For Laci: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice

For Laci: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice
Average customer rating:

For Laci

An incredibly involving and inspiring book

Personal loss and heartbreaking truth

Superb book that has the best inside account.

A great tribute to Laci

For Laci: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice
Sharon Rocha
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation

Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson Is Guilty

Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson

Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise

We, the Jury: Deciding the Scott Peterson Case

ASIN: 0307338282
Release Date: 2005-12-31

Book Description

Every mother’s worst fear became Sharon Rocha’s reality. On Christmas Eve 2002, she received a phone call from her son-in-law saying that her daughter, Laci, was missing. In the hours, days, and eventually months that followed, Sharon struggled to avoid accepting what no parent should ever have to face: the certain knowledge that her child is never coming home. In For Laci, for the first time, Sharon tells us what it was like to live through the long nightmare and opens our hearts to the Laci she loved: the kindergarten artist, the tenth grader who cried on her mother’s lap after her first breakup, the young woman who planned her wedding with joyful enthusiasm.

At the time of her disappearance, Laci was twenty-seven years old, seven and a half months pregnant, and a vibrant presence in the lives of everyone who knew her. How, Sharon wondered, could Laci so suddenly become a missing person? That very word missing seemed premature, somehow suspect. From that first moment, Sharon knew with a mother’s instinct that something—beyond the alarming news itself—was terribly wrong. As the world now knows, she was right. Nearly two years after that night, a jury in the State of California found Scott Peterson guilty of the murder of his wife and their unborn son, Conner.

Until now, the world has not had an answer to a question that held countless millions in its grip. Through all the relentless media coverage of this unspeakable crime and subsequent trial, we all wondered: What would it be like to experience such a horror involving your own child and grandchild? What, indeed, was Sharon Rocha feeling?

In For Laci, Sharon tells us. In so doing, she goes far beyond previous accounts to tell this story with unprecedented immediacy and intimacy. Here are her private conversations with the murderer, his mistress, Amber Frey, and the lead police investigators as they meticulously build their case, as well as surprising and heartbreaking revelations about the trial and its aftermath. Perhaps what is most affecting is the sense we get of the person Laci Peterson was, and what it feels like to lose—as Sharon put it in her Victim’s Impact Statement—“her beautiful smile, her contagious giggle, her happy heart, her love of life, her great expectations of becoming a mother, her generous soul, her knowing how much I love her, and my knowing how much she loves me.”

Inspired by a desire to help others who find themselves similarly afflicted, to detail how the love of family, friends, and community helped her survive her ordeal, and to convey how much was lost when her wonderful daughter was taken, Sharon Rocha has written a powerful and deeply moving memoir of loss and the love that always endures.

Visit lacipeterson.com

Also available as a Random House AudioBook and Large Print Edition

Customer Reviews:

For Laci.......2007-09-19

From the treadmill at the gym I was on watching CNN that snowy December 2002, when the alert came up on the screen, I was immediately saddened by the disappearance of Laci Peterson. I was glued to the radio, newspaper articles, and TV for the entire tragedy. I would discuss the case with anyone who would listen. On Feb. 10, 2003, the day baby Connor was to have been born, I started the job that I still have. And every year on his anniversary I still say a prayer for Laci and Connor. I had also read all of the other books about the case as well. I thought there was nothing else to read til Sharon wrote "For Laci." Not only was it so deeply moving, Sharon also wrote with great detail and emotion. At times I visualized Laci in the different scenarios Shari wrote about, other times I had tears coming down my face. Twice her words were so disturbing about Scott, that I had nightmares and slept with a night light on. While those fears went away, when I was finished with the book, I felt like Laci's families even Amber Frey were connected with me spiritually. Of all the books about Laci, this one is the real deal.

An incredibly involving and inspiring book.......2007-08-12

Sharon's story is a very honest account of the full impact of a personal tragedy, from the first shock of Laci's "disappearance", followed by Sharon's gradual realization that her beloved son-in-law Scott was, in fact, a sociopath capable of murdering his wife and child. Peterson's presence in the narrative is a chilling one, especially contrasted with Sharon's obvious humanity and warmth (and the goodness of the ordinary people who fought with her to bring Laci and Conner's murderer to justice). Just a terrific book on many levels and a beautiful, loving tribute. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Personal loss and heartbreaking truth.......2007-07-23

As many people did, I followed Laci Peterson's story as it happened. It was the epitome of the human-interest story - a beautiful, young, pregnant woman disappears into thin air as her desperate family searches and begs for her return. By writing this personal account of Laci and Conner's story, Sharon Rocha again proved to the world the incredible strength she has and invited the world into the "circle of love" that surrounds her by way of her family and friends. This book was intensely personal and to hear exactly what Laci's mother and family were going through and the conversations that were had was heart-wrenching. It's hard to imagine what grief is like on this level - to lose your precious daughter and grandson before even knowing him is pain that many of us (thankfully) will never know, and to find that their loss was at the hands of the man that should have protected them above all is too enormous to bear. Sharon Rocha conveyed her story with the grace and dignity in which she dealt with the tragic events as they unfolded and I thank her for being brave enough to share it with all of us.

Superb book that has the best inside account........2007-07-03

The book is absolutely superb in how it takes you back to before Laci Peterson to after her death, ending with Scott Peterson's conviction. It is obvious that Sharon Rocha has taken a guilty stance, but that is not the important part. The important part is how vivid the book is, and how driven it is when it comes to describing Laci Peterson's life; even the little things are added. All this makes for an emotional read.

The book takes a striking turn when it goes into Laci Peterson's disappearance, and thereafter, the book goes into an entirely different tone. Nevertheless, it stays emotional, but goes down from a happy tale of Laci's life to the despair that Sharon Rocha felt.

I rate it highly for two reasons:

1. It tells the story of Laci Peterson well.

2. It has an undoubtedly inside narrative of the trial. If I remember correctly, Rocha was at the trial every day, but more importantly, she knew Scott Peterson before, and after the trial. She tells the story better than any media hack could, because what she says is actually first hand.

The only downside to the story is an overly negative attitude towards the family of Scott Peterson. I can understand that Scott Peterson is someone Rocha believes killed her daughter, but she turns some parts of the book into a place to share ill feelings towards Scott Peterson's parents. It feels inappropriate.

