Bad Karma: A True Story of Obsession and Murder

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Kirkus Review: The subject is the California Supreme Court's 1974 and 1976 decisions that require a psychiatrist to warn anyone who might be in danger from a mentally ill patient, rather than respect that patient's right to confidentiality. In Berkeley, a jealousy-crazed Hindu student stabbed an undergraduate girl to death. A university psychiatrist knew of his intentions but did not intervene successfully to prevent the tragedy. Such real tales of passion and death are in debt to their predecessor, the "non-fiction novel" created by Truman Capote for his In Cold blood. But Blum writes as if Capote never existed and reality was only a secondary concern. She "dramatizes" certain incidents by inventing dialogue and combining characters. Her touch is not deft: "Tanya knew that drugs and sex went hand in hand." Her tone is more suitable to a high-school hygiene film than a serious narrative. Fictionalizing robs the story of authenticity, while the author's reliance on the true sequence of events gives the tale a meandering quality. When the Indian finally kills the girl, the description of her death is schlocky, as if to satisfy a horror-film audience that has waited patiently for a gory climax. The most interesting part of Blum's book is the two-page epilogue: The Indian appealed his ease after serving only four years in jail for second-degree murder. The State Supreme Court overturned the previous conviction because the former jury was ill-informed. The Indian was set free and hurried back to Calcutta. There he now thrives with an Indian wife and child, after studying in Germany for some years. The psychiatrists involved in the case carried on a mutual backbiting campaign until most of them left the university. With these topics to discuss, involving essential questions of justice and mental health care, Blum chose to concentrate instead on a Hollywood B-movie version of unrequited love that neither entertains nor edifies.

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