TOW #24: IRB Post

In the second half of Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade, we witness Walter Kirn, the critically acclaimed author of this book, unravel more of the true identity of Clark Rockefeller.  While the first half of the book discussed mainly how Clark Rockefeller cloaked his past well, the second half of the book mainly focuses on his flaws.  One example of this would be how earlier in the book Kirn described Rockefeller's house as modern and very well decorated with expensive art, while in the second half of the book he discusses how the art was found later to simply be reproductions.  The second half of the book also goes deeper into Rockefeller’s intentions as a serial imposter, going into why he manipulated his wife to stick around with him as well as why he went about kidnapping his “daughter”.  This later goes into Kirns first time communicating with Rockefeller in custody as someone other than his aliases.  This brings the reader deeper into the mind of the serial imposter as Kirn witnesses Rockefellers responses to his questions.  While this is an interesting approach as to how to pull the reader in, the book still poorly displays the true mystery to Rockefeller.  While the book was an interesting read being that it was from the point of view of someone who personally knew the criminal, the book is mainly an account of Kirn’s memories as opposed to the mystery Kirn paints the book to be.  Because of this, it is hard for the book to live up to its standards.  Yes, audiences will be willing to read it to get the experience it provides, but the presentation of the book was misleading from many aspects, including the title itself which displayed a book much more dramatic and eerie than it actually was.  Because of this, the book did not live up to the standards I would have liked it to.