So there I was. Minding my own business. Snoozing away. When Her Royal Momness comes bouncing down the stairs with a Royal Stroke of Genuis:

“Kimmi! I have a great idea! You know those last six books we read? The True Crime thing, the post-apocalyptic thing, the second True Crime thing, the “self-help” motivational thing, and the other two True Crime thingies? All pretty diff, huh? Let’s do a combo post on all six!”

So that’s how I wound up here. With William Oldfield’s Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society,  J. W. Rawles’ Founders, Gregg Olsen’s If You Tell,  John Glatt’sTangled Vines. and Climbing Your Personal Mount Everest: A Journey of Self Discovery and Leadership, by Mitch Lewis.  And that Other Thingy by Ann Rule, Green River Running Red.

The things I do for Mom. Sheesh.

Well. As long as we’re here, let’s dive in to six of the most unusual books we’ve read so far this year. They’re “unusual” cuz they’re genres we don’t typically select.

One other thing. With the exception of the last title, all of the books below are 3.5s. In case you’re wondering. No extra charge:

1. Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society

By William Oldfield and Victoria Bruce (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2018)

Genre: Non-Fiction/True Crime

Pages: 326 Print (incl. Epilogue, Notes, Bibliography, and Index

Via: Library

John Frank Oldfield. Name ring a bell? Not to fret. Cuz Frank Oldfield may be the cleverest, most fearless American detective hero you never heard of.

Written by Oldfield’s great grandson, this book is the fascinating, fact-filled true story of how Frank Oldfield brought one of the most notorious criminal enterprises in U.S. history to justice. We’re talking “Mafiosos.” Mobsters. The “Godfather.” Coast-to-coast organized crime. Extortion. Corruption. Bribery. “Hit men.’ “Protection rackets.” Murder and mayhem. All in a day’s work for the notorious “Black Hand Society,” aka: La Mano Nera of the early 19^th century

Did you know that the Post Office Inspection Service was once “the most robust law enforcement service of the United States government”? We didn’t. Just shows ya what we know. Cuz guess what? Back in the day you sooo didn’t want to mess with this service. Especially if feisty, intrepid and doggedly determined Frank Oldfield was on your case. Cuz he’d nail ya. Period.

“He had the authority to enlist any law enforcement agency he felt could help, including local cops, Secret Service, and the U.S. Marshals. He could even hire private detectives.”

Packed

Packed with details, history, factoids, and photos, this book starts slowly. It includes how Pinkerton agent Jospeh Dimaio, “The Raven,” teams up with Oldfield to bring down the Black Hand Society. Talk about fearless.

“While there had been hundreds of Black Hand criminals Arrested and convicted in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans for individual crimes over the last decade, the postal inspectors, led by John Frank Oldfield, were the first to successfully take down a widespread organized crime in in federal court.”

Meticulous

Some readers may find the thoroughly documented, meticulously researched narrative as crunchifying and as dry as unbuttered toast. But She Who Must Be Obeyed found it fascinating. Cuz. Ya know. Mom. So patient readers will be rewarded with a glimpse into an all-too-often forgotten slice of American history that’s worth remembering. Not exactly a barn burner. But a worthwhile read overall.

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2. Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse

By James Wesley Rawles (Atria books/Simon & Schuster, 2012)

Genre: Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic, Action-Adventure

Pages: 302 Print (incl. Glossary)

Via: Library

The Setting

It’s the near future, and thanks to a perfect storm of reckless banking practices, hyperinflation, a stock market gone nuts, and the negligence of our elected officials, the entire social, political, and economic infrastructure of America has collapsed. Chaos reigns in the streets. Medical treatment is no longer available. Large “mobile looter groups” roam the nation, stealing and killing at will.

Uh-Oh

Post-Crunch, a so-called “provisional government” or ProvGov is formed. It sights are set on “pacifying” the states with UN mercenaries, stealing everyone blind, and killing anyone who resists. America’s fate is in the hands of those few individuals who have the survival skills, the faith, and the fore-thought to return this country to the state its founding fathers intended.

