Review by y_n6 -- Twisted But True by Darren Burch

y_n6 · Post by **y_n6** » 18 Mar 2019, 04:49

[Following is a volunteer review of "Twisted But True" by Darren Burch.]

4 out of 4 stars

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Twisted but true by Darren Burch is a book filled with bizarre and humorous stories about his law enforcement career. It is a book that I would recommend not only to true crime fanatics but also to people looking for a quick humorous read.

The book begins with a quick recap of what got Darren Burch into law enforcement. He tells us about a car crash he witnessed as a teenager in which he failed to save the life of a young girl. This experience haunted him for a long time as he continued to blame himself for her death and kept thinking about the "what ifs". He enlisted in the army and almost worked for the CIA, but all this ultimately led him back to his hometown with him working for the Pheonix Police Department, where he had many bizarre experiences such as lifting up a man who was pretty much goo, trying to tame a wild cow in the middle of a busy street and a woman who just wouldn't stop screaming at cars.

There is a lot about this book that I like. Not only does it have thirty-five wonderful short stories filled with humor and drama that make you want to read "just one more", but Darren also never fails to express compassion and seriousness when it comes to the consequences and results of the situations. The book contains a fair share of dark humor, which Darren says is a coping mechanism. Another thing that I love about the book is that after every chapter, there is a small section called "The Twist" which either adds some funny details to the story in the chapter or explains the aftermath. My favorite story would have to be the one in which a man acting like a dog breaks into a bakery, simply because it was so bizarre and the shortness of it (and the fact that the author had to play along and pretend the man was a dog) left me speechless.

The thing that makes this book a success for me is the author's openness and humility. The author doesn't fail to tell us about his screw-ups, such as the time when in his eagerness to help the people at a car wreck he locked himself out of his own car. He shares stories about him and his coworkers and other personal stories that really tell us about him as a person. The final chapter and the epilogue were also extremely personal and spoke a lot about his dedication to his career and his relationship with his family.

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was the formatting in the PDF version, where two pages are counted as one. Other than that, the book seems to be professionally edited. I could not find a single grammatical mistake in the book, and there were no typos either.

I give this story 4 out of 4 stars. I think anyone who enjoys true crime, action, and humor would enjoy this book. The fact that the stories are pretty short and can be read in any order makes it a good read for those who don't have too much time to read. The book is meant for mature audiences, not all stories have gore in them but the ones that do are pretty graphic and most stories deal with topics such as domestic abuse, violence, and sexual assault.

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Twisted But True
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