Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South

Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South by Karen L Cox
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Goat Castle was narrated from the author's point of view in a somewhat drawn out "newspaper like" article. The author told the story of the tragic case of the "Goat Castle" murder in Natchez, Mississippi. It is a non fiction book which was researched very carefully. I have never read any other books from the author, Karen Cox. However, I can tell that this author does her research!

The author gives much background about Miss Merrill (the victim) and everyone surrounding her murder. After quite a bit of background about each individual, the author tells the strange story of a old maid - Jennie Merrill and her feuding neighbours who were nicknamed "wild man" and the "goat woman".

I did not particularly care for this book. I found the story interesting enough, but I felt like I had to wade through lots of details that I didn't particularly care about in order to read the actual story. I had never heard about this crime. I think that if I had previously heard about the crime, I may have been more interesting in reading more of the details of each person involved. I personally thought there was too much extraneous details.

I would encourage others who already know about this story and are interested in learning specific details to read this book.


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