AUDIO

American Murder Houses: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses of Homicide

by Steve Lehto
6 CDs. 7:30 hrs. Tantor. Sept. 2016. ISBN 9781515911722. $32.99. digital download. CRIME
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If you were wondering what Billy Joel meant by "real-estate novelist," here is your answer. Lehto takes listeners on a far-reaching tour of 27 houses across the United States and the murders that took place at each. The stories cover older, notorious murder locales such as the LaLaurie Mansion and the Clutter farmhouse, as well as more recent abodes of Andrea Yates, JonBenet Ramsey, and the Menendez brothers. Each chapter is composed of a succinct summary of the murder(s) and various details of the location such as square footage and current owner, as well as remodels and tax values. This sadly makes the book read like a mashup of an abridged Wikipedia entry and a racy Zillow.com listing. Barry Press's commanding performance is perfectly on par with other true crime narrators.
VERDICT Conveying only an abbreviated summary of each murder, this book will probably not satisfy your true crime devotees but would be an adequate listen for those new to the topic. An optional purchase.
Reviewed by Cathleen Keyser, NoveList, Durham, NC , Dec 01, 2016
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