Pure Murder

By: Corey Mitchell

Narrated by: James Foster

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

"We gotta kill 'em. They know what we look like."

On a hot summer night in Houston, two teenage girls-bright, beautiful, success-bound friends took a shortcut home from a friend's apartment to make their curfew. They never reached their homes. The next morning, the families of the two girls began a frantic search, organizing friends and neighbors and posting thousands of fliers across the sprawling city. But not until an anonymous 911 call four days later were the bodies of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena finally recovered. Their killers were soon rounded up - a brutal, unrepentant gang of teenage boys whose convictions should have put them behind bars for life. But in the halls of justice, nothing is ever a sure bet....

©2008 Corey Mitchell (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A compelling read." (Suzy Spencer, New York Times best-selling author)

Wow !

I heard about this book on Tiktok. I felt so many emotions listening. Sad story but very interesting. Cant wait to see what else the author has published. Must read

Gruesome

It’s really well written, great narration, which makes the book, & the murders that much worst!

Too much detail

Too much backstory on each character made it difficult to keep the story straight. I listened at 1.5 speed to get through it. The narrator was very good.

Ugggggh

Narrator was great. I have to agree with another reviewer who stated it was too much back story on each character. This book kept me thinking of a true crime novel. I have 1hr and 30 min left and I don’t think I will finish it. I even skipped several chapters (4 hours) to get to the actual crime. The last 2 hours seem to be an account of each trial ..... individually!!!! The end of the book is just as tedious as the beginning. I was only engaged for about an hour of the entire book. Glad it was on sale and not a full credit.

Heartbreaking

Excellent narration. Loved the in depth background details of the characters. Gives much needed insight into the crimes. Sadly the families often become an afterthought…
Loved that the entire focus was not the perpetrators.

I wanted to love this ...

I'm reluctantly writing this because I had been so excited to listen. I had originally bought this years ago in print , and just never had the chance to read it.

The problem I'm having is there were WAY to many , unnecessary people , with so many back stories, and endless stories for each. Now , that wouldn't normally bother me as much , but because the author doesn't describe the incident in question, until after he has spent 4 hours jumping from story to story and introducing what seems like dozens of perps. I had no idea who I should focus on and who was simply the friend of the perp. I was lost by time the murder occurred .

I'm interested in the girls, the murders , the arrest and trial , and aftermath. I don't care about what schools the parents went to, or every fist fight each of the murderers ever had their whole life, or the back grounds of friends and friends of friends.

Maybe if he touched on these after explaining the murder, so I knew who the murderers were, then I would be more interested in the elaborate life stories, but hard to care when there were so many to keep track.

Gripping

I actually wanted to stop this book due to the horrific nature of the crime. Great story telling. heart breaking story R.I.P. to the victims

Sad and real

After teaching 36 years, I got to see kids like this heading for disaster. School failure and peer pressure are a dangerous combination.

First half gets one star, second half gets five.

So disturbing :(
Didn’t like the audiobook since it included so many details like time, date, addresses, so frequently. It made it hard to follow without visually referencing or skimming over. Book didn’t make sense until half way through. Second half gets 5 stars, first half gets 1.

Interesting story, slow pace

Before the crime is covered in detail, there is a chapter dedicated to each person involved (perpetrators and victims). While backstory and context is important, this seems like overkill. Also, I recommend creating a chart with all of the people involved as you go; that way, when the crime is finally covered, it’s easier to tell who did what.