If you are overly sensitive, keep in mind that she drops the F bomb just once, I believe. Most people wouldn't be distracted by this, because it is her natural reaction to something Scott Peterson told her.

A great tribute to Laci .......2007-05-29

A refreshing view from the person closest to the whole nightmare situation. Seems very honest, does not feel like Sharon wants to make Laci out to be more than she was or someone she wasn't. A story about a great daughter and a mother who adored her, and the terrible lie Laci married into.

The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon

Average customer rating:

Engaging and Disturbing
A good wife - a good book
American Odyssey
Boring
Fresh Perspective on History

The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon
Robert Whitaker
Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Expeditions & Discoveries | World | History | Subjects | Books

History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa
Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman---and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America
Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America
The Mapmakers: Revised Edition

ASIN: 0385337205
Release Date: 2004-12-28

Book Description

A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon

The year is 1735. A decade-long expedition to South America is launched by a team of French scientists racing to measure the circumference of the earth and to reveal the mysteries of a little-known continent to a world hungry for discovery and knowledge. From this extraordinary journey arose an unlikely love between one scientist and a beautiful Peruvian noblewoman. Victims of a tangled web of international politics, Jean Godin and Isabel Gramesón’s destiny would ultimately unfold in the Amazon’s unforgiving jungles, and it would be Isabel’s quest to reunite with Jean after a calamitous twenty-year separation that would capture the imagination of all of eighteenth-century Europe. A remarkable testament to human endurance, female resourcefulness, and enduring love, Isabel Gramesón’s survival remains unprecedented in the annals of Amazon exploration.

Customer Reviews:

Engaging and Disturbing.......2007-09-28

I took this book with me when I headed down to Brazil to explore the Amazon Basin. Caveat: reading this book before heading down to Brazil to explore the Amazon is like going to see the movie "Jaws" before you go on your first scuba dive. Disturbing.

Whitaker's description of Isabel Godin-Grameson's horrific ordeal of being lost in the Amazon is mind-boggling, to say the least. It was not the poisonous snakes, the crushing boa constrictors, jaguars, caimans, electric eels or the fierce head shrinking Jabaros that were the worst. It was the thousands of insect bites (giant ants, fire ants, wasps, bees, chiggers, assassin bug, mosquitoes, botflies and their eggs) which turned into open, oozing, festering sores, hundreds of sores on their faces, arms, legs or any exposed flesh. Whitaker's writes. "They had no mosquito nets, no tents - only the clothes they were wearing. It was futile. The insects feasted on them. They would huddle together in the blackness (of night) and hoards of ants would begin their onslaught, crawling over them, under their pants and over every inch of exposed skin. During these awful days, they were plagued with botfly eggs. When the mosquitoes, laden with botfly eggs, feed on the body, the heat from the host causes the eggs to hatch. Immediately, the larvae burrow beneath the skin. The botfly maggot has two anal hooks that anchor firmly in the flesh and there it grows for more than a month . . . They were taking their turn as food for the botflies, even as they were slowly starving to death." Whitaker captures the horror of their situation.

There is much more than Isabel's gripping journey that makes this a great read: the scientific expedition to determine the size and shape of the earth, the descriptions of the culture of 18th century Europe and South America, the tragic treatment of the slaves (African and Indigenous Americans), the dedication, the love and the will to survive. This is a must read for any student of South America, Cartography or Life. Highly recommended.

A good wife - a good book.......2007-05-13

I enjoyed this book so much that I have bought two more copies for friends of mine. Both friends are female. I thought they would be drawn to the romance of the book. But there's adventure and science and history for all to enjoy. There's the comparison narrative or Lewis' and Clark's Voyage of Discovery. It's a good book

American Odyssey.......2007-03-29

This is a great adventure novel, filled with yucky worms,
terrifying terrain, malarian climates, and slithery things
that go slush in the night. It is a great romantic story
of the New World. The collection of illustrations is amazing.
I hope a director picks this book up and makes a movie of it.

Boring.......2007-01-22

Started out okay with the promise of interesting characters, but just got dull and wordy. Didn't finish it. Maybe more enjoyable for a South-American history buff.

Fresh Perspective on History.......2006-11-11

When my friend passed this book on to me, I was expecting a historical novel with dialogue and romance. However, I was pleasantly surprised by a nonfiction story woven from documents, letters, and research. I have always loved maps and been intrigued with how early naturalists figured out details about nature, so this book was a page-turner for me. I couldn't put it down. It was amazing what this team endured to collect data for information that we learn in elementary school today. It also gives insight and context to some of modern day political and social issues.

The World's Shortest Stories: Murder, Love, Horror, Suspense, All This and Much More in the Most Amazing Short Stories Ever Written, Each One Just 55 Words Long

Average customer rating:

Interesting
Don't waste your money
55 word salute, er, review...
Great teaching tool - used selectively
Some Hit, Some Miss!

The World's Shortest Stories: Murder, Love, Horror, Suspense, All This and Much More in the Most Amazing Short Stories Ever Written, Each One Just 55 Words Long

Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The World's Shortest Stories of Love and Death: Passion, Betrayal, Suspicion, Revenge, All This and More in a New Collection of Amazing Short Stories-Each One Just 55 Words Long
Flash Fiction: Very Short Stories
Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories
Sudden Fiction
Sudden Fiction International: Sixty Short-Short Stories

ASIN: 0762403004

Book Description

Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All this and much more in the most amazing short stories ever written--each one just 55 words long! Imagine O. Henry's tales if he'd only had the back of a business card to write upon...

Customer Reviews:

Interesting.......2007-09-05

My teacher used "The World's Shortest Stories" for a lesson one day. I've never paid so much attention during one class period! I thought it was incredible the way these tiny, 55-word stories could be so little, yet have so much meaning behind them. Each story was thought provoking. Dispite their size, they all have some kind of "twist" to it. I was inspired and immediately wanted to write my own 55-word story.

If you're looking for inspiration for writing, this is for you. If you're a great writer and want to try this style of writing, you have to check it out. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even if you don't want to write a 55-word story yourself, this book will get you thinking differently. It's almost like solving puzzles, reading these stories. Murder, Love, Horror, Suspense... that's not all the book is about. There's many more topics inside. No one story is like the other. I found this book one of the best books I've come across.

