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A review by kellyhager
Bogeyman - He Was Every Parent's Nightmare by Steve Jackson
5.0
As you know, I don't read very much nonfiction. This book makes me want to change that.
Before reading this, I hadn't heard anything about David Penton, who is the titular Bogeyman. I feel like now I know almost too much. I don't want to get melodramatic, but he's one of those people who is just pure evil.
You should know that bad things happen throughout the course of the book but that Steve Jackson doesn't really go into detail. I mean, you know what happens, but it's not gone into in lurid detail.
It's obvious that Steve Jackson did a great deal of research into this, and that he talked to a lot of people. While it seems that we hear about things mainly from the police officers' perspective, we also hear from the victims' parents and from a few people who had seen Penton and were nearly abducted but got away. (Unfortunately, there aren't many of them; he was able to take almost every child he came across.)
This book is not for the easily disturbed, but I found it fascinating. Also, given all the smears that police officers are facing now, it was nice to read about these officers who went through so much to find this man who was preying on and killing children. There were a lot of repercussions for them---mainly emotionally, although some marriages suffered as well---and they just would not stop until he was found, apprehended, tried and jailed.
Highly recommended.
Before reading this, I hadn't heard anything about David Penton, who is the titular Bogeyman. I feel like now I know almost too much. I don't want to get melodramatic, but he's one of those people who is just pure evil.
You should know that bad things happen throughout the course of the book but that Steve Jackson doesn't really go into detail. I mean, you know what happens, but it's not gone into in lurid detail.
It's obvious that Steve Jackson did a great deal of research into this, and that he talked to a lot of people. While it seems that we hear about things mainly from the police officers' perspective, we also hear from the victims' parents and from a few people who had seen Penton and were nearly abducted but got away. (Unfortunately, there aren't many of them; he was able to take almost every child he came across.)
This book is not for the easily disturbed, but I found it fascinating. Also, given all the smears that police officers are facing now, it was nice to read about these officers who went through so much to find this man who was preying on and killing children. There were a lot of repercussions for them---mainly emotionally, although some marriages suffered as well---and they just would not stop until he was found, apprehended, tried and jailed.
Highly recommended.