Seven Days of Rage: The Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer

Liked nothing. Horrible quality with the added bonus of a shopping list that someone left in the book! I know this review won’t see the light of day, but the seller needs to sort themselves out!

Very confusing book

I just finished reading "Nightmare in Napa" (NIN) by Paul LaRosa. It was the first true-crime book I've read from him and I liked it so much that, right after I read the final words, and scrolled through photos at the end, I purchased and started reading "Seven Days of Rage: the Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer" (SDR). And SDR is not the longest book I've ever taken on so I finished it in a day or so.If I had one complaint about SDR it would be about the length of the book. It's just over 200 pages, at least in the Kindle format, and that's barely enough to cover the crimes of Philip Markoff. And forget about his life really. But I really wish that it were longer so I could've understood his life and motivations for his crime spree a bit more.But I'll make a guess or two why SDR is a short read, at least for Mr. LaRosa. No one in Mr. Markoff's family was very talkative after they learned about the arrest, and neither was his fiance, Megan McAllister, so it was probably difficult for Mr. LaRosa to get any interviews with anyone, outside of Mr. Markoff's "friends." And it seemed that Mr. Markoff didn't even have any real "friends," as they would be more accurately described as "acquaintances." And that might not even be the correct word as no one seemed to know the real Mr. Markoff at all. Mr. Markoff seemed to like it that way, probably to hide his darkest secrets. And he seemed to have many.I have read many true-crime books, and Mr. LaRosa may not like me giving out advice to people who he might try to interview in the future, but in my opinion, people who are associated with a crime often open their mouths way too much. For their own protection it is better to not talk with anyone in the press -- and talking to the police without a lawyer is a Fool's Errand -- because if they do, word gets out and that can be bad for many reasons:1. A defendant is innocent until proven guilty. If an insider gives an interview and discusses the defendant, it might turn out that the defendant is not guilty. And then that insider won't be an insider any longer, as the accused might be a bit angry at his now previous "friend."2. A defendant might be guilty but get out on bail. In this case if he's a killer he might think killing someone else isn't such a big deal. "I'm going to jail anyways and so what's one more crime?" he might think to himself. And you just might end up on his "hit list."3. An insider might divulge information that could get himself in trouble. Most people don't know the law very well, and I've seen many people who've been charged, say, with being an accessory after the fact simply because they talked about a crime without a lawyer. It would be more than a bummer to end up in jail simply because you decided to give an interview.4. The police might see your interview. See reason number 3, above.And this is just the beginning, and this is partially why lawyers tell people to just keep their mouths shut. But naturally, authors such as Mr. LaRosa have a more difficult task while writing a book if this occurs because then information becomes very difficult to come by. So, in all likelihood, Mr. LaRosa had less information about Mr. Markoff than the true-crime author would like. And that might make for a shorter read.It also appears there's another reason for an abbreviated effort. I believe this book first went to press before Mr. Markoff's trial even began. Sure, there were some preliminary hearings discussed, but that's about it. Still, I know how the real story ends mostly -- I did before reading -- so it isn't a huge disappointment for me. I'm guessing that Mr. LaRosa will probably have a new edition at some point, with an addendum, that may discuss that ending, and so I won't give out a spoiler, just in case that happens.This story is really interesting, and it has been featured on quite a few documentaries. I like the show "See No Evil" (SNE) and from memory it was covered on a fairly recent episode, as of January of 2021. It was the perfect case for that show to cover though as the police really started the investigation with some surveillance video from Boston hotels. And if you've seen that show you'll realize that most of the featured cases are mostly solved through the use of surveillance video, along with good ol' fashioned detective work after that.I suppose the million-dollar question might be: "Why did Philip Markoff throw away his charmed life as a future doctor by robbing and killing women?" This book attempts to answer that question but it's impossible to know the true answer, for many reasons. It does seem like this crime spree was one of the most useless wastes of human potential you may ever read about. Mr. LaRosa does discuss the doctor credo "Do no harm" and Mr. Markoff seemed to simply ignore it. Perhaps it was better that Mr. Markoff never became a doctor in the first place. But then again, if that is true, there would be far better ways for him to have taken a different career path. (An idea did dawn on me this morning. Mr. Markoff's father is a dentist, at least if his father is still practicing. It might be the case that Philip, while being far more intelligent than average, never really want to be a doctor in the first place, but his family might have pushed him into it. If so then Philip would've cared less how things turned out and maybe then even self-sabotaged. It's only a theory -- one of many -- but it might have some merit as I've seen similar scenarios before.)I liked "Seven Days of Rage," but I was on the fence on what rating I'd give it. I do wish that this site would give the reviewers a one-through-ten scoring option, as then I'd maybe go seven. So I rounded up today mostly because I think the author, Paul LaRosa, is a very strong writer. As a matter of fact, right after I finished SDR I bought and started reading "Tacoma Confidential" (TC) to get my Paul LaRosa fix. I used to live in the Seattle area and I've been to Tacoma many times, so that book was high on my list too. But so-far-so-really-good with TC as it is a really strong effort, although I'm only about one-third of the way through. It won't be long though until I'm itching to click that "Buy now with 1-Click" button on my next read from him. Mr. LaRosa really might be that good of a writer.

This book chroncicles the Craigslist Killer's short-lived spree in the Boston area during seven days in 2008. I liked it because it stuck to the facts and presented the case in a factual, chronological manner without going into sensationalistic rants about the killer's upbringing and family dynamic.I read another book on the same case by Michele McFee and found it distracting and irrelevant by comparison as it tended to imbue the case with unnecessary and baseless so-called personal information that was used to spice up an already seemingly improbable yet true story. This book does a much better job with factual information, investigative techniques, and the ultimate arrest of Phillip Markoff. What this book does not do is wrap up the case. The book ends with Markoff's arrest and incarceration and additional information that came forth regarding Markoff's internet activities after his arrest. It was published before Markoff's suicide which occurred prior to his trial. While it would have probably been nice to have a sense of finality regarding this case, I'm not sure if that would have been possible in any event. I liked this book and thought the author did a good job of diseccting the case.

This story was utterly fascinating and completely captured me. Philip Markoff was a medical student at prestigious Boston University with a beautiful fiance - exactly the wrong person to have committed these crimes, right? Apparently not, as in those eponymous seven days of rage, he went on a crime spree in which he kidnapped, robbed, and even killed women advertising their services on Craigslist.The book is a very unsentimental look at the case and Markoff himself. It covered Markoff's personal life as well as the personal lives of the women he targeted, but not much was revealed that we didn't see in the 48 Hours program. Cramer and LaRosa do a decent job of telling the story, but delving a little bit deeper into Markoff's psyche would have been an excellent addition to the story.