The Murder Room

The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases

By: Michael Capuzzo

Narrated by: Adam Grupper

Length: 15 hrs

Publisher's summary

Thrilling, true tales from the Vidocq Society, a team of the world's finest forensic investigators whose monthly gourmet lunches lead to justice in ice-cold murders.

Good friends and sometime rivals William Fleisher, Frank Bender, and Richard Walter—a renowned FBI agent turned private eye, a sculptor lothario who speaks to the dead, and an eccentric profiler known as “the living Sherlock Holmes”—were heartsick over the growing tide of unsolved murders of innocents. They decided one day over lunch that something had to be done, and pledged themselves to a grand quest for justice. The three men invited the greatest collection of forensic investigators ever assembled, drawn from five continents, to the Downtown Club in Philadelphia to begin an audacious quest: to bring the coldest killers in the world to an accounting. Named for the first modern detective, the Parisian Eugéne François Vidocq - the flamboyant Napoleonic real-life sleuth who inspired Sherlock Holmes - the Vidocq Society meets monthly in its secretive chambers to solve a cold murder over a gourmet lunch.

The Murder Room draws the listener into a chilling, darkly humorous, awe-inspiring world as the three partners travel far from their Victorian dining room to hunt the ruthless killers of a millionaire's son, a serial killer who carves off faces, and a child killer enjoying fifty years of freedom and dark fantasy.

Michael Capuzzo's brilliant storytelling gifts bring true crime to life more realistically and vividly than it has ever been portrayed before. It is a world of dazzlingly bright forensic science; true evil as old as the Bible and dark as the pages of Dostoevsky; and a group of flawed, passionate men and women, inspired by their own wounded hearts to make a stand for truth, goodness, and justice in a world gone mad.

©2010 Michael Capuzzo (P)2010 Simon and Schuster Audio

Dream read for a true crime lover!

I loved this book so much that I bought it in hard copy, ebook, and audio so I never had to be separated! Once I started I could not stop!!! The stories, history, and characters are intoxicating and so completely thrilling! I want to red it again!!!!

Amazing lives of truly great crime fighters

What a fantastic book! I am big true crime buff so I had always heard about the Vidocq Society. This gives you a first hand look at how they came to be and all the work they accomplished. Definitely a must read for crime sleuths!

Arrogance writing about arrogance

I was so disappointed by this book. I've read books by and about some of the more peripheral people mentioned, and taken classes and seem lectures from some of those more peripheral folks as well - those folks barely mentioned are amazing. but the main people just come across as arrogant narcissists, or the author portrays them that way. but it's hard to tell the difference between what's real and what's not, because the author just seems to make stuff up. some details are factually wrong, like the title of one of Anne Rule's books he references, the rates of accuracy of lie detection tests (there is NO study that says its as high as one just non chalantly says is the factually agreed upon; the highest rate published in a study is notably lower than what he stated, and even that has been slammed for its methodology), and he gives quotes throughout the book from conversations where he couldn't have been and details that no one could have known. So if that's all wrong, what's even true?

It seemed to me like pages upon pages of confirmation bias and hindsight correction. And arrogance. And arrogance. And arrogance. From the author, from the lead profiler (main "character"), who clearly thinks everyone else is basically dumb and yet contradicts HIMSELF within single sentences on occasion (again, if we can even trust the author) and is using outdated and unscientific psychological principles.

And to make it just a bit worse, the narrator sounded like a 1950s detective character over-acting. It was painful to finish for my book club, and there's no way I would have finished otherwise. If I had it to do over, I would have insisted that we read an older book by Ressler or Douglas if we wanted a profiler book with multiple stories.

90% Hero worship, 10% documentary

Maybe I read the book's description wrong the moment before I bought this, but (from what I understood) this was meant to be an inside look on how top professionals in the crime-solving industry approach their craft to answer tough quesitons/crimes. What comes off instead is a continual (a quickly irritating) reiteration of 'how awesome' these people are, with no in-depth look at how these individuals come to the conclusion they make or why. If a chapter isn't going into how gruesome a crime is, it's basically over-inflating its protagonists (aka the VD society) to be these larger-then-life individuals, and then spends the remaining few minutes to say that the crime is suddenly solved. I didn't know there were so many ways to reiterate how supposedly, awesome, a certain person could be but Capuzzo takes it to a whole new level. In short, if you're looking for an insightful, objectie look into how modern-day crime-solvers are able to handle their craft, this IS NOT that novel. If you're looking for something that borders (perphaps even crosses into) just plain criminal fiction that is hyped up, then give this book a read, but for myself it was a pretty big disappointment almost from the gecko.

I just couldn't follow it

What would have made The Murder Room better?

The book could use a good editor and rewrite so there are consistant characters (people) to follow from one point to another. I can usually keep up with jumping around but they seemed to swap things within a single chapter, sometimes within, what I would assume, is a page or two.

Any additional comments?

I didn't finish it but made it through chapter 3 and it repeated several things that were in the very first chapter.

The Absence of Intrigue

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The Murder Room by Michael Capuzzo is demonstrative of the unfortunate trend in mystery writing in which a few somewhat shocking events replace the experience of intrigue. The word "somewhat" can be consistently applied to this literary effort. The characters are somewhat developed. The story is somewhat developed. The reader remains in a permanent state of waiting to engage in something substantial and memorable. At no time did this reader feel an emotional or even an intellectual connection with any of the characters. The work is mechanical and does encorage personal investment by the reader. -Dan Boos

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The premise of story demonstrated great potential.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Added intrigue! Further developed the characters. Engaged the reader.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

Any additional comments?

The story does not draw-in the reader. At no time did I feel that I was experiencing anything beyond a exercise in reading.

You'd never think this was non-fiction

Disjointed storytelling with weirdly flowery prose, I actually began to suspect this was mislabeled as non-fiction. Terrible writing, wacky chronology, this has nothing going for it.

Disappointing

I was really disappointed with this purchase. The story was less than intriguing and the language was deplorable. There was an hour of blank space during part of the first file and I had to stop listening. It wasn't worth finishing anyway. I'd rather have a refund.

Not so great

What disappointed you about The Murder Room?

We bought this to listen to on a cross country driving trip. We were very disappointed. The The text was dense, the story buried in many "hand waving" paragraphs.. made us wonder if there was a story there at all.

What was most disappointing about Michael Capuzzo’s story?

There was a story in there? mostly I just heard many MANY descriptive paragraphs... .describing the weather, the bugs, the stars, the exact buttons on the suit a non-character was wearing.. yah.. just too thick to enjoy

Have you listened to any of Adam Grupper’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not, but I have no complaints about the performance at all!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Murder Room?

um..all of it?

Any additional comments?

This book was just not for me or my husband... however, it did give us much to laugh about later as we mimicked some of the denser paragraphs...

Very disappointing

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The narrator was a significant drawback to my listening pleasure. His reading was flat and lacked emotion and interest. I just simply couldn't bear his droning on and on and on.

What could Michael Capuzzo have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Michael Capuzzo failed to make this story even remotely interesting. His style of switching back and forth between the Vicdocq meetings and the personal biographies of the three men who started the society was confusing and disjointed. The continuous references to Benders unconventional relationship with his wife and multiple mistresses did not advance my understanding of the narrative or did it contribute to the resolution of unsolved cases, ostensibly the purpose behind the book.

Would you be willing to try another one of Adam Grupper’s performances?

No.

Any additional comments?

This book was a total waste of time. I hope that someone else covers the Vidocq society and crafts a more scholarly and interesting work. Thank goodness Audible.com allows us to return books that were total dogs.