True Crime Studies: “A Bird in Your Hand” is probably the borest true crime book I’ve ever read
This little book was probably put together when one of the two authors, Frank L. Johnson to be exact, started looking for an excuse to talk about his father and hometown of Xenia, Ohio. A teeny tiny little town where major crime almost never happens. He then pulled out the first major homicide to happen during his father’s career as a judge and used it as the focus point in his passionate trek of Xenia, making for a book that’s terribly miscast in the genre it’s meant to stand in. A Bird in Your Hand: A Story of Ambiguous Justice is exceptionally dull. I don’t want to be harsh, but every chapter felt like one of my father’s many tales about Tumeric.
The biggest flaw of this book is that it feels like a summarization of something bigger. It’s as if they took a much longer, more detailed book that doesn’t exist, and turned it into a pamphlet. Despite being promoted as a true crime story, it shows very little of the actual crime. It skims over it along with the people involved, instead choosing to spend the majority of its time in court and on background details.
The book presents the case of Clarence Earl Tucker and Ernie Evans, two troubled youths that had a habit of getting into mischief. After going on a joy ride with a stolen car, bootlegging some liquor, and just doing what teenage boys do, they got pulled over by some police officers. Inside their stolen vehicle were a shotgun and a pistol, both damaged and neither intended for premeditated violence. One they were planning on selling and the other on repairing and also maybe selling somewhere down the line.
In the heat of the moment, though, Evans uses the pistol to shoot and kill an officer. There’s a brief moment of chaos in the street and within minutes, it’s over. There are three men down and another just standing there with his arms up. Clarence Tucker, though not completely free of a guilty conscience, was innocent of anything that had to do with the shootout, and this is the fact that A Bird in Your Hand by Frank Johnson and Jeffery Alan John, wants to talk about. Keep in mind this book is more interested in background details — the lawyers, the families of the lawyers, the judges, Ernie Evans’s girlfriend, and the author himself. The intended focus, which is Tucker and the murder he was an accomplice of, often goes unseen like a ghost in the background.
Tucker gets put away for life after the local police force him into a fake confession and then sway the court in their favor. Years after being sent away, he seeks rightful justice and this, what comes in near the midway point towards the very end of the book, is supposed to be the focal point of the story. That’s the “ambiguous” justice the book is naming in its title — A Bird in Your Hand: A Story of Ambiguous Justice.
This book has an unfortunate identity complex. It thinks it’s more unique than it actually is. “A story of ambiguous justice,” “a true crime story unlike any other,” but is it? Not to say that the death of a man, officer Earl Confer, or that the punishment of an innocent man isn’t tragic but nothing about this case stands out among the millions of other similar crimes that have occurred both before and after it. This is something that happens all the time in both police work and the criminal justice system.
The point A Bird in Your Hand is trying to make is that justice is not blind and is open to more than one interpretation, but it sure does take its sweet time getting there.
Verdict
My opinion towards A Bird in Your Hand might possibly be influenced by my initial perception of it. Perhaps if I’d known that the book focused more on the city of Xenia and the author’s father, Judge Johnson, then I might’ve received it a bit more warmly.
It actually wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be because it had heart, an attempt to tell a genuine story that unfortunately gets buried under an excessive amount of background details, with an excuse for Johnson to mention his parents every three pages. When it comes down to it, I think Johnson and his co-author, Jeffery Alan John, had a lot to say, a lot to share, but had no idea how to do it. Large amounts of facts and details are dumped on you, usually, all at once, and written in a summarizing format. It gives a lot of information with as little space as possible, cramming it all in 236 pages.
If it had focused entirely on Tucker, or him and Evans, are gone in the fold and just discussed Judge Johnson the way the book seemed to have liked to, A Bird in Your Hand could have been a great read. It had the ingredients –small town, discrimination, a corrupt justice system, and a sympathetic young criminal — but it treated them like forgotten ghosts in their tour of Xenia.
(2.5 / 5)
Book Reviews
Joe Hill’s latest release, Ushers. Death is coming for us all.
“I think sometimes, once in a while, not dying brings a new clarity to a person’s life.”
Part detective story, part meditation on death and the grim reaper, Ushers is Joe Hill’s latest release and second stand-alone short story in as many years. Released in November 2024, this thirty-page tale delves into the eerie realm of near-death experiences, exploring the blurred lines between life and death and the haunting aftermath of miraculous escapes.
The Plot.
Ushers is divided into two interviews. In the first, we meet with special agents John Oates and Daryl Duvall. The two interview a young man, Martin Lorensen, who seems to be one lucky kid. You see Martin has avoided death not once, but twice. The derailment of Mohawk 118 is central to their investigation; Martin had a ticket but didn’t get on the train. The other was a school shooting at Kennedy High School; Martin didn’t attend school that day. The special agents question whether this luck is culpability. Is Martin responsible for these events and the lives that were lost? Martin says no, but it is soon revealed that he knows a little more than he is letting on.
Highlights.
Joe Hill knows his way around a short story. His pacing and timing are second to none. There wasn’t a moment during Ushers that I wasn’t captivated by what was unfolding.
This is not the first time that Hill has dealt with themes of death. We’ve met Ig Perrish in Horns and Judas Coyne in Heart-Shaped Box just to name two. This is though the first time that Hill has considered the inevitability of death and he has handled this weighty theme so beautifully. One of the quotes I pulled from this short story is going to stay with me for a long time. “Be a mammal. Eat as much fresh fruit as you can. Send some time in the trees. Hug the people you love. Accept that death is as natural as the rest of life.” (Hill, Ushers) Good advice for us all.
Drawbacks.
I’m a stickler for playing by the rules and weighing up the good and bad of everything. But I’m going against my greater instincts here and telling you there were no drawbacks in this short story. Haters come at me, but I can’t find anything to complain about.
