Rating: 
Summary: For a Fair Ramsey Rookie....
Review: This is not a bad book.It has one main advantage and two disadvantages. The biggest advantage is its goal, to present ALL of the information available concerning the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey. The author chronicles the evolution of the investigation and the commentary from both sides of the argument (Did or did not the parents have anything to do with their daughter's murder?) without significant -- at least, to me -- bias. It's a wonderful goal, as so much of this murder has fallen prey to conjecture and speculation... and while this book does acknowledge theories, it does base itself around facts. The two problems with the book, though, are the occasional streaks toward interpretation... for example, it might say something like, "This person did __________, which could mean __________." But it doesn't NECESSARILY mean what the author suggests, and that does become annoying. Also, there are a LOT of investigators, journalists, friends of the Ramsey's, and peripheral people who are very hard to keep straight. Short of making a glossary of characters, or implementing each person's rank or relationship with his or her name (like "Lieutenant So-and-So"), I would advise potential readers to keep a little list of people for their convenience. I don't think it's a bad book. I bought it from a bargain counter in a bookstore, and I think the [price] was fair. However, I don't know how important it is for the casual reader to own... so if you're a fellow casual reader and not spiritually invested in this case, you should be satisfied reading the copy from your local library. I could have just borrowed it and not missed owning one.
Rating: 
Summary: too many names and law, not enough about JonBenet!
Review: This review is written for people coming 'cold' to this issue - from a place (as I am) where it barely rated a mention and received very little coverage. If you want to know EVERY detail, EVERY nuance, EVERY theory, in fact everything other than who did it (because no-one does), about the Jon Bennett Ramsay murder, then this encyclopedic tome is for you. However, I found it got very, very tedious and repetitive. I rarely don't finish a book once started, but this one defeated me around page 500! Much of the material is repeated. A 250 page synthesis would perhaps be more relevant to the reader coming new to the subject. I appreciate others with a background in hearing about it may gain more from this book.
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