Main Characters Include:

• Newlyweds Ken and Terry Layton. They’ve narrowly escaped murder and mayhem erupting in Chicago, post-“Crunch.” As chaos erupts on urban streets, they head to an Idaho “retreat”’ on foot to join up with other “survivalists.”
• Ben and Rebecca and their six kids live in Muddy Pond, Tennessee. (“Muddy Pond.” Isn’t that a great name?). TN is one of the first states to be “pacified” by the “Provisional Government” or ProvGov, a tyrannical government-by-thug system that springs up after the Crunch. Muddy Pond is patrolled by foreign UNPROFOR mercenaries recruited by the ProvGov.
• Joshua Watanbe is a Christian airman at a Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana. He’s married to Kelly. Both are accomplished equestrians. Neither is going down without a fight.
• A medic in Bradfordville, Kentucky, Brent Danley works with the KY Resistance. Handy guy to have in a tight spot!

Intersection

Their paths all intersect as Resistance groups begin to emerge, fighting back against the despotic ProvGov. Think Red Dawn meets Independence Day meets The Postman and The Hunger Games.

Uh-Oh Again

There’s lots of ink about survivalist supplies, gear, tactics, firearms and the like. What to stock up on and what to ignore. Canning, freezing, storing and foraging for food. Organizing security details and groups. Since paper and other pre-Crunch currency is worthless, characters recycle and creatively re-purpose all kinds of stuff for a trade-and-barter economy. Oh, and the electric grid’s gone down. That includes municipal water pumping stations that aren’t gravity-fed.

It’s a pretty grim place. To survive, ya better be prepared and ya better have a plan. A good one.

This is a fast-paced, clever adventure story that’s thoroughly engaging. Bonus points: Jesus followers are treated with respect. How refreshing. The story is faith-flavored but not preachy. So relax, okay?

A Little Lost

We got a little lost in all the technical and military mumbo-jumbo after a while. But we loved the way Glatt “tucks in the tail” at the end with Pastor Alstoba and Mickey. You’ll get that if you read the book. We read it cover-to-cover in one sitting.

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3. Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders

By John Glatt (St. Martin’s press, 2023)

Genre: Non-fiction/True Crime

Pages: 310 (Print, counting Epilogue and Index)

Via: Library

Over 15 indictments. Over 80 charges in five different counties. And that was just the tip of the iceberg in this gripping true crime tome about the rise and fall of one of the most infamous family dynasties in the south: The Murdaugh family. This is the saga of the demise of the Murdaugh family dynasty and the collapse of the family’s century-long stranglehold on South Carolina’s legal system.

It’s quite a story.

As 2022 unfolded, this true crime story was one of the most intriguing and most watched.  The story takes some time to get rolling. Like about a hundred pages. That’s cuz the author is thorough and comprehensive in laying out the checkered past(s) of the Murdaugh (“Murdock”) family and it’s century-long legal dynasty.

A Piker

Stealing millions from is clients to fund the Murdaugh’s opulent lifestyles, patriarch Alex (“Ellick”) Murdaugh’s “greed and hubris were limitless,” writes Glatt. That includes bilking “lifelong friends” out of million” and “spending the money and drugs and living the high life. “This from a personal injury lawyer and SC “solicitor” (D.A.) who makes Al Capone look like a piker.

There’s also Insurance fraud. DUIs. Drug use and distribution. Corruption galore. Murder. And “You can’t touch me. I’m a Murdaugh.”

Owned

And nobody did. They wouldn’t dare. For 86 years. Eighty. Six. Years. That’s how long the Murdaugh family dynasty ruled the roost in Hampton County, SC. And owned just about everyone in it, including the sheriff and police departments, judges, juries, and the coroner’s office. And pretty much all points in between. Combining “Violent crime with alleged corruption of someone with a law license on a scale that is somewhat inconceivable,” the Murdaughs thrived on “the deeply embedded corruption that had gone unchallenged for generations.”

Until a young girl winds up dead.

To find out how the dynasty crumbles, you’ll have to read the book. It starts slowly, but picks up steam later.

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4. If You Tell

A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood

By Gregg Olsen (Thomas & Mercer, 2019)

Genre: Non-fiction/True Crime

Pages: 405

Via: Library

This is by far the darkest and most disturbing of the quartet. It’s also the most riveting. Heartbreaking. And chilling.

“Shane knew it was only a matter of time. He had two choices: Tell someone or run away.”

If You Tell is the true story of Shelly and Dave Knotek, the three daughters they abused physically and mentally for years, and the three people who wound up “missing” when they boarded with “Psycho Shelly” and her noodle-backed, compliant partner in crime, husband Dave.

