Author: Allison Hope Weiner
Year published: 2026
Category: Adult nonfiction
Pages: 224
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Location: (my 2026 Google Reading map): USA (TN, MS, CA)
Summary: Go behind the scenes of four well-known murder trials to uncover all the facts about what really happened before the cases went to trial.
Follow author and investigative journalist Allison Hope Weiner as she reveals the secrets behind some of the country’s most intriguing murder cases, exposing both the power behind the media’s influence and crucial evidence that never made it to trial.
Told from a unique and particularly thorough perspective, Murder and the Media provides a front row seat to the investigative efforts shaping each case, sharing insights from the defendants, the lawyers, the investigators, and even the victims’ families.
Review: I saw Allison Hope Weiner speak at my local Literary Festival in May and found her really interesting (and very nice when I spoke with her afterward). My big complaint about this book is that it needed an editor. There are a couple of facts that don't match up, some repetitive sentences, and they all hven't too often.
Other than that, I found this book interesting. It's true crime, how could it not be?! I liked that there were four cases that she writes about, which means that I didn't get bored with just one story, there was variety, and it was interesting to see commonalities among them. One thing that stood out is how often things can go wrong, mistakes are made, and time is wasted. All of this leads to suspects slipping through the cracks, witnesses forgetting (or lying), and the process of bringing the "bad guy" to justice taking far too long.
Reading this book reminds me just how awful people can be. Murdering best friends and spouses just seems beyond anything I can imagine. Weiner used her status as a national-level journalist to gain access to family, friends, court records, and more in order to get into the granular details of these cases. She really knows what she is talking about.
Challenges for which this counts:
- 20 Books of Summer
- Literary Escapes--Mississippi
- Nonfiction--Published in 2026
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