Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  Columbine: A True Crime Story— A Victim, the Killers  and the Nation’s Search for Answers,  2 nd  ed . By Jeff Kass, 2014 Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton It’s 2022. We’ve heard of several mass shootings this year. Sadly, we know the routine. The news media head to the scene of the massacre. We get early reports from law enforcement. We see heart wrenching images of incredibly sad people near the scene where loved ones have fallen. We learn about the numbers of people killed and injured. We hear the familiar words of political leaders attempting to offer support. We hear about gun control and the need for more security. Sometimes we learn about life-costing mistakes. We see images of flowers and bears at makeshift memorials. We learn about funeral services. And then the images fade until next time. It was April 20, 1999 when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine High School. They murdered 12 students and 1 teacher. More were injured—21 of 24 were in...

               Scotland’s Northern Isles Geoffrey W. Sutton   The Shetland series is set in the Shetland Islands, which are at the far north of the United Kingdom. The stark landscape dotted with sheep, filled by the author with an intriguing variety of birdlife, and battered by storms seems like an ideal place for a series of murders especially when cold winters bring snow, dense fogs can obscure vision, and summers present with an eerie long evening light—the simmer dim. The lead detective is Jimmy Perez who was born on Fair Isle but works out of the police station in Lerwick on the main island. Jimmy had been married to Sarah who divorced him following a miscarriage. His team includes Sandy Wilson from the off island of Walsay and inspectors from elsewhere in Scotland. In the first story, Raven Black , we meet Fran Hunter who is divorced from Jimmy’s old school friend, Duncan Hunter. They have a daughter Cassie. The relationsh...

  The Violence Project How to Stop A Mass Shooting Epidemic      By Jillian Peterson & James Densley Reviewed by Geoffrey W.Sutton Most of the time, mass shootings command the top spot on the evening news. By now the sequence of covering the crime scene is familiar—too familiar. Jillian Peterson and James Densley have studied mass shootings for several years. They’ve built a data base and interviewed killers, survivors, and family members of victims and killers. The Violence Project tells the story of mass murder and offers ideas and resources that might help some of us prevent the next major event. In fact, they also tell stories of avoided shootings and some that could have been avoided if policies or laws were closely followed. Although the authors mention some shootings outside the US, their focus is on America where 85% of the US killers were born and raised. TRAUMA . Before suggesting ideas that may help avert future disasters and hel...