The Murder of the Century

The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars

By: Paul Collins

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

In Long Island, a farmer found a duck pond turned red with blood. On the Lower East Side, two boys playing at a pier discovered a floating human torso wrapped tightly in oilcloth. Blueberry pickers near Harlem stumbled upon neatly severed limbs in an overgrown ditch. Clues to a horrifying crime were turning up all over New York, but the police were baffled: There were no witnesses, no motives, no suspects.

The grisly finds that began on the afternoon of June 26, 1897, plunged detectives headlong into the era's most perplexing murder. Seized upon by battling media moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the case became a publicity circus. Re-creations of the murder were staged in Times Square, armed reporters lurked in the streets of Hell's Kitchen in pursuit of suspects, and an unlikely trio - an anxious cop, a cub reporter, and an eccentric professor - all raced to solve the crime. What emerged was a sensational love triangle and an even more sensational trial: an unprecedented capital case hinging on circumstantial evidence around a victim that the police couldn't identify with certainty - and that the defense claimed wasn't even dead.

The Murder of the Century is a rollicking tale - a rich evocation of America during the Gilded Age and a colorful re-creation of the tabloid wars that have dominated media to this day.

©2011 Paul Collins (P)2011 AudioGo

Critic reviews

“Wonderfully rich in period detail, salacious facts about the case and infectious wonder at the chutzpah and inventiveness displayed by Pulitzer’s and Hearst’s minions. Both a gripping true-crime narrative and an astonishing portrait of fin de siecle yellow journalism.” ( Kirkus Reviews)

"A dismembered corpse and rival newspapers squabbling for headlines fuel Collins’s intriguing look at the birth of 'yellow journalism' in late 19th-century New York. [A]n in-depth account of the exponential growth of lurid news and the public’s (continuing) insatiable appetite for it." ( Publishers Weekly)

Interesting Read

Would you listen to The Murder of the Century again? Why?

I might read this book again because of the historical aspects. Learned a lot about the newspaper industry and life in the late 1800's in the U.S.

What did you like best about this story?

The historical tie-in.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The reader had a rather uninteresting delivery; I thought he was bored or sleepy.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

The rise to prominence of Pulitzer and Hearst and the rivalry between them.

Supercilious reading of a super-sized story

What was most disappointing about Paul Collins’s story?

This was a fascinating story, but sadly presented in an 8-hour audiobook when a piece in the Atlantic or even a longish Wikipedia article would have more than sufficed. Collins draws it out exhaustively, putting in unneeded details for atmosphere and devoting entire chapters to twists and turns in the investigation that he inflates to grand importance when they turn out to have no impact.

I felt like he super-sized my book when I ordered a small.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Dufris' narration reminds me of a friend of mine who thinks he does a really great Jerry Seinfeld impression. In fact, it's terrible, but he thinks it's so good that he presents it with great earnestness, like a high schooler playing Hamlet. Dufris has exactly one accent, which is pretty much what an American would think a German spoke like if his only exposure to Germans was watching Hogan's Heroes as a kid, and all "foreign" characters in the book are treated to this terrible accent. The defense attorney character was presented in such a ridiculous cartoonish booming voice that all I could do was laugh, because it reminded me, more than anything else, of Sir Topham Hatt from the Thomas The Tank Engine shows that my 4 year old likes to watch.

Exceptionally BORING

I love murder mysteries, especially when they are true. This one misses the boat. It is slow moving,boring, bogged down in unnecessary detail and read in a monotone. Perhaps if the story interests you speed reading the book might be a good idea, you could pass over the dull parts!

Only if you like to hear every sordid detail

I usually enjoy the historical books that I read/listen to, but The Murder of the Century was an exception. The author filled it with so many pointless details that the reader/listener could not help but feel it would take a century just to finish it. Contributing to its tooth drilling tedium was the fact that the author claimed that the book was written to describe the yellow journalism wars of the Gilded Age, when in reality the book focused on one sorted murder and the sorted characters that were involved in it. If you need something to help you suffer for a sin you have committed, I recommend forcing yourself to read or listen to this study in crime and punishment. Your penitence will be paid in full as you reach the last page.

Increadibly boring!

Would you try another book from Paul Collins and/or William Dufris?

I'd have to check out the reviews before buying. Just because this story didn't make my "like" list doesn't mean all of Paul Collins books are the same.

Any additional comments?

I wish I'd have read more of the reviews, I only read the one and that one was quite positive. Definately learned my lesson. Audible did allow me to return it.

Worst perfomance yet!

Would you try another book from Paul Collins and/or William Dufris?

Probably not

Has The Murder of the Century turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

What didn’t you like about William Dufris’s performance?

Spoke in monotone the whole story. He didn't differentiate any characters. It was hard to follow at first and I almost didn't make it through. Took me along time to listen to. The story was interesting so I wanted to know how it turned out. The author made an interesting story incredibly boring and tedious.

What character would you cut from The Murder of the Century?

Too many to name

I'm gullible for cheap reads

I bought this because it was the daily deal. Stupid.
I read the reviews and thought it sounded interesting. The other reviews suggested the focus was on the newspapers and not the trial. I don't think focus is a fair term for this book. Sometimes we were told about the newspapers, sometimes we were told about the trial, sometimes we were told about the events surrounding the discovery of the murder, but I never felt like there was any story here. Everything in the book sounded disjointed and random.

I never did "get into" this book, though I just about finished it. In theory I would enjoy the story. I would seriously be interested in hearing about newspaper rivalry, but apparently I didn't care about the little bits of newspaper history tacked on to the edges of a series of bits of information and misinformation about the trial.

And don't get me started on the narrator. Where did he come up with these accents? so annoying. ugh.

If you like to read about gore and unpleasantness, and if you like to be overwhelmed with all the misleading information that was available at the time, in chronological order instead of sorted in any way by the truth, then maybe you will like this book.
But probably not.

Dismal, Ghastly, and Inappropriately Read

A depressing story read like the narrator was one of the newspaper reporters chasing every juicy detail. Read with relish for the lowest common denominator.

Hard to follow - lots of street names and boroughs, many people and some with nicknames or aliases. Not easy without the text.

The story of this terrible murder might have been gripping if the narrator had taken a serious attitude to it, but he seems to enjoy the horror as much as the thrill-happy public of the day.

Not a book I'd listen to again and I hate spending money on one shot deals.

I admit I couldn't finish it

What would have made The Murder of the Century better?

The narration was hard to take seriously and made me doubt the truth of the story or at least the implied importance of it

Would you be willing to try another book from Paul Collins? Why or why not?

I would keep an open mind

How could the performance have been better?

I am a fan of more of a reading style and not the voice acting used here

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The idea sounded good and I previewed but I did tire of the style of narration after an hour our so

Disappointing

What disappointed you about The Murder of the Century?

I like crime stories and this story was more about the Tabloid wars and reporters than it was about the crime itself. I finished the audible but I was dying for it to be over. I wish I never bought it.

What could Paul Collins have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Again I am a crime buff and would have enjoyed listening more about the crime than the media hype from it.

Any additional comments?

One good thing about the book was the end, there was an update on what happened to all the people that was involved in the crime, that is the best way to end a book like this.