Don't waste your money.......2007-06-23

Absolutely terrible. The "authors" in this collection are amateurs who consistently fall victim to the predictable traps. These stories are filled with cliches, gimmicks and unsurprising surprise endings. Even worse, it feels as if they were all written by the same unimaginative author with a corny sense of humor. Get one of the Flash Fiction or Sudden Fiction collections instead if you're looking for something that actually has some literary value.

55 word salute, er, review..........2006-11-07

This book is one that I reread frequently, as the stories are indeed the perfect length. Broken into categories, the stories cover the range of plot possibilities and human emotions, and are perfect for the shorter-attention span of modern readers. Fifty-five fiction even accepts submissions from regular authors. Try writing one yourself today!

Great teaching tool - used selectively.......2006-08-26

I teach 7th and 8th grade, many second language and non-standard english students. The 55 word stories provide an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the reading/thinking skills of inferencing, drawing conclusions and also a springboard for introducing and explaining the background of euphemisms and common sayings and figures of speech that are not familiar to second language readers.

Some Hit, Some Miss!.......2004-11-02

This collection of the world's shortest stories (as with most collections and anthologies of shortest stories) is a "hit or miss" collection. Basically, this means that while some of the stories are clever, others are flat-out duds. Most of the story's cleverness relies on unsuspected plot twists and ironies in the ending, thus making for an amusing read but bringing little to the table in the world of quality literature. Some of the stories are simply too minimilistic to have any emmotional impact on the reader, and others are very cliche and border on poetry. Instead of buying this book or any collection of "shortest" fiction, I would suggest seeking out specific authors who are masters of the shorter story, such as Raymond Carver. While none of Carver's stories are as short as 55 words, just one of his good shorter stories ("Popular Mechanics," for example) will pack a more poignant punch than any of the stories in this collection -- combined.

Soul Murder Revisited: Thoughts about Therapy, Hate, Love, and Memory

Average customer rating:

Compassionate yet unsentimental
Excellent information on a very important topic

Soul Murder Revisited: Thoughts about Therapy, Hate, Love, and Memory
Leonard Shengold
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Mental Illness | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Psychoanalysis | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Psychotherapy, TA & NLP | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Child Abuse | Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Soul Murder: The Effects of Childhood Abuse and Deprivation
Haunted by Parents
Banished Knowledge: Facing Childhood Injuries
Too Scared to Cry: Psychic Trauma in Childhood
The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Cruel Parenting

ASIN: 0300086997

Book Description

Ten years after the publication of his highly acclaimed book Soul Murder, Dr. Leonard Shengold reflects anew on the circumstances and the consequences of willful abuse and neglect of children. With compelling examples from literature and from clinical cases, Dr. Shengold describes techniques of adaptation and denial by victims, the psychopathology of soul murder, and therapy techniques for restoring the capacity to love.

Customer Reviews:

Compassionate yet unsentimental.......2003-04-07

Shengold's book is really important -- he explores the inner lives of child abuse victims without sentimentalizing them, proscribing their recovery from trauma, or denying their complex aggressive responses to the abuse.

This serves to make the victim of abuse feel like a real human being, whose less adaptive and even bizarre sides are included rather than avoided or explained away by simple theory. Shengold's writing, while at times needing elaboration and more specific case histories, is beautiful, clear, complex, at times dazzling. The final chapter is a masterpiece of healing and hope. An important work.

Excellent information on a very important topic.......2002-09-21

I found this book well-written and extremely useful, but it is not a very easy book to understand if you have not studied psychology.
Some of the terminology and concepts are quite sophisticated and it is a pity that Shengold was not able to express his brilliance in a more user-friendly manner.
I think is book is excellent for the serious student of psycholoy, abuse and psychotherapy. I fear that for those who are not familiar with terms and concepts, this book could be a difficult read.

Average customer rating:

Collins
Eye Contact
Eye Contact
Eye Contact
Stands the test of time

Eye Contact
Stephen Collins
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Double Exposure
Stephen Collins
The Hits of Rick Nelson
Eye Contact

ASIN: 0553095854
Release Date: 1994-06-01

Customer Reviews:

Collins.......2007-05-07

Anything where Mr. Collins is involved it number one with me. End of discussion.

Eye Contact.......2007-03-30

When attaching ones self to a celebrities persona, (i.e. actor) one tends to critique only the physical contributions. Stephen Collins is not just an actor. He is an intellectual literary artist capturing your interest from beginning to end in this book. The character, "Nicolette Stallings" embraces your fantasies and simultaneously engages you in a plethera of empathy. Her erotic behavior is stimulating, believable, and before long, desirable to any red blooded American woman. Stephen Collins? A Minister?
(Eric Camden) not in this book.............he's too delicious for words.

Eye Contact.......2002-10-23

I actually read `Eye Contact' a few years ago. It was the first erotic thriller that I'd ever read and it still stands out in my mind as on of the best.

This is the story of actress Nicolette Stallings who only feels powerful when seducing someone of the opposite sex. However, her sexual game of cat and mouse soon turns deadly when she propositions a man she meets in a restaurant who she playfully dubs as "Wally Wall Street". After their one night encounter at a high class hotel Nick finds it hard to get rid of "Wally" who now blames her for the break up of his marriage. After an unsuccessful attempt on his own life "Wally" otherwise known as Jeffery White, finally does succeed in killing himself but not before he manages to frame Nick for his murder! As Nick becomes the center of the medias attention and hunted by the police she tries to find a way to prove her innocence not without having a few sexual encounters along the way.

`Eye Contact" is an excellent erotic thriller not for the timid and will keep you at the edge of your seat trying to figure out how everything will play out in the end. Who would have though that the minister for 7th Heaven could write like this?

Eye Contact.......2002-10-23

I actually read 'Eye Contact' a few years ago. It was the first erotic thriller that I'd ever read and it still stands out in my mind as one of the best.

