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Shelf Indulgence

"Shelf Indulgence" is my year-long book review blog. Instead of a resolution for 2023, I set a goal of reading one book per month for the entire year. 

Here, I'll post my review after completing each month's read and include information on where you can get the book if it interests you.

{January's selection}
The Cereal Killer Chronicles of Battle Creek

For my first book of 2023, I chose one that had been on my shelf since shortly after I moved to Lansing.
 

I purchased this at Deadtime Stories: True Crime and Other Books, a store owned by author Jenn Carpenter located in Lansing's REO Town. I'd been to Battle Creek a handful of times prior to reading this, but it was mostly for hockey games or tournaments. Like so many other Michiganders, I was well aware of the fact that the city is home to cereal giant Kellogg's. What I was not aware of was the multple tragedies tied to the area. Those tragedies are highlighted across four chapters, but the book starts with background on Battle Creek and its most famous family, the Kelloggs, and their multiple rounds of misfortune and bouts of family drama. The remaining four chapters cover the murders of multiple women - and one man - spanning decades, all with a tie to the Kellogg business, which investigators on one of the cases said housed a "seedy subculture of sex, scandal, and all-around debauchery." The deaths of Daisy Zick, Ricky Goddard, Maggie Hale, Patti Rosansky, and Karry Lynn Evans, and Cari Farver. The book takes the reader across the 1960s, 1980s, and early 2000s to look at their cases - some solved, some not. After reading the most recent case highlighted (Farver's murder), you may find yourself wondering "what's next?" because it's almost as if the town is due. At 118 pages, the book is a great read for anyone with a curious mind as to a well-known Michigan town with a dark side it would probably rather keep hidden.

The Cereal Killer Chronicels of Battle Creek Author: Jenn Carpenter

{February's selection}
The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars 

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