“Since Shelly Knotek came into his life, Ron’s world was now a black hole of money trouble, legal trouble, and family trouble. And Shelly was right there, stirring the pot, making things worse and worse.”

Most of the story is set in Raymond, a sleepy little logging town on the Washington coast. Behind the closed doors of their Raymond farmhouse, the girls’ sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her daughters to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.

“Though she couldn’t quite put it into words, on some level Tori knew her mother was only happy when someone else was suffering. There had to be a word for a person who found joy in another’s pain. …”

Talk about sick and twisted. A serial liar and master manipulator from childhood, Shelly even faked having cancer. She gives rattlesnakes and rat poison a bad name. Ditto bleach and weed whackers.

“Nikki, Sami, and Tori knew that their mother was smart, devious, and the kind of person who would never accept blame for anything she’d done. …

This is book isn’t for the faint-hearted. But it’s a page turner if you can stomach it. We read it cover-to-cover in one sitting.

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5. Climbing Your Personal Mount Everest

By Mitch Lewis, Keith Wall and Karen Linamen (2013)

Genre: Non-fiction/Self-help/Motivational/Biography

Pages: 219

Via: Library

This is one of those how-toish books about motivating yourself and others “toward greatness in whatever we want to pursue, whether in our personal or professional lives.” The author has completed seven marathons in seven continents as well as the elusive “seven summits” – summiting the seven highest mountains on seven continents, including Everest.

Apparently that makes him some kinda expert on the topic. Cuz he shares Twelve Principles for Climbing Your Personal Everest, “revealing what he’s learned along the way about goal-setting, perseverance, collaboration and more.”

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

This is probably the weakest title in the line-up. Why? Simple. The author and his “co-writers” don’t really break any new trails or offer much that hasn’t already been offered a zillion times elsewhere – Draw strength from others! Adapt and adjust ion order to achieve! Oh, and our fave: To reach altitude, check your attitude.

Quarter Inch

Climbing is reasonably well-written. The style is bright and breezy. But it comes up short in the Fresh and Original departments. Peppered with plenty of Duh moments, most of it’s pretty pedestrian stuff. A mile wide and a quarter inch deep. About as original as yesterday’s headlines. Yawn. (A much better book? Click here.)

Our Rating: 2.0

6. Green River, Running Red:

The Real Story of the Green River Killer -America’s Deadliest Serial Murderer 

By Ann Rule (Gallery Books, 2004)

Genre: True Crime

Pages: 524 (Print)

Via: Library

“No one really saw him, and if anyone did, they wouldn’t remember him. More than any other serial killer in the annals of crime, he could quite literally hide in plain sight.” – Ann Rule, Green River, Running Red

So the last time we read an Ann Rule book was just after the earth’s crust cooled. But someone at the library suggested this title. It isn’t new. But it was new to us. 

Tightly written, meticulous and comprehensive in its detail, Green River is gripping and compelling. Super creepy, too. It’s the “definitive narrative of the brutal and senseless crimes that haunted the Seattle area for decades” (Publishers Weekly).

“In the end, there would be nothing hidden, no hideous detail omitted, in what would become the hardest story I ever had to tell.” – Ann Rule, Green River, Running Red

This is the extraordinary true story of the most prolific serial killer the nation had ever seen — a case involving more than forty-nine female victims, two decades of intense investigative work…and one unrelenting killer who not only attended Ann Rule’s book signings but lived less than a mile away from her home.

“His face was expressionless. He was medium height, medium build, totally average-looking, a man who scarcely resembled what they believed him to be – the most infamous and prolific serial killer ever known in America.” – Ann Rule, Green River, Running Red

Talk about creepy. This book is hard to put down. In fact, we finished it in a day and a half. 

Kudos to Rule for taking the time to include photos and backstories of each of Ridgway’s known victims. So they’re not just numbers on a chart or names on a page. They were real women who were stalked by an Evil Monster. Chilling.

But it’s also the true story of an incredibly dedicated and doggedly determined group of detectives and law enforcement professionals – often woefully understaffed and underfunded -who refused to give up until they got him. 

Not an easy book to read. But an important one. Just sayin’.

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We will now return you to our Regularly Scheduled Napping. Zzzzzzz…

What unusual reads have you read lately?