The Language of Evil Review

Author Robert Beattie is author of Language of Evil as well as of Nightmare in Wichita, and a New York Times Best Selling author.  In Language of Evil he gives us a look into what is described as a "brilliant mind, a brutal murder and almost a perfect crime." 

Tom Murry, English Professor is suspected of the murder of his ex-wife Carmin, who left him for another man, a so called "New Age" lifestyle and planned to move with his daughter to San Diego California.  

Carmin's murder was brutal, with stabbings and beatings but very little actual evidence.  

Small town Deputy Sheriff Doug Woods was persistent in his investigation of Tom Murray as well as other suspects (of which there was very little evidence to point to) and eventually brought him to trial with the District Attorney's office a year after the murder. 

Much of the book is devoted to the approximately 12 hour long interview of Prof. Murray, and English professor who stated he was innocent and had no need of an attorney.  However his "body language" said something different than his words.  He also had bruises and scratches on his hands.  

Robert Beattie is an excellent writer, his grammar and punctuation is flawless. It is not his fault that the interview was random and at times incredibly confusing.  I honestly don't see how this college professor was considered so brilliant when he could barely form a sentence that made sense. 

Was he in shock over the death of his ex wife?  No, not once did he even ask how she died.  I personally thought that his brand of diarrhea  of the mouth was an effort to daze and confuse.  Sure he wrote some books, but I don't think he sounded that smart.  He sounded like he was trying to out guess the detectives and anticipate their questions. And, honestly who sits with his back to the interviewer during an interview and doesn't make eye contact during a conversation of over 20 minutes.  

A year after her death Tom Murray was sentenced to prison.  The trip there was a long one.  Some are upset over a prison sentence that causes him to continue teaching English but instead of to college co-eds, he now teaches cons. 

While well written and an interesting story, the interview and process was far too long.  The reference to "the author" when referring to himself was annoying to me, other may not notice.  "The author" did have an amazing source of knowledge about the subject, the history of the area and also included many interesting tid bits of knowledge and trivia making the story more interesting. WIthout these I would have put the book down the interview was so annoying that without a break I would have lost patience. 

Overall, well written, true crime fans will appreciate the story as well as the writing.