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This one hurt, people. Stacy Horn's The Killing Fields of East New York is a great book which is unfortunately destroyed by a single storytelling choice. Sometimes, linear is the way to go. Allow me to explain!

Horn tells the story of the Federal Housing Authority scandal of the 1970s and also how these white collar crimes led to the complete collapse of East New York. Of these two narratives, the FHA scandal is much more engrossing and readable by itself. The East New York collapse is not as effective for the reason I'll dive into now.

Each chapter alternates between the FHA scandal and the fall of East New York. This causes so many problems that it's almost hard to quantify. First, these two stories are not separated by decades. In the early part of the book, the two stories almost overlap completely. Not only do you get yanked from one story, but you have to reacquaint yourself with the story-line every single chapter. This means Horn has to repeat information frequently especially when the same character is in back to back chapters. For instance, a character is introduced as a brand new lawyer in the district attorney's office, but then in the next chapter he is a judge because of the time jump, and then in the very NEXT chapter he is a seasoned lawyer in the DA's office.

This story telling device also ruins the impact of the crimes in East New York. I want to be clear, Horn knows how to write. However, every time I started being invested in people and the community as a whole, I was ripped back to the FHA scandal. It made the violent crime chapters feel rushed and underdone.

There is a really good book somewhere in this. I am almost tempted to reread it and just do it chronologically. I know most people won't do that so I'd have to say this one is probably a pass.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Zando Books.)