John 
Andrew KuchlingWHACK JOB: A HISTORY OF AXE MURDER, by Rachel McCarthy James, starts out as a pop-archaeology book, shifts to history, and ends up in true crime. (There are cover blurbs from Mary Roach, Daniel Stashower, and Sarah Weinman, which covers this spectrum.)
The author begins with Cranium 17 at the archaeological site La Sima de los Huesos ("the pit of bones") in Spain, a 430000-year-old skull that's the earliest known evidence of person-on-person violence, entwined with a discussion of flints and hand axes. Next, the killing of the Egyptian pharoah Seqenenre Tao in 1550BCE, followed by the axes in the tomb of Fu Hao in 1200BCE China and the death of the Greek tyrant Stesagoras in 550BC.
She turns to history with the medieval Vikings and Henry VIII's executions, George Washington accidentally triggering a war and William Tillman taking back his ship from Confederate pirates planning to enslave him. The true-crime portion revisits two familiar cases, the murders of Lizzie Borden's parents and Julian Carlton's murderous rampage at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, and then covers more obscure but equally sad victims.
If you straddle both science and true crime in your reading (like me), this book might be exactly in your wheelhouse if you want something light but thoughtful.
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Killer Rabbit 90
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