Rating: 
Summary: Gritty and Real True Crime
Review: "Perfect Victim" tells the bizarre story of a young woman kidnapped while hitchhiking from Oregon to her home in California in 1977. Colleen Stan is sadistically kept prisoner for most of 7 years. She is forced to spend many nights in a small box; a "dungeon" would be too generous a description. She is raped, tortured and just plain denigrated by her captors, Cameron and Jan Hooker. In the process she becomes their virtual slave. Apparently "brainwashed", she ignores opportunities to escape. This is the most difficult part of the plot for the reader to fathom. Why didn't Colleen run? Was she truly brainwashed? This reviewer believes she was, but others will certainly disagree. Suddenly! Colleen is a free woman and the wheels of justice begin to spin. The second half of "PV" is concerned with the arrest and trial of the Hookers. In a special -and positive- twist, a co-author, Christine McGuire, is the prosecutor! As an author, she may favor her position. She takes an obvious shot or two at the defense counsel, but who can blame her, given the low life of a defendant? I firmly believe reviewers should not divulge endings (or how Colleen became "free"), so I will end quickly. "PV" is definitely recommended to true crime devotees. The only drawbacks are the disturbing nature of the plot and the amount of space devoted to the trial. It could have been edited down, but this is a minor detail. Who can blame author McGuire for writing about prosecutor McGuire? It's unclear if "PV" is readily available. My advice is to persist in finding a copy.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing, but not crude
Review: Although "Perfect Victim" deals with very crude and disgusting elements, it does not go into so much detail that one gets ill reading it. The book is well-written and tells the unbelievable but true story of a girl who is kidnapped and held captive as a slave for seven years. As the district attorney who tried the case, co-author McGuire fills the book with details and legal explanations. The book covers the seven year time span with a few gaps in the story, but still gives enough information for the reader to know what is going on. Although it is not difficult to determine the outcome of the story, this is still a great suspenseful read. I especially liked the photo inserts because seeing the box that held Stan captive and getting to put faces with the names makes the story even more realistic than just reading about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Husband and wife exchange glances...
Review: As a lover of true crime books, this book ranks as one of those "must-reads". It is well written, clear and horrifying yet not gratuitous. Hard to put down, you will find yourself pulled into Colleen Stan's desperate situation right until the end. You will question everything you think you know, and just how cruel people are willing to become. Not really for the faint of heart, this book is disturbing. I read it in one day and felt a little disillusioned with life afterwards. :) Colleen's story will definately help you reexamine what a bad day really is... and appreciate all the freedom most of take for granted. I would recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A true-Crime Must read
Review: As a lover of true crime books, this book ranks as one of those "must-reads". It is well written, clear and horrifying yet not gratuitous. Hard to put down, you will find yourself pulled into Colleen Stan's desperate situation right until the end. You will question everything you think you know, and just how cruel people are willing to become. Not really for the faint of heart, this book is disturbing. I read it in one day and felt a little disillusioned with life afterwards. :) Colleen's story will definately help you reexamine what a bad day really is... and appreciate all the freedom most of take for granted. I would recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: WHITE SEX SLAVE
Review: Cameron Hooker believed that all women secretly desire to be dominated by the strong hand of a man. If a woman should protest, then corrective punishment is in order. After a night chained naked on the rack with her head encased in a "head box", the woman will place herself at the feet of the man the next morning and express "love". To Cameron Hooker, this was proof that he was right ... all women desire to be dominated. This true story will leave you sleepless and unable to get the image of an inocent woman, Colleen Stan, out of your mind. Over seven years of physical and mental torture, equal to anything experienced in the Holocaust, is unbelieveable yet true. This book is not for the weak of heart. Various tortures and lack of any human compassion, reduce Colleen Stan to a virtual sex slave. Sustained by her faith, Colleen fights to stay alive and survive, something that the young woman enslaved before her was unable to do. Buy this book and read it to learn just how evil one man can be.
Rating:
Summary: Husband and wife exchange glances...
Review: Colleen stuck out her thumb and hitched the wrong ride with Cameron and Janine. The husband and wife exchanged glances, and soon the woman in the backseat was locked into a "head box" and hidden under her own sleeping bag. Seven years later, neighbors considered Colleen a part of their family, babysitting and gardening, working as a hotel housekeeper, and going to church. What happened between her capture and the sensational "Sex Slave" trial? This book tells the astounding and alarming tale of a young woman who was turned into the submissive slave of a sadist. The author, who prosecuted the case, alternates between the chronology of Colleen's pathetically circumscribed existence, and the tale as it unfolded seven years later when she was "'freed" by his wife. Colleen's situation is terrible to contemplate, but the author portrays the case in a sympathetic yet professional manner, allowing the reader to develop a gradual emotional callous. I would imagine that the prosecutor herself went through the same process during her months of mind-numbing investigation. This is a classic account, and a must-read and must-have in every crime library.
Rating:
Summary: A Reader
Review: Does the person who wrote that they usually like bondage but that this was cruel and unnatural know how very immature that was to say? This book was not to excite someone into trying something new in the bedroom. It was to tell the horrible story of a brave woman. Whoever that was should grow up a little before graduating from the Dr. Suess books to real literature.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting crime, dull book...here is a free synopsis
Review: Everything interesting about this case can be read on the back of the book. In sum, a man with control issues and low self- esteem marries a woman with even lower self-esteem. Together, they kidnap a woman with still LESS self-esteem and keep her in a box off and on for 7 years. The victim enjoys periods of freedom intermittantly but never tries to escape because she has been so completely dominated psychologically. That is it!!!!!!!!! There is nothing else interesting about this book......unless you like reading a lot of detail about court testimony, the prosecuter's personal life, expert opinions. Honestly, I almost could not finish this book it was so dull. Any true crime should focus more narrowly on the psyche of the criminal, but we got almost nothing. This would have been pretty good condensed to about 25 pages.
Rating:
Summary: FOR THE MOST PART, THIS BOOK WAS A PAGE TURNER.
Review: FOR THE MOST PART, THIS BOOK WAS A PAGE TURNER. THERE WERE TIMES WHEN IT GOT ALITTLE BORING, BUT BECAUSE THE READER DEFINITELY WANTS TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, SHE KEEPS READING.PARTS WERE ALITTLE HARD TO BELIEVE. AS IN A PERSON COULD BE SO SUPPOSEDLY BRAIN-WASHED. BUT THIS IS A STRANGE WORLD WE LIVE IN AND IF MOMS CAN KILL BABIES AND KIDS CAN KILL PARENTS, BEING BRAIN-WASHED IS NOT AS FAR FETCH AS IT SOUNDS. ALL IN ALL I ENJOYED READING THIS BOOK
Rating:
Summary: Can't put the book down
Review: I am a true crime die hard, and this book has got to be one of the most interesting, mind baffling books I have ever read. The way the author tells the story of this girl kept locked in a box, makes you feel as if you are going through her experience and feeling her fear. The details are extremely meticulous and detailed. Anyone who reads true crime should read this book!
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