This is the story of actress Nicolette Stallings who only feels powerful when seducing someone of the opposite sex. The sexual game of cat and mouse soon turns deadly when she propositions a man she meets in a restaurant who she playfully dubs as "Wally Wall Street". After their one night encounter at a high class hotel Nick finds it hard to get rid of "Wally" who now blames her for the break up of his marriage. After an unsuccessful attempt on his own life "Wally" otherwise known as Jeffery White, finally does succeed in killing himself but not before he manages to frame Nick for his murder! As Nick becomes the center of the medias attention and hunted by the police she tries to find a way to prove her innocence not without having a few sexual encounters along the way.

'Eye Contact" is an excellent erotic thriller not for the timid and will keep you at the edge of your seat trying to figure out how everything will play out in the end. Who would have though that the minister from 7th Heaven could write like this?

Stands the test of time.......2001-10-31

This novel really does stand the test of time. I read this book many years ago and it still sets well in my memory to this day. It has just about everything in it that one can imagine. Reading this novel is quick and doesn't drag on and on like some novels that I've completed. The long of the short of it, "If this book stands out in my mind today, even though it has been many years since I've read it, then it has to be good reading."

If you don't believe me - buy it and read it yourself.

Blood Washes Blood: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun
Average customer rating:

One of the best so far to capture what life in Sicily is like!

Gorgeous Writing, This Book Will Help You Understand Sicily

Now I understand my father.

Fantastic!

Fascinating

Blood Washes Blood: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun
Frank Viviano
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Italy | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Midnight in Sicily

The Stone Boudoir: Travels through the Hidden Villages of Sicily

Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family

On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal

Indecent Secrets: The Infamous Murri Murder Affair

ASIN: 0671041592

Amazon.com

In 1995, two years after his grandfather whispered the name of his great-great-grandfather's killer to him, Frank Viviano visited Sicily to learn the events that shaped his namesake's life and strongly influenced his own. Nicknamed "The Monk" for the garments he wore while robbing the rich and bureaucratic, Viviano's ancestor left little for the experienced foreign correspondent to follow. Plus, the slow-jolt journey of Sicilian lifestyles often ended in polite reticence or remarkable disorganization; even rudimentary information, such as his predecessor's gravesite, was lost. In a "morbid tidying up," Mussolini's local officials removed the remains of all pre-Fascists: "In their zeal to launch the new millennium, the fascisti hadn't bothered to keep lists of the disinterred. The old tombstones were dumped into the sea, next to the limestone blocks that the fishermen referred to as 'Atlantis.'"

In between assignments in Bosnia and the West Bank, Viviano learned to take a less direct approach. Guided by stories told to him in his childhood by his grandmother, he demystifies the region's bandit-rebel history, its current life under the sistema, and its creation of the modern Italian mafia. Viviano was already aware of his family's supposed connections to the mafia, causing him to look more carefully at the times that produced these men. In the process, he began to take a closer look at his own personal life:

The dramatic narrative of ancestry is not erased by immigration. It is driven into a clandestine realm where setting and characters are only dimly recalled, or transformed into fairy-tale heroes and villains in the landscape of fable. The Monk, in this sense, had withdrawn into my grandparents' tales and the isolated recesses of my imagination, into hidden canyons where I could not directly confront him.

Suspenseful and well balanced, Blood Washes Blood is an exciting and thoughtful page-turner, a remarkable story of family, mystery, and friendship. Viviano's writing is at its best when he follows the complicated trail of his family's past, and falters only slightly when he attempts to imagine his ancestor's life. --Karin Rosman

Book Description

Against the sweeping backdrop of western Sicily, in a riveting seven-year quest, Frank Viviano pieces together his own harrowing ancestral history of betrayal and redemption. His take is haunted, from its violent opening to its stunning climax, by an ancient Sicilian proverb, Lu sangu lava lu sangu, "Blood washes blood": the torrent of unforgiving vengeance that flows from an unforgivable offense.

Viviano's great-great grandfather was a legendary bandit who traveled the countryside of Sicily by night in the robes of a friar and was known as "the Monk." His brutal murder has remained shrouded in mystery for four generations. Until now.

Populated by an extraordinary cast of nineteenth-century Robin Hood brigands and twentieth-century underworld bosses, here is a true-life Godfather, in which past and present finally merge into a single story with a shattering climax that ultimately changes the way the author views his immigrant family's complex legacy -- and himself.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best so far to capture what life in Sicily is like!.......2007-07-23

My own maternal Grandparents emigrated from Terrasini, Sicily as children in the early 1900's, and we Grandchildren heard some of the stories related in BLOOD WASHES BLOOD when growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. Terrasini in the 19th Century was only a town of a little over 2,000 people (Today it has about 10,000), and 19 families make up ~ 90% of the population. My Mother's relatives had lived there for over two centuries. Some of our family have been fortunate enough to return there on vacations, and my husband and I have visited twice in the last 3 years (Sicily is very much like Southern California where we live). The Viviano Family (St. Louis branch) are related to the DiMercurio's in St. Louis - my Mother's relatives.

Having taken a course in Sicilian Studies under the auspices of the University of California, I was already familiar with the feudal and absolute structure of Sicily's ruling class up to the late 19th Century. Frank Viviano does a terrific job of bringing that life to light, as well as the confining and demeaning influence of the Mafia and Sicily's current economic woes. Unemployment in Palermo Province still sits around 20% even in these most prosperous times. I did not realize that Sicily was under martial law, at least, twice after the reunification of Italy because of the widespread political unrest, resulting in many emigrants - including my Great-Grandparents and Grandparents - literally escaping from the island under false pretenses to reach an Italians or other port where they could get a ship to the USA without a valid exit visa. I think Frank Viviano does a great job describing the impact of the reunification effort on Sicilians and even mentions the atrocity of Partinico, although he merely alludes to the torture and cannibalism that occured there so near to lovely Terrasini. A people can only withstand oppression for so long, then...

By the end of the book, I felt that Frank Viviano had not only solved a family mystery but came to grips with some aspects of his own life that became clearer. It is no surprise that he is an award-winning journalist. If you are a reader and have not visited Sicily, Danilo Dolci's SICILIAN LIVES brings 20th Century Sicilian culture/norms to life, even if it does stop at the early 1980's. So much has changed in Sicily for the better as we noted when we were there in 2005, but the inherent Sicilian nature is certainly portrayed accurately in this gem.

