Helltown

The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod

By: Casey Sherman

Narrated by: Casey Sherman

Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Before Charles Manson, there was Tony Costa—the serial killer of Cape Cod.

The year 1969: The hippie scene is vibrant in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Long-haired teenagers roam the streets, strumming guitars and preaching about peace and love...and Tony Costa is at the center of it all. To a certain group of smitten young women, he is known as Sire—the leader of their counterculture movement, the charming man who speaks eloquently and hands out hallucinogenic drugs like candy. But beneath his benign persona lies a twisted and uncontrollable rage that threatens to break loose at any moment. Tony Costa is the most dangerous man on Cape Cod, and no one who crosses his path is safe.

When young women begin to disappear, Costa's natural charisma and good looks initially protect him from suspicion. But as the bodies are discovered, the police close in on him as the key suspect. Meanwhile, local writers Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer are locked in a desperate race to secure their legacies as great literary icons—and they both set their sights on Tony Costa and the drug-soaked hippie culture that he embodies as their next promising subject, launching independent investigations that stoke the competitive fires between two of the greatest American writers.

Immersive, unflinching, and shocking, Helltown is a landmark true-crime narrative that transports us back to the turbulent late 1960s, reveals the secrets of a notorious serial killer, and unspools the threads connecting Costa, Vonnegut, and Mailer in the seaside city that played host to horrors unlike any ever seen before. New York Times best-selling author Casey Sherman has crafted a stunner.

©2022 YRG Partners (P)2022 Recorded Books

Awesome

Intense, learned a lot I had no idea of
Covers events happening in the years around the killings as well.
Fascinating

Awesome Book

The author combines great balance of the disturbing with more calming background subject matter. This makes the murder details easier to take.This is one you will not be able to put down!

really enjoyed the weaving of stories

usually true crime books are focused on the criminal and the victims, with the weaving of other historical events and notable people it really rounded out the whole narrative for me. excellent read, really glad there are no pictures.

Great writing but…

The writing is great and the story is interesting. I just wish they had used a professional for the narration. The author doesn’t do his story any favors with his wooden, over-enunciated delivery.

not a fan of the narration on this one

I struggled finishing this one. while I am absolutely fascinated with serial killings/killers and the why's of those folks, I could not get over the narration. Normally I love audio books because of the narration and I enjoy different voices, but this narration was very dry and emotionless.

Well …

Be aware that this book contains fiction. The Lady of the Dunes has been identified since this was published and she’s inaccurately depicted here. Leo Damore’s non-fiction on this topic is much better.

Powerful story! Well told.

Casey Sherman is a brilliant writer! He took a very difficult story, and made it very compelling, and easy to follow. I am a big fan of his work.

i liked it.

Unlike a previous reviewer, I thought Helltown was a pretty good retelling of a story that's interested Bay Staters for half a century. I was a lit major and I had no problem with the interwoven stories of Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer.
I lived through the '60s and spent a lot of time in P'town, and I do agree that the use of "groovy" is overdone. Similarly, I really doubt that Costa ever addressed his friends as "you chaps."
The one thing that really grated on me, though, is the author/narrator's repeated mispronunciation of "foc'sle" as "fox hole." That timeless Commercial Street establishment, the Foc'sle, is the "FOKE'səl" (and that's how the word is pronounced everywhere, not just in Massachusetts).

Why do authors narrate?????

Story was disjointed and gory. I got all the way through it because when these events truly happened, I was in college following my own petty problems. So. I did find that part of the story compelling.
Author was the narrator and read haltingly and not so great. If a good, dramatic reader did this book, it would have really grabbed me. So much on Norman Mailer (a nut job) and Kurt Vonnegut was just filler to me. You might enjoy it. For me? Meh!
Mostly, it was background noise as I drove.

Not one of Olsen's best in my view.

There are so many characters and sub-stories it was like trying to read two books at once. Not to mention that I felt there isn't near enough content about the actual murders and victims/families on Cape Cod murders.