Pictures at an Execution : An Inquiry into the Subject of Murder
by Wendy Lesser
Category: True Crime

This book is about murder -- in life and in art -- and about how we look at it and feel about it. At the center of Wendy Lesser's investigation is a groundbreaking legal case in which a federal court judge was asked to decide whether a gas chamber execution would be broadcast on public television. Our grim and seemingly endless fascination with murder gets its day in court as Lesser conducts us through the proceedings, pausing along the way to reflect on the circumstances of violent death in our culture. She narrates the trial with a sharp eye for detail and an absorbing sense of character. Her book, itself a murder mystery of sorts, is also a meditation on murder in a civilized society -- what we make of it in law, morality, and art. Illustrated.