Howard Engel’s second non-fiction book, Crimes of Passion, is another thematic collection of material relating to death, but this time it is the provocation rather than the process that’s under examination. The assumed link between the selected cases is that the killers (ranging from O.J. Simpson to Lizzie Borden, Susan Smith – and even Loreena Bobbit) are normal people suddenly transformed by powerful emotional stimuli and overwhelming passion into murderers.The cited cases come from Britain, North America, France, Africa, Switzerland, and New Zealand.

Engel’s approach here is anecdotal rather than scientific. The facts behind each case are assembled from books, media outlets, and Internet sources, resulting in varying amounts of information and depth of analysis, and making comparison and cross-
referencing difficult. While Engel’s thesis seems to be that intensely powerful love-linked provocation was the root cause of these crimes, there are several instances where a suddenly flaring passion seems to have been preceded by motives suspiciously close to studied premeditation.

As may be anticipated from a writer of Engel’s stature, the writing itself is mainly well done, notwithstanding some surprising lapses. For example, Engel shares the staggering revelation that “The five-hundred-mile (car) trip took more than five hours” and occasionally resorts to outright cliché: “War clouds were gathering over Europe.” True-crime fans will more than likely enjoy Engel’s idiosyncratic review of crimes of passion, even if the book offers little in the way of new data or revelation.