-five minutes on the twenty-first of November in 2000. The Jacksonville grand jury also decided not to file criminal charged against the three officers. After the case on March 12, 2001 the forensics department retrieved the purse to process all parts of it to find fingerprints matching to Juan Curtis who admitted to shooting Mary Ann Stephens. The Butler family planed to sue the sheriffs officers in an $8.5 million civil rights lawsuit.

The murderers are among us is the first post war German movie made in 1946 by Wolfgang Staudte. The movie is a story of Dr. Hans Mertens, his traumatizing experiences during Second World War. The movie portrays compassionate portrait of hope, resilience, and personal reconciliation. Rooted in the tradition of German expressionism, Wolfgang Staudte compares the bleak austerity of realistic filmmaking with rapid montage sequences, unusual camera angles, and sharp contrasts of light and darkness to create a sense of disorienting harsh reality that reflects the lives of the war’s survivors. The Murderers Are among Us, the first German postwar film, for many years set the tone for the discussion of German guilt and atonement.

Plot is defined as, "the authors arrangement of incidents in a story it is the organizing principle that controls the controls the order of events (Meyer,64)." The element of plot is heavily relied on in the short story, "The Killings" by Andre Dubus. The plot which is completely made inside the imagination of an author (Meyer,64), gives the audience important insight to people, places, and events in the story (Meyer,64) . "The Killings" provides a somewhat conventional plot pattern, where the character is confronted with a problem and is then led into a climax, which late leads to the resolution of the story (Meyer,65). The conventional plot is easy to follow and serves as a basis for movies and other

Buruma provides detailed insight into each character allowing the reader to contemplate the motivation behind actions of each one. Buruma describes Theo Van Gogh, the assassinated, as a “ubiquitous figure” in Holland, but is quick to point put out he is better known for his provocative public statements than his films. Van Gogh’s family was made up of Calvinists, Socialists, and Humanists all of which had an influence Theo Van Gogh in one way or another. Buruma emphasizes Van Gogh’s “desire to shock, to stir things up”, a desire developed at a young age and carried into his adulthood and films known for the shock value. There were to sides to Theo Van Gogh the first characterized by his ability to be generous and gracious and the

In the attached posts, I discuss why people are so fascinated with serial killers (week four) and also which weapon is used for murder and why (week one). The first post gives insight on one specific person named John Schwenk. Schwenk collects items and objects from serial killers themselves. The objects are often sent to him from prison along with notes and cards. Schwenk believes that these serial killers are his friends and is a prime example of why people finds serial killers fascinating. As discussed in the text, serial killers are found fascinating by many groups of people young and old, but everyone connects wth the information about them in different ways. Schwenk knows that serial killers are dangerous but still wants to know why and how they think during their killings or day to day life. The fascination of serial killers I nothing new as people have been studying the antics of serial killers for many decades now. For instance, the museum of crime admissions has drastically increased due to the fascination of the public. I

The book I read for my book report was “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller and was originally published in 1999. A Family that lived in Boulder, Colorado consisted of a Mom, Dad, Son and Daughter. They were a pretty wealthy family because the dad, John Ramsey owned a company known as “Access Graphics”. It was a billion dollar company which allowed them to be able to live in a 3 story mansion.

He concludes his paper with Van Gogh’s a “victim of his extreme humanity,” but throughout the piece he talks of his lack of humanity, his “explosive” nature and his deceptive needy ways even going as far to say he more or less “quarreled with friends and contacts willing to help him.” He as well chooses to summarize parts from the book to express his points and in doing so he contradicts his original purpose in staying to the facts and looking at it objectively. When he talks about the authors he uses words such as “cordially dislike” which in itself is contradictory to the book author’s ethos, since the book a deeply research heavy biography devoid of the author’s personal feelings. Coupling this with the fact the authors “appear to lose sympathy for Van Gogh…,” the very subject they write on creates a sense of apathetic jadedness.

In terms of getting into cozy mysteries Murder in Plain Sight is a good place to start. It has all the ingredients of a good mystery novel. The characters are challenging and have important interesting backstories that are revealed in interesting ways. The novel is engaging in that there is a web of connectedness in all the characters that we are introduced to throughout the story. It seems like the characters know each other or know of each other.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, a crucial statement is declared about how he views the inner workings of men, as well as how men interact with women in society. The narrative is based around the horrific murder of two defenseless women, which seems to have been committed by a mystery “beast”. Poe demonstrates the primitive violent forces that exist within people, particularly men, which have the ability to escape in shocking ways, often against a woman. Poe uses violence as a negative, inhumane act, in order to reinforce the innate brutal impulses that are just under the surface of all male beings.

Part One: Compare and contrast this persona of Death with the familiar personification of the Grim Reaper. How is Death from The Book Thief like the Grim Reaper, and how is he significantly different?