By: Julia Marchese

Embarassingly, I find Hollywood scandal books incredibly entertaining. My parents had both Hollywood Babylon books on the bookshelf when I was growing up, and I would pour over them at length. There is something about celebrity scandal that will never go out of fashion, but when it is stars of yore involved, the fascination is tenfold.

Celebrity Crimes is a complete updated rip-off of the Hollywood Babylon books, but without all of the glorious pictures. While I am never one to advocate that all books need pictures, in this case, they would really add to the book, since I couldn’t visualize all of the celebrities he mentioned. Waterkeyn is probably trying to keep the book a little “classier,” but the things that make Hollywood Babylon so great are the disturbing death scenes and grainy nude pictures.

I was surprised to learn that Waterkeyn has written two previous bestsellers. I found his writing style amateurish and dry, and his interest in the subject seems minimal. If you decide to write a book about such an admittedly trashy subject, I think you really need to revel in it. It’s like being a writer for a modern day tabloid. If you don’t go over the top, the story falls flat. While he has obviously done his research and rattles off dates and descriptions with ease, the book lacks the heart and sleaze that it needs to really grab the reader. A lot of the crimes he describes are also in Hollywood Babylon and, while I hate to sound like a broken record, the latter series really gives the reader the enthusiasm and punch that the stories need.

Celebrity Crimes covers an impressive range of events, dividing the book up into sepearte sections: Victims, Survivors, Killers, and Misadventures. It goes heavily into the Manson murders, The Munich Olympic killings, and the Lindbergh kidnapping. While I did want to read the entire book, there is just something lacking. The only thing that this book has going for it is that it deals with more recent crimes — from Robert Blake to Phil Hartman.

I would recommend this book only for these updates, but would highly suggest checking out Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon series first.