Love and Death (2004 book)

Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain
First edition hard cover
AuthorIan Halperin and Max Wallace
LanguageEnglish
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
2004 hardcover, 2005 paperback
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (paperback and hardcover)
Pages304 (hardcover)
288 (paperback)
ISBN978-0743484831
Preceded byWho Killed Kurt Cobain? 
Followed byCase Closed: The Cobain Murder: The Killing And Cover Up of Kurt Cobain (Controversy: Sex, Lies and Dirty Money By The World's Powerful Elite)[1] 

Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, published by Simon & Schuster, is a collaborative investigative journalism book written by Ian Halperin and Max Wallace purporting to show that Nirvana lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, believed to have committed suicide, was in fact murdered, possibly at the behest of his wife Courtney Love. It is a follow-up to the authors' 1998 bestseller on the same subject, Who Killed Kurt Cobain?. The book is based on 30 hours of audiotaped conversations, exclusively obtained by the authors, between Courtney Love's private investigator, Tom Grant, and her and Cobain's entertainment attorney, Rosemary Carroll, who both dispute the official finding of suicide and believe Cobain was in fact murdered.

Rosemary Carroll says on the tapes that she believes the suicide note was "forged or traced". The authors also interview Cobain's grandfather, who believes Kurt was the victim of foul play, and Courtney's father, who also believes he was murdered. In the book, a prominent forensic pathologist examines the known autopsy evidence and claims that the official suicide scenario was "impossible." She claims that there is compelling and authoritative evidence that Cobain was murdered.

Reception

Love and Death reached No. 18 on The New York Times Bestseller list in April 2004.[2] Shortly after the book's release, the television show Dateline NBC aired a segment critically examining some of the book's conclusions.[3][4] British newspaper The Guardian described the book as "opportunistic, plain wrong or not, this book is valuably different in tone to everything else you'll read on the subject this week."[5]

Sequel

A sequel book, Case Closed: The Cobain Murder: The Killing And Cover Up of Kurt Cobain (Controversy: Sex, Lies and Dirty Money By The World's Powerful Elite) was published in March 2023.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Case Closed: The Murder: The Killing And Cover Up of Kurt Cobain (Controversy: Sex, Lies and Dirty Money By The World's Powerful Elite)". amazon.com. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  2. ^ "BEST SELLERS: April 25, 2004". NY Times. 25 April 2004.
  3. ^ Lauer, Matt (2004-04-04). "More questions in Kurt Cobain death?". Dateline NBC. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  4. ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (2004-04-05). "New Book Claims Kurt Cobain Didn't Commit Suicide". MTV News. Archived from the original on August 16, 2004. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  5. ^ Robinson, John (2004-04-10). "Curt answers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-09-04.

Further reading

  • Furek, Maxim. "The Death Proclamation of Generation X: A Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Goth, Grunge and Heroin." i-Universe, 2008. ISBN 978-0-595-46319-0