Review of Twisted But True

[Lilith Stroup]

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

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4 out of 5 stars

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I give the book Twisted but True] 4 stars out of 5 due to the exceptional content and personality of the author. Each chapter of the book is a tale from the author Darren Burch, a retired cop, and most have a twist ending. One thing I love about the book is how each tale is like its own episode of a cop TV show; they seem made up, but they are real stories from Burch's career and personal life. How Burch talks about his personal life is something else I love about the book. In the book, he includes details about his life including his own experiences with things like trauma, grief, and being a husband and father.
Not that it needs saying given that it's a book about crime, but this book contains mature themes including profanity, stories of violence and death, and discussions of sex and sex crimes. While I found many of the stories lighthearted and entertaining, there were a few things that made me feel a little uncomfortable reading. I had a problem with two stories in particular. I won't go into the specifics of each, but the subject in each one seemed to have been suffering from mental health crises, and the author uses their stories as material to amuse the reader. While I think it is absolutely fine to embarrass actual criminals, I think that the two people involved in the stories were not in a good place mentally when they encountered our author.
As I said in the beginning, this book deserves 4 stars out of 5 because, while it is a great book, it is not perfect. I would recommend it to anyone interested in true crime, especially if they are interested in becoming law enforcement themselves. I would just keep in mind that these are real stories that happened to people other than our author.

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Twisted But True
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