They are fact based narrations of the events and circumstances leading up to the assassinations of two of the most influential government leaders in US history (Lincoln and Kennedy) and the execution of the most influential man in the history of the world, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
I listened to the Kennedy book first. Last November was the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination. I've always been somewhat interested in the facts and theories surrounding his murder. One of my all time favorite books (the only Stephen King book I've ever read) is wrapped around the events that changed the world on 11/22/63.
I followed with "Killing Jesus." This book was my least favorite. It really didn't tell me a whole lot about the events that I hadn't read or heard about already. The exceptions to this was the Roman history and stories about the local Judea government officials in charge that are detailed. Although I think the history of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra seemed a little unnecessary.
The last book I listened to, "Killing Lincoln" has more discussion of conspiracy than any of the other two. But the Lincoln assassination has more of a conspiracy trail than Kennedy. The plot to kill Christ is an open conspiracy and thus has no mystery to it.
The Kennedy book tells more about Kennedy and his life and behavior than either of the other books do about their subjects. I learned more about JFK's physical ailments and behaviors than I knew before.
The focus of all three books is on the killers more than the victims. I now know more about John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the group of men who plotted to unjustly murder Jesus than I did before I listened to these books.
They are very entertaining and compelling. I listened to them in the car and I couldn't listen to anything else. But they send confusing messages.
There are a lot of facts that explain the people and circumstances leading up to each of the killings. These are either footnoted with their sources or, as explained by O'Reilly during the introduction, were compiled and from extensive research and correlated into a consistent timeline.
But there are also statements that seem as though there's no way it can be anything but conjecture. There are statements that declare a killer's thoughts or feelings in situations that couldn't possibly be documented. I can understand them being added to the narration for dramatic purposes. But they are presented as factual along with the documented information.
I'm not going to give specific examples but there were plenty of times while I was listening that I questioned a sentence I just heard with the question "How could the authors possibly know that to be true?". For me that blurs the line of credibility in the material. There was too much "likely fiction" intertwined with the facts.
Nevertheless the things that can logically be accepted as facts are compelling enough to be enjoyable. A lot of them made me think, "hmm that's interesting" or "I never knew that before."
One final thing I'd like to mention because it effected my enjoyment of "Killing Lincoln."
This book, obviously, has a lot of interesting details about the battles and ending of the Civil War. One of the main components of both the Union and Confederate armies were the soldiers on horseback. They are collectively known as the "cavalry." Throughout the entire book (with the exception of a few times) O'Reilly pronounced the word as "Calvary". The name Christians commonly use to refer to the hill where Christ was crucified.
Now anyone else probably wouldn't have noticed this. But because of a memory I have about a high school English class project, I am unusually aware of the common mix up of the two words.
O'Reilly's mispronunciation was a glaring error to me to the point of distraction. Ironically, I don't recall him using the word "Calvary" once in the book about Jesus.
I would recommend listening to or reading these three books for a bit of "infotainment". They are a curious combination of fact and plausible fiction. But I would also advise not to use them as the definitive source on any of the three world changing events they are written about.
I'm not sure if O'Reilly and Dugard will be writing any more books in this series. But I will probably be interested if they do. It will be a great way of "Killing Time".
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