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Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn

Published: 3rd May 2014 19:13

Cover of the novel

Bookseller Blurb:

Katrina Marino is about to become America's most infamous murder victim.

This is Katrina's story, and the story of her killer.

It is also the story of Katrina's neighbours, those who witnessed her murder and did nothing: the terrified Vietnam draftee; the woman who thinks she's killed a child, and her husband who will risk everything for the truth; the former soldier planning suicide and the man who saves him. And others whose lives are touched by the crime: the elderly teacher whose past is catching up with him; the amateur blackmailer who's about to find out just what sort of people he's been threatening; the corrupt cop who believes he is God's ‘red right hand'.

Shocking and compassionate, angry and gripping, ACTS OF VIOLENCE is a sprawling, cinematic tour-de-force, a terrifying crime novel unlike any other.

Acts of Violence - Our Review:

_{note: the side quotes are taken from actual reader comments left as feedback about the book...}

"You'll either love it or hate it. I can't say I "enjoyed" it, but I couldn't stop listening and it is certainly well told, well narrated, and worth the time. A dark story, but ultimately not without hope and humanity."

"Acts of Violence" by Ryan David Jahn is probably the most uncomfortable read I've ever had the ‘pleasure' of reading. It is uncomfortable reading. You wonder why you are reading it. You wonder why somebody would have even taken the time to write such a novel. It's quite sickening really. You read and you wonder "what purpose does this serve?".

But it is absolutely compelling. You keep reading despite your gut instinct to put it down and just write it off as a bad purchase.

And keep reading you should. The story is totally unbelievable. This could never happen.

"I was so interested in the story that I did a little investigating of my own after listening to it, to find out the true account."

The focal point of the story is the character Katrina Marino. Katrina is a bar manager who locks up the bar one night, drives home to her apartment which looks into the courtyard of a whole condominium of apartments and is brutally attacked in clear view of dozens of witnesses. Not just once, but twice.

"This book is full of cynicism and nastiness with an entirely unbalanced and negative view on humanity."

The story not only depicts the attack(s), it tries to visualise the events through the eyes of the other residents. It tries to imagine what they were doing, why didn't they rush to Katrina's aid? What could have been so important in their lives that eclipsed the need to do what (you would expect) any normal human being would do?

"What a depressing read. If that is a reflection of America society, I'm glad I don't live there. The only comfort is that it is fiction - isn't it?!"

"The only comfort is that it is fiction - isn't it?!"

Well, "No" it's not.

I got to the end of the book and put it down but it didn't leave me. It played on my mind and it bugged me to distraction. In the end, I also had to dig a little deeper and once you start digging htere is an awful lot to dig.

For Katrina Marino read Kitty Genovese. For Social Phsycologists, University Academics and students this became the classic case study and the origin of such terms as ‘bystander effect' , ‘diffusion of responsibility' and quite simply ‘Genovese Syndrome'.

But I have said far too much already. Read the book, do the research...here's the link: