Honestly, this book was about five chapters too long in a story that didn’t really warrant a full book to be written about it. A long form article would’ve done the job of telling the Bath Massacre and the insanity of Andrew Kehoe. The best chapters of the whole book were the last couple where the author makes the comparisons of Kehoe with other mass murderers up into present day.

Maniac is a well researched book about the Bath, Michigan school massacre which is still the deadliest school massacre in US history. This was an interesting read yet very hard to read as it's so sad.

At the start, this felt like reading a well researched episode of a true crime podcast - delving into the makings of a mass murderer in the early 20th century; interesting enough but somewhat surface level.
The recounting of the actual event is refreshingly dispassionate and removed (although of course, horrific).
The real interest for me comes with the social context - especially how such a horrific event (still referred to as one of the worst mass murders/school murders in US history) has been largely forgotten - it was overshadowed at the time by Charles Lindbergh's accomplishment of a non-stop flight from New York to Paris for example.
Interesting if somewhat dry true crime book.
3 stars.

FROM THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-school-attack-america-forgot/

The mass murder of children is a particular horror, one the last 80 years has brought us in a range of contexts, from the Holocaust to school shootings. But in the 1920s, an attack on a school was a new and baffling crime, and one that culturally and sociologically America was not yet ready to deal with.

In Maniac, crime expert Harold Schechter explores the life of Andrew Kehoe, architect of the Bath, Michigan, school bombing of 1927, which killed 38 children. Soon after the school day began, half the building was obliterated by multiple blasts. In a subsequent explosion, Kehoe detonated his truck outside the school, killing himself and several bystanders. At the time, terrorist bombings were known, but tended to be the work of political radicals. Their targets were symbols of power and capitalism (as with the Wall Street bombing a few years earlier). An attack on a school was not something anyone anticipated—unlike today, after decades of “duck and cover” planning for nuclear attack and, now, active shooter drills. In the 1920s schools were still a safe haven.

Schechter begins with a contemplation of why certain shocking crimes seem to disappear the day they leave the headlines, and others stick with us in collective memory. Some killers, like Leopold and Loeb, become household names—while other perpetrators of equally disturbing crimes just slip from view, forgotten.

Kehoe was one of those who has largely been forgotten. Despite an attack that took 45 lives (six adults, besides Kehoe, died in addition to the children), and injured dozens more, few people have heard of him, even as they could easily name Al Capone or Bonnie and Clyde, criminals of the same era. This Midwestern farmer methodically planned an act of brutal destruction, rigging a school with bombs, motivated by annoyance at taxes to fund a new building.

Schechter tells the story at a quick beat, taking us through Kehoe’s background and early life, up to the fateful day. The son of Irish immigrants, he still lived in the rural area where he had been raised. Married but childless, he was not a known criminal or troublemaker. He was even a member of the school board and helped out as a handyman (a role which granted him access to plant the fuses and pyrotol).

While we know the outcome, reading the story chronologically is as nerve-wracking as a page-turning thriller. We see Kehoe buying the explosives, gradually building up his arsenal, and planning the attack. Schechter doesn’t spend too much time attempting to psychoanalyze Kehoe; he’s more focused on our cultural response to such a monster in our midst.

Andrew Kehoe’s actions represent a true horror and were an eerie harbinger of crimes to come: “Kehoe had packed the bed of his truck with ‘scraps of metal, used farm implements, nuts, bolts, and nails,’ turning his vehicle into the kind of shrapnel-filled car bomb that would become a weapon of choice for international terrorists in future decades.” He even planned a greater cataclysm than what occurred. Several of his timers failed, meaning some of his bombs at the school did not explode. In a pattern now familiar, his first victim was his wife (he murdered her before the bombing), and he ended the attack by killing himself.

In a sense, Kehoe was a man ahead of his time. As Schechter writes:

In our post-9/11, post-Columbine era, the monster we fear is not the night-stalking psycho, preying on one victim after another, but the “human time bomb,” primed to commit a single act of wholesale, apocalyptic violence: the terrorist planting a weapon of mass destruction in a public space, the suicide bomber detonating himself in a crowd, the school shooter on a rampage with high-powered assault weapons

We are braced for the mass-casualty event, the chyron on CNN, or the newspaper headline with a death count in double digits.

In the 1920s, however, crimes like this were a development yet to arrive. Schechter points out that responses to Kehoe included the feeling that he was a perfect illustration that some people are born bad, and therefore made the case in favor of eugenics, a widely supported idea at the time. Others treated the horrific crimes as a sideshow and came through the wreckage trying to grab souvenirs; thousands of rubberneckers arrived on the scene within hours of the bombing, and one even grabbed a piece of Kehoe’s shredded body.

Meanwhile a small community had barely a family untouched by the tragedy. Some parents lost multiple children. Yet for the rest of the country, Bath township’s agony was wiped away, like collective amnesia. Perhaps we did not remember because we did not want to know.

I'm a lover of true crime and was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it did not hold my interest and I was unable to finish it.

True crime runs a wide range in terms of how well authors tell these stories. Maniac is compelling and fascinating without stooping to dwelling on lurid details of this horrific crime and maintaining respect for the victims and those impacted by this tragedy. Schechter sheds new light on an older crime and ensures this book offers more than just a recounting of a tragedy. Highly recommend!

Good book, not like anything I've read before. Enjoyable from a writer who is new to me. Would recommend.

A captivating nos well-detailed examination into a crime that is rarely talked about. Absolutely horrifying.

For true crime to be good it has to tell a story and not be like a book report. This is unfortunately a book report with a lot of fluff. There were some elements that were interesting and others that I wasn't sure what it was in there for. Also maybe it was just my file, but the pages were always crooked and I always had to swipe left or right. The opposite way for alternating pages to try and read. It made it too hard.

This just didn’t end up being a book that interested me. When I first read the premise, I was very excited and invested, but getting into it made it clear that it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully it works for others out there!

Thanks to the publishers, author and Netgalley for an Advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of True Crime, it's very rare these days that I come across a story I have never heard of before. The Bath Massacre is something that had been off my radar, and I am so glad that I read this book and learned more about it.

As the parent of a 9 & 12 year old, this book was not easy to read. But the in-depth research and the sensitivity with which the author treated the subject made it a compelling read.

My aunt used to live in the town where this killing took place, and as mass murder sprees started to proliferate in the 1990s, residents often pointed out that the Bath school massacre of 1925 was still the highest death toll of any school shooting in the US--and it still is. This book explores the cultural and psychological state that led Kehoe to commit this terrible crime, and the aftermath that this tragedy has had on society. For instance, it was interesting to learn that, like many killers, Kehoe killed his stepsister's cat before apparently progressing to people, when his unfortunate stepmother's stove exploded and he either let her burn or perhaps even caused the explosion. The author has written many true crime books, so readers of that format will be familiar with the style. Schechter has done copious archival research, and while the old newspaper articles are interesting to a local history buff like myself, some readers may want a more abridged version of events.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic ARC of this book.

I'd never heard of the incident portrayed in Maniac--the bombing of a school in Bath, MI on May 18, 1927. The perpetrator, Andrew Kehoe, was quite the piece of work. He was full of anger at the town for many reasons and decided that planting explosives in the schoolhouse was the solution to his woes. I can't emphasize enough how despicable Kehoe was; he truly had a black soul. Harold Schechter does a wonderful job telling the story that has seemingly been forgotten. I highly recommend this book!

I generally devour true crime and had surprisingly never heard of Kehoe so I was very excited to start this one. While there were parts that I found very interesting I found it to have a lot of “filler” ( for example, I’m not sure how Lindbergh fit in) and would have preferred learning more about the Bath incident than subsequent more well-known tragedies. Overall, I feel like the Kehoe story wasn’t enough to fill an entire book.

Harold Schechter has written one of the best true crime novels I have ever read. His research was impeccable and he stayed true to the events. He also managed to make it about the victims and not the perpetuator. It was a fast read to but I felt like he covered everything plus more. Schechter's writing is some of the best I have ever read true crime wise. I will be reading more of his work.

5 out of 5 stars

This is such a disturbing story about how even someone on the school board can harbor the darkest traits, fed by deep resentment, and culminating in mass murder including children. Schechter leads the reader through the childhood and early adulthood of Andrew Kehoe, making one wonder about anyone and everyone who might seem a little off, who might one day reveal himself to be a mass murderer, so prevalent in this day in this country. I was given a digital copy of this well-researched and well-written horrifying biography from the publisher Little A through NetGalley.

I don't often read non-fiction, or true crime either. That being said, I'm not sure why not. This was a great book, even though a very difficult subject. This was a very bad crime, and it is always good to try to learn from history. Will definitely need to read some more true crime books. #Maniac #NetGalley

Never in a million years have I heard about this horrible tragedy that happened to this school,the children,the adults in the school and the horrible effect it had not only of the relatives but to this town! Bath,Michigan in the 1920's,who would have thought that way back then they had disturbed people ,a man who wants to blow up a school and for the reasons why! Not telling you the reason or his name its up to you to read about this horrible crime that was done to children and adults in school that day.. One didn't go to school and she tells you what she sees and how it affected her!! Very well researched about the time and crime of a bombing I never heard or,wonder why the national news doesn't mention this especially when we have had so many shootings in schools. I know this is a bombing but regardless of how it happened,lives were lost, innocent children were taken far too early! A PARENT should not have to buried their own children. Follow this terrific crime and see how it was over shadowed in the papers by another event that marked the progress of America. It was kinda hard at first for me to get into the story but Harold Schechter did a fantastic job on drawing you into this horrible crime. First time reading this authors writing and will look for more. Thanks Net Gallery for letting me review this book..

I am an admitted true crime junkie and have been for at least a couple of decades, so I was surprised to first hear of this case only a couple of years ago. This book is the horrifying account of a school bombing that took place in 1927 in Bath, Michigan. 38 children and 6 adults were killed and it is one of the first and remains one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history.
The culprit of the crime was one, Andrew P. Kehoe, a local farmer, school board treasurer and prominent member in the community. He was also a man filled with incredible hate and rage, and paranoia.

I enjoyed this book. Even though I was aware of the crime, I had little knowledge of the details. The book is clearly well researched and Schecter has a spare writing stile that is an effective tool when detailing the facts. I also really liked that he brought in other crimes and newsworthy events of the era to add background and context to the story.

I enjoyed this book- it is a short, quick and fascinating read about one of the first mass murders in this country. It’s interesting to learn that mass murder is not an exclusively modern phenomenon as the news so often portrays it to be. So, all my fellow true crime aficionados go get your hands on this!
Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Thank you to Little A and Net Galley for this ARC.

2.5 Stars rounded up.

While I primarily read fiction, I do really love reading true crime books. I was completely unfamiliar with the Bath School Disaster so I was instantly intrigued, and knew I wanted to check it out.

I really struggled with this book for the first 60 pages, and nearly didn't continue with it. The rhythm of the book is very difficult to get into. I had to put the book aside many times.

A big part of the struggle for me, was the introduction. It's super clunky consisting of a sterile list of facts of random cases, which really hold no importance to the book you're about to read. I'd suggest, if you decide to check this book out, entirely skipping over that section.

Once it gets into the case at hand, it does pick up speed exponentially. I flew through the second half of the book. It's absolutely shocking that the name Andrew Kehoe isn't one that we are more familiar with.

The nature and execution of his crimes are monstrous, and the aftermath of the bombing is described in visceral and bloody detail. While the book does speculate on the psychological elements of why Kehoe may committed this heinous act, we just don't have enough information to get the answers we want. Which is no fault of the authors.

For me, it didn't feel like there is enough information for a full book on this crime, and it maybe would've been better in a shorter format.

Because of how uneven the pacing is, I am not inclined to recommend it.