My Review of Murder in the Neighborhood by Ellen J Green

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Title: Murder in the Neighborhood 

Author: Ellen J Green 

Expected Publication: April 28,2022

Publisher: Bookouture Audio

Genre: Non-Fiction, True Crime 

Pages: 352 pages 

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review: 

Oh, man! This story is sad all the way around! 
On September 6, 1949, Howard, a 28-year-old shot thirteen people in less than 12 minutes in his neighborhood in East Camden, New Jersey. While this is the story of the first recorded mass shooting in the united states, this is a story as a true-crime lover that I have not heard of until now. This story is one that was kind of brushed under the rug. 
Howard was bullied in the neighborhood, and he was also a soldier that had PTSD. Then on top of that, he was a guy living in the closet and he didn't want his mother to find out about all that. Back then that was a big deal, and he was shunned for a lot of reasons. However, this story was sad all the way around because Howard was misunderstood. He was bullied in his neighborhood by many people having them call him names and teasing him all the time. Then, he was dealing with all of the trauma of being a soldier and having to deal with everything that he had seen in the war along with coping with what he had to do. He had a lot on his plate his mother was doing everything that she could and his father was absent as he had divorced his mother and that was a big deal back then as well. Then there were all of the victims. As young as a toddler who did nothing wrong, while he was definitely not an intended target he was killed during this massacre. 
Now because this story was told from many different perspectives the author definitely did a lot of research on the topic, however a lot of the information was repetitive and we would hear the same information from different perspectives and while that is expected by hearing the story in different perspectives it did make the story that much longer. 
I listened to the audiobook the narrator did an amazing job keeping the story alive and interesting. If you are looking for a good audiobook to gain insight into what actually happened way back then, this would definitely be a great choice for you! I listen to true crime podcasts and read true crime all the time and this was definitely a new fresh story that has not been told several times over the years. Definitely worth the read or listen! Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture Audio for the extraordinary opportunity to listen to this one!