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Title: Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer
ISBN: 0374148457
Author:
John Leake
Publicate Date: 2007-11-13
Publish: 2007-11-13
List Price: $25.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.89
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.90
Amazon Merchant Price: $18.25
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Fascinating and gripping book
John Leake researched for four years in Vienna and Los Angeles to write this book. He literally spoke to hundreths of people and the result is one of the fines written and researched true crime books I have read recently. What I really applaud the author for, is his genuine lack of vanity. He never judges and never comments on Austria's most gruesome serial killers of the 20th century. After Jack Unterweger got released from prison (for viciously killing a young girl in Germany) he was already a well know literate. In jail, he wrote a book and many of Austria's intellectual elite voted for his early release. He soon became a star of the caf?? society in Vienna. He had numerous affairs with women of all ages, classes and backgrounds. He could have made it. But then the killings started. Eleven women were killed in the time between his release and his escape to Miami, where eventually he was apprehended. Three of them in Los Angeles. John Leake depicts the picture of a sociopath with obvious considerable charms who could function in society as long as nobody questioned him and his stories. He was a cold blooded killer, a narcissist, a liar and a very mediocre writer. I congratulate John Leake to this book and I hope to read more of his books in the future to come.
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2: Well-written First Book
John Leake's Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer is a very well researched and written book. Like others, I concur that the aspects of Jack Unterweger's double life and the ultimately deadly Austrian liberal perspective with respect to the ability of criminals to be rehabilitated were very well done. Less well developed were an explication of the reasons behind the protaganist's murderous behavior--his childhood (and his misrepresentation of certain aspects of his mother's and father's history)--and his sexual inclinations and their relationship to his murderous behavior. The fact that the story spans the Atlantic with key portions in two key Austrian locations--Vienna and Graz (where the American author's German language and translation skills shine)--as well as Los Angeles and, to a lesser degree, Miami, also adds interest to the book.
In short, a very good true crime book about a most disturbing protaganist, particularly considering that this is the author's first book. I look forward to future books from this author.
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3: impressive true crime debut
As good as anything Ann Rule ever wrote--and maybe even better.
About the only complaint: author could have delved deeper into Unterweger's mother's life, as well as what exactly the killer's life was like as a young child, as he was raised by a grandfather who evidently was a mean drunk, etc.
Other than that, a fine job of writing as well as research.
Author John Leake definitely has a career in this field.
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4: Did I Read the Same Book?
I bought this book based on the glowing reviews. I love true crime stories and was excited when this arrived. I tore into it, and it was off to a pretty good start. Then it started to drag...and drag....There were so many little details and names and places that I was bored stiff. I found myself daydreaming and having to reread passages on numerous occasions. I ended up skimming the final few chapters and then picking up at the end. I could not relate at all to the main character, Jack, and I had zero sympathy or empathy for him. He was purely evil and narcissistic and unlikeable, which, according to the author was the opposite of how many people in Vienna's society would have described him. I just didn't get it. Maybe the timing was wrong for me and this really was as great a book as the other reviewers claim. For me it was a borderline painful reading experience.
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5: Outstanding in every respect!
Congratualations to John Leake on this outstanding work! Having been directly involved with Unterweger's extradition to Austria, I can report that women lawyers, law enforcement officers, and diplomats were instrumental in every aspect of this fugitive's return to Austria to answer for his hideous crimes against women. This gives new meaning to the words "poetic justice."
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