Books like The Misbegotten Son

The late Jack Olsen was simply incapable of writing a bad book. First, few true-crime authors demonstrated such a stubborn insistence on chasing down every stray fact and every peripheral character as this former magazine writer from journalism's Golden Age. Second, his tender-tough-guy prose keeps what might have been exhausting expositions in the hands of lesser writers crackling along like ice cubes in a glass of whiskey. And "The Misbegotten Son" is nowhere near Olsen's finest work. It's no less well-done than any of his other books, mind you. It simply lacks as compelling a central character as, say, Claude Dallas of "Give A Boy A Gun," Fred "Kevin" Coe of "Son" and Steve Titus and MacDonald Smith of "Predator." Arthur Shawcross, a sociopath from a small town in upstate New York, is more of a blank slate, a bland personality that he wore as a mask over a true face of relentlessly murderous rage toward women. His crimes are much more fascinating than he is. Yet, Olsen dives right in, and comes up with a crackerjack third act — as Shawcross targets prostitutes in Buffalo, New York in the late 1980s, a survivor of one of his attacks teams with the cops, very reluctantly, to spread the word among the streetwalking set and smoke out the killer. The woman whose sense of self-worth — and justice — couldn't be beaten out of her by a near-fatal rape or numerous years on the streets near the bottom of the prostitute food chain becomes someone you can't help rooting for. And the whole cops-and-cornerwalkers-learning-to-trust-each-other-just-enough angle is ultimately what makes this book a good one ... if only second-tier by the lofty standards set by the man many called The Dean Of True Crime. I can't say that "The Misbegotten Son" is a book I'll want to re-read, but that's OK. I've got plenty of great Jack Olsen books to page through all over again anytime I want. And I will. The man had the gift.