Written in Blood by Diane Fanning
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Book Summary Author: Diane Fanning Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2005-02-01 ISBN: 0312994036 Number of pages: 416 Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks |
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Book Reviews of the Written in Blood
Customer Review: Not Impressed
Summary: 1 Stars
(Reviewed by Rebecca)
I bought this book after watching the extraordinary and riveting documentary, The Staircase, with the hopes that it would contain some of the evidence and testimony not included in the documentary. What I found was an unnecessarily biased, sensationally written account of events leading up to and including the trial.
Instead of focussing on more compelling evidence like red neurons found in the victim's brain suggesting a much earlier time of death, and broken cartillage in the throat that might suggest an attempted strangulation, the book casts such a jaundiced eye on Peterson that the author would like you to believe he was not only responsible for the death of Kathleen Peterson and Liz Ratliff (which I think is entirely possible), but was responsible for drowning the family dog, probably had something to do with George Ratliff's death, and was indirectly responsible for the death of one of Liz Ratliff's students who later committed suicide.
What's worse is the overly sentimental account of events having little to do with the evidence. For example, Fanning dedicates a chapter to the wind chimes placed by Kathleen's family members in a tree nearby her grave being struck by a sudden and unexplained wind whenever Kathleen's sister visited her grave as if she was trying to tell her something "from beyond". The author writes she too visited Kathleen's grave, "As I reached the foot of her grave, a breeze danced through the air and the sweetest sound I ever heard tinkled through the air. It was almost as if the gracious hostess was welcoming me to her new home."
The book would have been much more interesting and effective if it was less biased and sensationalistic, and presented some of the reasons Peterson may not be guilty, of which there are many. What keeps me thinking about this story is that it is such a complex case. Fanning took out all of the complexity to write her exaggerated account of events, and that's a shame.