Gorgeous Writing, This Book Will Help You Understand Sicily.......2007-04-12

I read this book when in first came out five years ago. For work and pleasure, I have probably read over 100 books about Italy in the intervening years and this book is still one of the best. I just re-read the first page and got chills. The writing is eloquent, the story incredible (and all the more so because it is true) and the sense of place Viviano evokes is so compelling. If you want to understand Sicily, the history of rural Italy, the confusing legacy of the Old World for many Italian-Americans, read this book. If you just want to read a great piece of narrative non-fiction, read this book. I'm planning on re-reading it.

Now I understand my father........2005-09-11

My sister gave all of us a copy of this book and she said we needed to read it to understand who were are. She was right. My father was born in Palermo and came to the United States at the age of 14. He was a wonderful family man who loved his wife of 58yrs and his 4 daughters. But, he was a complicated man and at times, very secretive. Now I understand. He told us of his transition into the American life and I thought he was embellishing because he was a great story teller, but now I understand the hardships, the backbreaking work, and the joys of providing for his family. After reading this book, I am even prouder to say when asked, "No, I'm not Italian-American, I am Sicilian-American."

Fantastic!.......2004-08-08

I highly recommend Blood Washes Blood. While it may be a bit dark and heavy for a summer read, it is definitely worth any time or money spent in the endeavor.
Mr. Viviano has a gift with non-fiction unlike any other writer of this genre I have ever read. His story unfolds like a novel, fascinating in its characters and settings and yet all the more immediate because it is true.
Mr. Viviano traces his family's history and his own journey of self-discovery through the winding streets of Sicily, uncovering a few secrets and finding even more along the way.
At times his prose is almost too real, too painful and private, but it creates an intense bond with the reader.
In short, don't pick up this book expecting a quick read. Yes, it is riveting, but at times a little overwhelming as well. The highest praise I can give Blood Washes Blood was that it left me with plenty to think about once it was finished, and a lingering interest in Sicily and its history.
Mr. Vivano has had articles recently in publications such as National Geographic, and I highly recommend readers to search out more of his work. You won't be disappointed.

Fascinating.......2003-07-19

Having come of age in St. Louis, and marrying into a Sicilian American family, all the "old stories" and legends were the makings for any family get together. Blood Washes Blood brought so many of the old stories to life and was even more compelling to read than The Godfather because it was a family with a familiar name.

On his deathbed, Frank Viviano's grandfather whispers an old family secret to him. The secret leads Mr. Vivano, back to Sicily and to a search for answers that seem to elude him. His curiosity as a foreign correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle well prepares him to do the research and fuel his interest in exploring what happened to the great grandfather known as The Monk.

My husband and his brothers recently traveled to Sicily and spent several days in Terrasini and Cinisi looking into old records of their ancestors. Unfortunately their trip took place before we discovered Blood Washes Blood. Mr. Viviano turns the old stories into living history. Thanks for the book, our family all enjoyed reading it.

An Hour To Kill: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Justice in a Small Southern Town (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
Average customer rating:

Horrible Story - Not A Great Book

Well written, but otherwise average.

By Golly, Jethro, I Think We Have Us A Murder On Our Hands Here

Terrific Story

Excellent non-fiction writing

An Hour To Kill: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Justice in a Small Southern Town (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
Dale Hudson , and Billy Hills
Manufacturer: St. Martin's True Crime
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Gone Forever: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal, and Murder (True Crime (St. Martin's Paperbacks))

Never Leave Me: A True Story of Marriage, Deception, and Brutal Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Such Good Boys: The True Story of a Mother, Two Sons and a Horrifying Murder

One Deadly Night (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Tacoma Confidential: A True Story of Murder, Suicide, and a Police Chief's Secret Life (48 Hours Mystery)

ASIN: 0312978359

Book Description

Church-goer.Family friend.All-American boy.Murderer.Ken Register, much to the shock of the small town of Conway, South Carolina, was all of these things.Clean-cut, polite to a fault, and respectful of elders, Ken was the kind of guy parents wanted their daughters to date.But only months after a seventeen-year-old girl's brutal murder, the residents of Conway were in for another surprise: that the killer was one of their own.Ken and Crystal Todd were "best friends," and had even briefly dated.When Crystal's hideously gutted body was found near the woods of Conway, Ken checked in every day to console Crystal's mother and inquire about the murder investigation.Ken was practically the last person anyone would suspect.Until he started acting nervous and suspicious, afraid he would be "framed" for Crystal's murder.And until DNA tests confirmed that he was indeed the man who repeatedly raped and stabbed Crystal Todd, then left her mutilated body in a nearby ditch.Discover, through fascinating first-person accounts: the tortured Southern son who committed murder; the courageous detective determined to break the case; the broken mother who lost her only child; and the disbelieving parents who, to this day, defend their son's innocence.AUTHORBIO: BILLY HILLS is Associate Professor of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University.DALE HUDSON is a successful businessman.Both authors, life-long residents of South Carolina, spent nearly five years researching for this book.

Customer Reviews:

Horrible Story - Not A Great Book.......2007-05-03

I purchased this book because of the strong reviews. Perhaps the other reviewers have not read a lot of true crime, because there was nothing special about this. Basically, it was a newspaper article extended with a few more facts to make a book. The story is horrifying, but you never really learn much about the people.

Well written, but otherwise average........2007-03-23

An Hour To Kill is the story of a brutal murder in a small South Carolina town. As an avid reader of true crime, I have mixed feelings about the book. There are a number of negatives: The center picture section is weak. There is NO decent picture of the victim, Crystal Todd, merely a tiny blurred picture of her on her tombstone. As she was a high school senior, it should have been relatively easy to at least get a yearbook picture. Also, for no other possible reason than to fill up the section there are pictures of Mickey Spillane and his wife! These people really have nothing to do with the book, except as an afterthought, not even appearing in the book until the last few pages.
There is no depth given to the main characters, Ken Register and Crystal Todd. Due to a lack of information or interest, the authors present them as little more than props around which to base the story of the arrest and trial. This is especially poorly done with Crystal. She is the victim of a brutal murder and we learn virtually nothing about her except that her mother loved her.
There does not seem to have been much in depth research in the writing of this book, which would have helped as the crime is not in itself really that interesting or unusual, except for its sheer brutality,

This book could have been a total true crime trasher due to the serious faults listed above, but it is saved by the authors' narrative abilities.
The writing is crisp and clean. It is for the most part reportorial in nature, and avoids the trap fallen into by lesser true-crime writers, of feeling that they must express their own opinions of the crime. Consequently they do not impose their own personalities on the story, which in my opinion is almost always undesirable in a true crime book. The writers, Hudson and Hills, move the story along briskly and professionally. Ultimately, An Hour To Kill is an easy read, but could have been much deeper.

