Zodiac by Robert Graysmith Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Zodiac
Book Review: Wasn't as good as it should have been
Summary: 2 Stars
Author was just too long winded. I love true crime, but this book just couldn't hold my attention.Book Review: Whoa
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been a while since I've read this book and I still find myself thinking about it. I think we all desperately want to know the identity of the Zodiac Killer, and we'll probably never know. However, through this book we pretty much find out everything we need to know about Zodiac.
This book had me turning pages fast. It's interesting, scary, and unbelievable how police never caught this guy. What a read.
Book Review: Written by a cartoonist, and you can kinda tell.
Summary: 2 Stars
Until David Fincher's movie came out (I still haven't seen it, but am eager to), I'd never really heard much about the Zodiac killer. I'd seen "Dirty Harry" and knew it was loosely based on Zodiac, but that was about it. Reading descriptions of the Fincher movie got me intrigued. I typically am not that into in serial killer stories, as the entertaining part of a mystery for me tends to be the motive, and serial killers seen to all have the same motive -- they're all just really, really nuts. That said, the Zodiac killer seemed a bit more complex, if only because he got the entire nation wrapped up in his case by sending (to the San Francisco newspapers) complicated ciphers and codes he claimed would reveal his identity.
This non-fiction book is written by a political cartoonist from the SF Examiner who was fascinated by the Zodiac's letters and ciphers and ended up spending over a decade researching the crimes, talking to suspects and witnesses, and working on his codes (ultimately, Graysmith ended up cracking the one coded message nobody else, including the FBI and CIA, had managed to break -- pretty cool, if you ask me). Overall, I found the tale of the Zodiac killer fairly creepy, and the parts of the book that focused on his actual crimes and taunting of the newspaper and cops were fascinating. But at least a quarter of this book was boring as heck, especially when we got into the late 70's and early 80's, when the Zodiac all but disappeared and Graysmith focused more on dissecting various suspects and theories. This could've been interesting in the hands of a stronger writer, but Graysmith is a political cartoonist, not a reporter, and it really shows. Nevertheless, this book is worth picking up if you're curious about the story of the Zodiac killer, and may make an interesting companion to the movie if you've already seen it and want to learn more. Other than that, though, nothing much else to see here, and I'm pretty unlikely to pick up Graysmith's follow-up to this book, Zodiac Unmasked. Oh, who am I kidding -- I probably WILL pick it up. But I'll have only myself to blame if I end up not liking it all that much either!
Book Review: Zodiac
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book because I didn't know a thing about the case and was very interested to get information about it. Courious to find out about the case. If you don't know anything about the case & want to find out the story then get this book. It's worth reading.Book Review: excellent true crime
Summary: 4 Stars
Robert Graysmith was the cartoonist on one of the papers who received letters from the serial killer named Zodiac. He was drawn to the case and went on to carry out his own investigations into who was Zodiac( for the record they never did capture him) yet Graysmith had his own ideas into who was Zodiac. For anyone who watched the recent film this is a must read. Chilling.