The Final Take.
It is rumored that “Ushers” was intended for a short story anthology that was ultimately canceled. I’m really glad that Hill went ahead and released this one as a stand-alone. Fingers crossed that Hill’s upcoming novel is on par with Ushers. This short story is currently free to read for Prime and Kindle Unlimited members. Buyer beware, the last line is a stinger!
(5 / 5)
Book Reviews
Review: Don’t Eat the Pie, Monique Asher’s delicious trope fest.
“Real monsters are people, and I’ve seen them”
Published in September 2024, Don’t Eat the Pie is a debut novel from author Monique Asher. Reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby, this story delivers on so many tropes it is doubtful that anyone will not find something to like within its pages. It is not only tropes that Asher has gone to town with. Don’t Eat the Pie is also a mishmash of horror sub-genres that somehow works without being obvious. Southern gothic, supernatural, cult, body horror; it’s all served up here.
The Plot.
Newlyweds Sam and Ben’s idyllic honeymoon is cut short when Ben’s elderly mother, Nadine, suffers a fall. The couple and Sam’s teenage daughter, Emma, relocate to Ben’s childhood home to care for her.
Ben’s mother, lives on the exclusive Camillia Island. A secluded haven of wealth and privilege, accessible only by a creaky drawbridge. Things are smooth at first but both mother and daughter begin to notice some peculiar occurrences: mysterious men in pink shirts, overheard whispers, and a strange aftertaste from a seemingly innocent dessert.
As the days pass, the island’s tranquillity is shattered by increasingly bizarre events. The once-familiar landscape transforms transforms and the true identities of the island’s residents remain shrouded in secrecy. Sam and Emma find themselves entangled in a web of intrigue, questioning their own connection to the island’s dark past. As the stakes rise, Sam and Emma must uncover the truth about Camillia Island and its inhabitants before it’s too late.
Highlights.
The way Asher has built this plot is genius. The abundance of tropes might leave readers assuming predictability. However, red herrings sprinkled throughout the chapters will leave you guessing but never quite certain who is friend and who is foe until the final chapters.
The way that Asher depicts the natural elements on Camillia Island is also worth mentioning as a highlight. Nature plays a big role in this plot and I confidently say that it is a character in its own right. It is not only the ubiquitous snakes and crows encroaching on the inhabited spaces that lend a sinister feeling. The descriptions of the ocean surrounding the island, the vines and flowers that grow around the houses and even the scents permeating the breeze all combine to create a single force that drives the plot to its conclusion.
Drawbacks.
Don’t Eat the Pie is told through the alternating points of view of Samantha and her daughter Emma. This has become a popular way to narrate a story and I understand that it gives the writer a way to reveal information to the reader while still keeping specific characters in the dark. The problem is that if the voices are not distinct enough it can become confusing to differentiate who is telling the story, even if this is specified at the beginning of each chapter. This was the problem I encountered; Sam and Emma are so similar that I spent a lot of time turning back to the chapter headings to check who was telling the story at each point.
The Final Take.
I loved this story.
Don’t Eat the Pie has something for every horror reader. A Southern gothic, supernatural, occult, familicide, body horror… I could go on.
This was so close to the 5 out of 5 rating. It only missed out due to the alternating points of view causing some confusion because they were too similar.
(4.5 / 5)
After her 2017 debut novel, If We Were Villains, captivated readers and skyrocketed to Tik Tok fame readers have been holding their collective breath for anything from M. L. Rio. Seven years later we are presented with Graveyard Shift, another dark academic horror, though a novella this time around. The question is, was it worth the wait and why are readers split in their reactions to this story?
The Plot.
In the opening scene of Graveyard Shift readers encounter five people who often meet in a graveyard on smoke breaks from their various nocturnal jobs.
On the night in question, they discover a freshly dug hole near where they regularly gather. This sounds unremarkable until they realize that no one has been interred in this graveyard for over one hundred years. With the mystery revealed each character returns to their night, each eager to find the purpose of the hole.
Highlights.
Writing a novella that includes the viewpoints of five main characters is a considerable feat. Despite allowing only two chapters for each character in the entire story M. L. Rio successfully juggles these viewpoints without dropping any balls. From the driven editor-in-chief Edie Wu to the enigmatic Tuck. Each character possesses a distinct voice and plays a crucial role in unraveling the mystery. Whether it’s the insomniac ride-share driver Hannah or the bartender at Rocker Box. Each character stands apart, making this novella a compelling read.
Another highlight of this novella is that this is not just another horror novel claiming to be dark academia because it’s set in or near a university. This story is soaked in the academic and the dark side of medical research.
Drawbacks.
The length of this story really went against M. L. Rio, there was so much expectation and hype around its release that when the 100-odd-page story was delivered there were many sighs of disappointment.
And it is not just reader expectation that caused the length to work against her. It must be said that the complexity of the story and the depth that Rio goes to to set up each character would have benefited from being rounded out by another, let’s say 200 pages. The last chapters seem rushed and the ending is ambiguous to say the least, but not in a good way.
I read this on a Kindle and was confused by the story ending at 85%, then slightly angry that the remaining pages were filled by a playlist, an excerpt of If We Were Villains and cocktail recipes??? Although I usually enjoy this type of extra content in fiction, I think Rio’s time might have been better spent writing a few more chapters.
The Final Take.
I approached Graveyard Shift with high expectations, but was ultimately disappointed. While the novel’s form, with its focus on multiple perspectives, initially drew me in, the abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion left me wanting more. Presenting this story as a novella did not do justice to the characters of the story. The mystery of the empty grave was intriguing, and following each character through their nocturnal routines was enjoyable. However, the rushed ending undermined the overall experience.
(2 / 5)
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