By Golly, Jethro, I Think We Have Us A Murder On Our Hands Here.......2007-03-13

True crime is my genre; about the ONLY thing I read. And in many years of reading this genre, I have read many, many books whose setting was in the South, even the deep south Georgia, but I have NEVER run across authors who did such an excellent job (said tongue in cheek)of making the "characters" out to be such hillbillies. Living in a small, southern town myself, I can say this: sure, we have some odd sayings and our own dialect; but, come on, do you have to play on it? Even though I speak "the language" of these people, I still had a very difficult time reading it.

And this has to be the only true crime book I've read to date that included photos, but not any clear photos of the victim or the accused. Readers are provided with a grainy photo atop her headstone, taken at a distance of the victim and one side view photo taken of the accused. But, hey, there is a clear photo of Mickey Spillane and his wife, Jane, for your enjoyment! Go figure!

Throw in that this book plays on the fact that Crystal Faye Todd was murdered by her best friend Ken Register, but we're not given much background information on neither them nor their families; only that they had all been life long friends. Btw, how is that Ken Register was her best friend, but she had refused to date him and told her mother it was because he wanted sex all the time and smelled badly? Doesn't really sound like best friend material but, amazingly, Bonnie Faye Todd considers him as someone she can lean on and trust.

However, if a reader can wade through all that mess, there is a good argument here for the conviction. It was based mainly on past actions of the defendant and primitive use of DNA. Quite frankly, the jury, in my opinion, didn't have enough evidence to convict but read it and form your own opinion. Just plan on having Jethro's voice in your head while you do!

Terrific Story.......2006-03-03

I first read Dale Hudson's Dance of Death, then purchase An Hour To Kill. Both books are superb. They both kept me spellbound and glued to my seat. My only criticism is that they weren't longer, as I read them far too quickly and was mad at myself for doing so. I look forward to reading his next book.

Excellent non-fiction writing.......2005-12-03

This non-fiction story is a thriller to read. It's the sort of writing you expect in a work of fiction, but when you realize that this really did happen, then you want to congratulate the authors for their research and prose. Basically, what I'm saying, is this piece of work is well done.
It's hard to think of a nice Christian boy living in a small town such as Conway, SC, committing such a heinous crime. But hey, the world is full of sickos and small towns are no exception. And yet, just how sick has our society become that a young man professing to be a devout Christian and, hits the church every time the doors open, can fool so many people? But DNA comes into play, even though it was just being introduced and some people doubted the results. I'm sure the parents of Ken Register don't want to think their son could be guilty of murdering his friend, and then cutting her to pieces like he did. This book is anything BUT boring and I do highly recommend it to non-fiction lovers.
Co-authors, Billy Hills (an Assoc. Prof. of Psychology) and Brad Hudson (a successful businessman) appear to be on their way to a successful writing career. Too bad they don't know the difference between SIT & SET and SITTING & SETTING, which were basically the only flaws I found in the story. Wonder why their editor didn't catch it.

Average customer rating:

Another great book in the series.
Riveting
Blind Trust
Wow, wow and WOW!
Blind Trust was excellent!

Blind Trust (Second Chances Series #3)
Terri Blackstock
Manufacturer: Zondervan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Broken Wings (Second Chances Series #4)
When Dreams Cross (Second Chances Series #2)
Never Again Good-Bye (Second Chances Series #1)
Ulterior Motives (Sun Coast Chronicles Series #3)
Presumption of Guilt (Suncoast Chronicles Series #4)

ASIN: 031020710X

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Another great book in the series........2006-03-16

Great book, easy reading. Hard to put down.

Riveting.......2002-08-24

Terri Blackstock penned another winner with "Blind Trust," Page after page of this well written thriller draws and keeps you in the midst of a battle against the forces of evil. A gut-wrenching narrative that has you wondering just who are the good guys and who can you trust. A fabulous example of learning to 'let go and let God.' If you haven't read any of Terri Blackstock's novels buy one today and you will soon be a Blackstock fan.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge

Blind Trust.......2002-01-24

Wonderful book in a great series. A must read with the other books in this series. Will enjoy other books by Terri Blackstock as well such as Emerald Windows, Broken Wings, etc.

Wow, wow and WOW!.......1998-11-06

Blind Trust is STUPENDOUS!!! I could not put it down. As usual, Blacstock has combined romance, Faith, love, hope, mystery, suspense and excellant Christian, family values to make a wonderful book. The characters are believable and she portrays the emotions so well. I could almost see the scenes as the story progressed. This is a book that I highly recomend if you want something good to read.

Blind Trust was excellent!.......1998-10-26

Blind Trust is about Sherry, who eight months before, was going to be get married to Clint Jessup. But, two weeks before the wedding Clint dissapears and no one knows where he went. After learning that Clint left and wasn't forced to, Sherry struggles to get her life back together. Now, eight months later, Clint shows up,and insists that he had a good reason for everything. Trust Him, he says. Sherry hurts, and doesn't want to love him again. He won't tell Sherry what happened and why. Not yet. Sherry then gets caught into the "nightmare" that Clint has been involved in and now, they must leave everything in God's hands...

Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod

Average customer rating:

This eden is still invisible
Could not put it down...
A huge disappointment!!!
Not recommended
Disappointing

Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod
Maria Flook
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Ptown : Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape (Lisa Drew Books)
My Sister Life
Almost Paradise : The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon
The Doctor's Wife: A True Story of Marriage, Deception and Two Gruesome Murders (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
She Wanted It All: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and a Texas Millionaire

ASIN: 0767913760
Release Date: 2004-06-01

Book Description

A literary investigation by "one of the most powerful American writers at work today" [Annie Proulx] of a story that riveted the nation: how an accomplished, world-traveled fashion writer who had retreated to a simpler life as a single mother on Cape Cod became the victim of a brutal, still-unsolved murder.

