Secrets of the Congdon Mansion: A Book Review

Let me first begin with this writer, Joe Kimball. He has two other pen names, J.A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn. I find it odd that a writer feels the need to have three different names, especially three names that feel so similar. It just feels weird, especially since none of these are well known names.

The book is written rather poorly. There was even one point where the narrator changes suddenly. For the most part the book is omniscient third person, but then all of a sudden it will change to first person. For example:

“Police checked out that room, too. And they checked the Holiday Inn Airport South in Bloomington, where the couple stayed for several nights after the funeral.

At each place, police found evidence that firmed up the case against the Cadwell's. It was enough, they believed, to link Roger to the murder.

My colleagues and I covering the case for the Minneapolis Tribune discovered much of this evidence, too. And even though police still maintained publicly that it was a botched burglary case as ate as July 5, we prepared a story for the July 6 editions naming Roger Cadwell-- Miss Congdon’s son-in-law-- as the chief suspect,” page 13.

I had to read that page multiple times to try to see what the author was trying to say, and I still don’t fully understand. There hadn’t been a single place where the author mentions he’s a journalist or that he had colleagues working on this case. It was just a mess.

He also tries to be humorous in his book, which just makes the text sound childish. For example on page 79 he writes, “And after his suicide, I decided that if Roger was capable of committing such violence on himself, he was capable of doing it to others, particularly if he was drunk.” I take so many issues with that statement. First, suicidal does not equal homicidal. Yes, I think Roger committed the murder, but I would not use his suicide as proof of his violence. Second it that last bit of the sentence; the drunk part. This blog has moments like this, but usually only when I’m writing about something outrageous (see “Living with the Dinos” or “Bigfoot in Fort Snelling State Park”). The Congdon Mansion murders were by no means outrageous; they were shocking and horrific. Kimball tries to make light of this horrificness which is in poor taste. However if dark humor is your thing, to be brutally honest, he’s not very funny either.

Even the cover of this book is ridiculous. It claims to be a “LONG-TIME BESTSELLER”, but I highly doubt that. The cover photos are even fuzzy, making it hard to see the faces of the killers and Elizabeth Congdon. Oh and the color scheme is terrible.

Secrets of the Congdon Mansion is one of those books where you have to ask how it got published. I’m assuming it was self published and self edited. I would compare it to a so-bad-it’s-good movie, but those you can at least appreciate when you’re drunk. (See that is an appropriate time to make a drunk joke.)

.....Stay Tuned.....

Sources and Further Readings:

Secrets of the Congdon Mansion by Joe Kimball (a.k.a. J.A. Konrath, a.k.a Jack Kilborn)