Appointment For Murder by Susan Crain Bakos

There was a dark side to St. Louis dentist Dr. Glennon Engleman--a twisted secret life of sexual perversion and murder. This electrifying true-crime story chronicles the two decades of brutal executions that occurred while the doctor was in!.(editorial review from Amazon)

This is one of the books I bought from my little hidden away,very dusty,used bookstore.If you don't remember one of my previous posts,then this was when I discovered this little shop with a shelf in the back corner full of true crime books.I bought out their entire stock and the little lady spent about half an hour writing out the invoice which included the titles,the price and the published date(why?go figure!)and after she had written a few down and we were 30 minutes down the line I took over.I asked the little lady to go have some coffee and relax.I gave my friend the task of reading out the titles and I wrote out the rest of the invoice.Then the little lady had to come out and check the prices and only then we started adding up the totals with the oldest calculator which to its credit was solar powered.We ended up outside trying to power up the calculator so we could finish this task.It was quite a mission but I now take my own calculator with when I go there which is about every 2 months.

This book is a hardcover version and very very old.The front picture of mine is grey with a few dentist tools.How I hate going to the dentist!This cover is different from the one included in this post and supplied by Amazon.My cover does not included the dreaded injection and has no blood.Needless to say my local online store does not have this book for sale.I don't even think they were operating when this book came out in 1989.

Remembering the movie The Dentist with Corbin Bernsen I had high expectations of this book.I was obviously in the mood for some very gory stuff but in that sense I was extremely disappointed.This dentist Glennon Engleman does not psychopatically attack his patients.Instead his motives were purely financial as he encouraged women to marry his future "victims".The plan was they would marry these "victims",then take out insurance on their lives,then they would be murdered.The proceeds would then be split between the "wife" and himself.This went on for many many years until his ex wife came clean and the entire scam fell apart but not before five men and two women had been murdered.

The one murder was especially gruesome.They convinced this one young man to come and help them dig a hole in a field somewhere.He was by then the husband of one of the women in the scam so he trusted them enough to go through with this idea.After he had helped did the hole they bashed him over the head with one of the farm tools and threw him in the hole.

The funny thing about this story is that this mad dentist hardly made that much money from these schemes and would most likely have made more money by being a practising dentist as he was qualified to be.Instead of doing that he instead chose to neglect his practice and spend an inordinate amount of time planning these murderous schemes.So yes maybe he was actually psychotic with an edge towards the financial aspect.

I did find this book interesting with the many twists and turns.The planning and constant running away from the law and/or avoidance of being caught makes for a great story which if I didn't know better,read like a fiction novel.

For more reviews and/or details please access via the Amazon link below
Appointment for Murder

While I was searching for a picture of the book for this post on my online bookstore I entered the writer's name Susan Crain Bakos and found a list of books that she has written since then.No more true crime stories.I have no idea if the writing of this book inspired her to write the following books(and give up on true crime) but she seems to have successfully combined religion and sex with the emphasis on self help sex books

-What Men Really Want: Straight Talk from Men about Sex
-The Sex Bible: The Complete Guide to Sexual Love
-The Orgasm Bible: The Latest Research and Techniques for Reaching More Powerful Climaxes More Often
-The Orgasm Loop: The No-Fail Technique for Reaching Orgasm During Sex
-The Sex Bible for Women: The Complete Guide to Understanding Your Body, Being a Great Lover, and Getting the Pleasure You Want
-The New Tantra: Simple and Sexy: Longer, Better Lovemaking for Everyone

I have no idea when I read this book but it was definitely in the past 3 years.My copy of this book does not have any photographs included which is strange for a true crime book.I sincerely hope that her new books published have some pictures provided as the techniques seem very complicated and highly technical(lol).

Here are some more book details:
• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (July 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558175520
• ISBN-13: 978-1558175525