On the surface, Christa Worthington’s life had the appearance of privilege and comfort. She was the granddaughter of prominent New Yorkers. Her sparkling journalism earned the fashion world’s respect. But she had turned her back on a glamorous career and begun living in the remote Cape Cod town where she had summered as a child. When she was found murdered in Truro, Massachusetts, just after New Year’s Day in 2002, her toddler daughter clinging to her side, her violent death brought to the surface the many unspoken mysteries of her life.

Invisible Eden is the deeply felt story of a career woman's attempt to start over and reinvent her life away from the fashion circles of New York and Paris only to have an out-of-wedlock child with a local fisherman, forge a life as a single mother, and meet a violent end. Brilliantly portraying Christa’s hunger for belonging and her struggle for survival as a first-time mother, Flook searingly evokes her search for a safe haven, her many tumultuous relationships, and the evidence linking family, strangers, lovers, suspects, and innocents to the tragedy that both shocked a seaside town on Cape Cod and horrified the nation. Flook intricately maps Christa's charged life before her death and follows the first year of the murder investigation with the help of the district attorney who is in an election battle even as he searches for the killer. At the same time, Invisible Eden captures the Cape's haunted landscape, class stratifications, and never-ending battles between its weathy summer residents and its hardscrabble working families who together form a backdrop for a powerful chronicle of love and murder. An edgy and compelling portrait of a woman's tragic journey, Invisible Eden is a mesmerizing true story.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

This eden is still invisible.......2007-06-20

Having read an interview with Flook in the magazine Writer's Digest, I was curious to read some of her work since she's supposedly a writer's writer. I was shocked to find her inserting herself into her own alleged invesitgation into Christa Worthington's death.
Flook's fascination with her own life in Truro comes at the expense of Christa Worthington, depitced poorly and harshly here. Flook seems mesmerized by the DA and imagines herself his comrade in crime investigation because they are both trying to kick smoking.
She does describe Truro alluringly well, but this is not a travel tome. If they are all this dull, cloddish and self-absorbed in Truro, I'll stay at home.
Worst of all, Flook's preoccupations with supposed suspects all turn out to be embarrassingly inaccurate. After pointing virtual fingers at everybody around Christa, Flook got it dramatically wrong: it was a sick and sadistic garbage collector who knew her vaguely from his morning route.
Christa desrveved better all around.

Could not put it down..........2007-05-05

I have little time for reading anymore so if the author doesn't catch my interest by the first handful of pages, I'm off to greener pastures. I can overlook editing errors - and there are some repetitive passages - when the writing is on the whole brilliant and the subject compelling as this book contains. DNA evidence sent the garbage collector to prison but as I understand it he has many supporters who question his guilt, and consider him Christa's consensual sex partner. That is particularly so ludicrous - she may have been attracted to the wrong kind of man but I'm sure the 76 IQ the defendant boasts lets him out of the running as far as Christa's type goes. The book is also so very evocative of the Cape Cod region and history. Very enjoyable in that way for us armchair travelers.

A huge disappointment!!!.......2007-03-11

I was very much looking forward to reading this book after following the Worthington case...I had no idea that it would be a self serving forum for Ms. Flook to write about things that "might" have happened to Christa or tale after tale of the flirtation she had with DA Michael O'Keefe. Any facts that were actually presented here could've been obtained by watching Court TV or reading a newspaper. I truly hope that someone will write a better account of this story, possibly someone who PERSONALLY KNEW Christa and maybe gave a damn about her? It took me quite a long time to muddle through the book...I kept hoping SOMEHOW it would get to the reality of the case, but I was bitterly let down. Oh, and the one star? Far too generous.

Not recommended.......2006-11-20

Since the conviction of Christopher McCowan for Christa's murder, this book is basically obsolete, rehashing the same possible suspects and possible motives that were debunked by the DNA evidence and investigation of McCowen. If anyone followed the trial and saw the testimonies of the key players (suspects) in this book, you now know that timid Tim Arnold as potential perp is ludicrous and Tony Jackett and clan as suspects because of alimony disagreements is also entirely untrue. But other than the discovery of the actual killer in recent news events, this writer's style is so cumbersome and verbose, it is almost impossible to avoid the urge to skim through her lengthy, pretentious descriptions that seem to go on and on pointlessly. Instead of a crime account, this book reads more like a travel guide for the town and history of Truro and surrounding Cape areas while through the first half of the book, it seems Christa's murder is somewhere on the back-burner for the author's plot, Flook instead interjecting herself as main character in place of simple narrator. There is an awful lot of "author ego" working here as she repeatedly describes encounters with the DA and the cutesy, coy flirtation they engage themselves in almost every time he enters the story. I would have preferred more about Christa and less about Maria and am greatly looking forward to another writer revisiting this case with a more traditional, cohesive writing style. I am also hoping for an author to keep Christa and the reality of her brutal death at the center of the story with the grace and respect that she deserves.

Disappointing.......2006-09-13

I was extremely disappointed in this book. I read the full-page review in the NY Times Book Review three years ago. The victim was a single mother, intellectual, strong-willed, dissed by a closed community-- I thought Maria Flook, who I'd read was a FINE writer, could really bring this woman to life. She doesn't. In its own way, this book is an exercise in hypocrisy-- Flook is as morbid and predatory as the vapid journalists (like one from New York magazine) she excoriates. Please, is this book gossip, or is it about the VICTIM? She also drops innuendos about a chief of police who seems to be flirting with her. I got to page 149, though.

Hell Hath No Fury: A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Average customer rating:

Hell hath no fury ...
There are No Winners Here! Just Losers!
Betty
One of The Lighter Books,Another Quick Read
WOW!!! Real life drama

Hell Hath No Fury: A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
Bryna Taubman
Manufacturer: St. Martin's True Crime
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Until the Twelfth of Never: The Deadly Divorce of Dan & Betty Broderick
Forsaking All Others: The Real Betty Broderick Story
Woman Scorned
Til Murder Do Us Part
A Wife's Revenge (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

ASIN: 0312929382
Release Date: 2004-11-02

Book Description

Dan Broderick was one of California's most successful attorneys; his wife, Betty, a beautiful socialite. But when Betty discovered Dan's hidden life, the façade of LaJolla's golden couple was shattered. What followed was a vicious five-year battle that finally ended in a shocking double-murder.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Dan manipulated the law to strip Betty of everything she loved: her home, her friends - even her children. When she frantically tried to fight back, he had her committed to a mental hospital. His new wife, Linda, even sent the once-beautiful Betty wrinkle cream ads and weight loss pamphlets.

