Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell

A humorous graphic investigation of the author's obsession with true crime, the murders that have most captivated her throughout her life, and a love letter to her fellow true-crime fanatics. Why is it so much fun to read about death and dismemberment? In Murder Book, lifelong true-crime obsessive and New Yorker cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell tries to puzzle out the answer. An unconventional graphic exploration of a lifetime of Ann Rule super-fandom, amateur armchair sleuthing, and a deep dive into the high-profile murders that have fascinated the author for decades, this is a funny, thoughtful, and highly personal blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and true crime with a focus on the often-overlooked victims of notorious killers.

If you love true crime at all, this book will speak to you! I got to reflect on my obsession with Law and Order, read about the development of true crime in it's different mediums, even got to dive into a few big name cases, all with a bit of biography of the author and humor spread throughout. I saw myself reflected in this, and I didn't hate it hahaha.

I am not a murderino, but there are some true crime things that I love, find fascinating, or can't look away from (Catch Me If You Can, documentaries about theft, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...).

I also identified with Campbell as my mother and I will talk of cases such as Andrea Yates, Laci Peterson, and other morbid happenings, such as the news. Campbell mentions something along these lines: talking about a somewhat taboo subject with someone you trust and exploring concepts that cause anxiety, tension, unease, etc can be freeing, can release some of the tension the topic causes. My mom would often ask, how could a person (often a parent) do such a thing? It's partly rhetorical but also not. Sometimes the answer is a controlling partner/family member, trauma, abnormal psychology, sometimes there is no answer and you value the safety that you've experienced.

Also I grew up really close to a CA prison, which I knew had housed someone related to the Manson family, but damn it was actually Charles Manson for a number of years as well as Bobby Beausoleil, a former associate of Manson. Just learned: Timothy Leary served time at CMF in 1973–1974 “for possession of marijuana and escape from a minimum-security prison at San Luis Obispo”

Campbell comes across to me as authentic, funny, relatable, and reliable as she cites her sources, even if it's just the phrase ‘light googling'. I laughed at: “not Napa, Sonoma”
Some things I didn't love: sometimes is was hard to read due to the lettering or occasionally the flow of panels were confusing and the use of jk/lol, sometimes it worked for me and other times not so much.