A Death in Belmont

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger

Category: True Crime Grade: C+

This is Junger's second book. The first was A Perfect Storm, a mega-success that had the expectations high for this one. In this one, Junger uses the fact that Albert Desalvo, the Boston Strangler, spent a few days at Junger's childhood home doing some contracting work as a springboard to launch in to the Strangler's crime wave in the early 60s.

Junger uses the "non-fiction novel" approach created by Truman Capote in In Cold Blood. The problem, stylistically, is that Junger isn't Capote. I plan to reread In Cold Blood later this summer, but as I remember it, it was clean and, while it told a very dramatic story, didn't use ultra-dramatic prose. In Junger's book, you keep imagining a background sound track going dah-dah-dah-daaaaah. Its very distracting. There are also some major side tracks in to things like the Kennedy and King assassinations that, why'll have an impact on the story, don't warrant the pages devoted to them. Ultimately, this book feels like a New Yorker article that some editor said "Why don't you pad it out and make it a book?".

In addition to Desalvo, the co-focus of the book is Roy Smith, the man who was probably wrongly convicted of a murder that was probably the 13th Strangler murder. While Desalvo confessed to the other 12, he never copped to the strangulation/rape of Bessie Goldberg. The MO was identical to the other 12 but, Smith, a black laborer who happened to be working at the Goldberg house that day was picked up and was, in all probability, convicted of murder because he was black man in a white neighborhood (the Belmont of the title). Smith spent more than a decade in jail for the crime and maintained his innocence until he died - two days after his sentence was commuted.

While the Smith angle was interesting, if you've read anything about the Boston Strangler case, the Junger book really doesn't add much. The connection between Desalvo and the author really boils down to "he did some work at our house and gave my mother a funny look". It's not a bad book and its a quick read but, if you are really interested in true crime writing, go pick up a copy of In Cold Blood instead.