Consumed by hatred and thoughts of revenge, Betty's rage exploded on the night of November 5, 1989. Before the sun rose the next day, Dan Broderick and his gorgeous new wife were dead - their bullet-riddled bodies wrapped in the blood-soaked sheets of their bed.

Customer Reviews:

Hell hath no fury ..........2007-07-10

Betty Broderick. Where oh where to start with this case? This was a murder case that spoke to us on so many levels, made us all shake our heads, turn our noses up, and secretly fear our own insecurities and what we are capable of.

Betty and Dan were high school / college sweethearts, who started off with such hopes and dreams that they would have a wonderful life together. Their family started almost immediately after they married (their first of 5 children arriving nearly 9 months to the day they married). Dan went to medical school and later law school while Betty raised the kids and did the primary bread winning as a school teacher. Once Dan had completed his education, he accepted a job with a California law firm and they moved to the west coast. From there he began to build his career to become one of the most successful and wealthiest men in town, and Betty could quit working to dedicate all her time to her kids.

It wasn't, however, a fairy tale. Dan and Betty's relationship was troubled from the beginning. They would eventually divorce, and it was anything but a peaceful affair. Betty went from being a "normal person" to a pathetic, psychotic hysteric. Dan began to cheat with Linda, and would eventually marry her. Betty's hysteria went from reasonable to destructive (driving her car through the front door of the house which got her thrown into a psych hospital, for example). It all came to a head when she bought a gun, snuck into her ex husband's house one morning, and shot both him and Linda while they slept. Now she's behing bars.

It's so hard to take sides in something like this. You see so clearly what Betty wanted and what was taken away from her. Yet you also see what Dan wanted, and what was taken away from him. Not to mention Linda. And the kids. And their friends, and their families. So many marriages start off so innocently and with such hopes, and so many end so bitterly. Where are those two people who were so in love once in the wedding pictures? Their partnership fell apart. But then again, as I have seen, the majority of people I have seen marry never should have. They were not right for each other. And sometimes we have to realize that and leave the marriages. It's when one doesn't want to that you will get a crazy story like this. Divorce is never pleasent, that's for sure, and you will face terrible times as you realize you have just had the rug ripped out from under you. But, have some dignity. If not for yourself, for your family and friends.

And, Betty, as far as I am concerned, has a genuine element of evil in her. I understand her sense of despair, her jealousy of the other woman, etc., but she has caused such chaos. It would not could not end until someone died. Dan and Linda had to die before Betty's rage was satisfied. To this day she has expressed no remorse over the fact that the both of them are dead. She says "Dan wanted me dead, but I'm alive". Alive to rot in prison, alive to have lost everything, and alive to be a sad joke to many.

There are No Winners Here! Just Losers!.......2007-06-12

I first saw the television film adaptation which was pro-Dan and Linda all the way. They never showed Dan and Linda bad-mouthing Betty. In the film, Betty was portrayed brilliantly by Meredith Baxter but she played her as a demented, sore loser who never got over losing Dan, her man. In the book, we read more about Betty's feuding which was more like a World War and Dan's indifference to his former wife's well-being. He tossed her aside when he found a suitable replacement like hiring and firing but Betty didn't go easily or ever. She was obsessed with Dan and Linda and defeating them no matter what the cost. The book dispels that Dan was a wonderful husband and father only when he was forced too by Betty dumping the kids off one by one. Betty was smart, attractive, and wittier than some of the most professional comedians according to one of her close friends. She discharged by her husband rather because he decided to have a younger model and version. Now, I don't condone Betty's actions when she shot and killed them in their sleep. Of course if I was Linda, I would run away as fast as I could. Yes, you're in love but look at his first wife. I don't understand why Dan disowned his daughter Lee Gordon Broderick upon his death maybe for siding with Betty over Dan. Dan never liked to lose in life but he lost in death. There is a website where you can't leave flowers and notes on Dan and Linda's graves because it has been misused. That blockage is usually reserved for dictators and serial killers. I think Linda was in way over her head when she married Dan not seeing this coming and thinking that Dan could save them both. I remember in the film where a senior secretary played by Debra Jo Rupp warned Dan about how to treat people fairly when she saw Linda rise above her. It was a poignant moment in the film and maybe showed a side of Dan's egotism that he can handle everything. Like I wrote, there are no winners from this situation. I feel sorry for the children the most for suffering through the loss of their father, stepmother, and their mother's role in their murders.

Betty.......2005-12-07

This book was ok but not near as good as until the twelfth of never. that book really gives you more of an inside look into the life of Dan and Betty Broderick. This book is a quick read if you are looking for a light read on the story and not a lot of details.

One of The Lighter Books,Another Quick Read.......2005-09-29

I feel like a professional as far as this case goes. LOL I have stated before that after seeing the totally pro Dan and Linda movie (The Betty Broderick Story) I started reading and watching everything about this case, including the court tv show, A&E Justice Story, MNCBS Headliners etc...While I will grant that Betty murdering them was over the top, some of the stunts of Dan and Linda were over the top too. You also have to keep in mind that Dan was the one whose "friends" were the lawyers and judges, not Betty. In spite of friends saying she could have gone to another county to find a lawyer, it really was not as easy as all that. The woman was completly blind-sided by this man she had worked so hard for. It truly was a sad, sad story.This book was quick, but did not have many details and certainly not reserched as the book by Bella Stumbo was. It was okay and added maybe a little more insight to the case but not much.

WOW!!! Real life drama.......2005-08-29

I became introduced to this case through court TV and many documentaries, and all I can say is WOW!!!! No matter what you feel about the victims or Betty, you have to feel for the children who were put through this. I was heartbroken while reading this book. It has the same feel of the book I read for the movie "Goodfellas" and you do sort of feel caught up in the mess. It's sad really, but it's a teaching lesson if you look it at in a positive light.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books