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Title: Final Affair: The Shocking True Story of Marriage and Murder (Berkley True Crime) by Frank McAdams, Timothy Carney ISBN: 0-425-18308-4 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: January, 2002 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: More insight needed
Comment: Although this book is an fascinating look into the world of a homicide detective, it needed far more insight into Richard Overton's relationship with his wife. The book explains that early on in their marriage, Jan Overton knew her husband poisoned his first wife. She heard him confess to police. The book just glosses over this scene making no further mention of Jan's reaction to the disturbing information. The author gives no reason why Jan stayed with her husband many long years until her death. Was Jan Overton crippled by low self-esteem or mental illness? Why would she stay with a diabolic man? Was there more to the story? Like her husband, it seems she lived a double life. She was an outgoing school official with a terrible marital secret which tragically became her demise. Their relationship begs for more explanation and insight. This is where the book falls short.
Rating: 3
Summary: Workmanlike, solid police procedural true crime
Comment: This is literally the only police procedural true crime book I've ever read. The book begins with the strange death of Janet Overton, a popular school trustee, which was ultimately classified as a death from natural causes. The case was filed as an open coroner's case, and that was where it languished until Investigator Timothy Carney [one of the book's co-authors] opened a file in his desk drawer on the first day of his new job as a homicide investigator.
The remainder of the book details Carney and his partner's dogged, almost obsessive pursuit of what they are sure was a murder by cyanide and of Richard Overton, the victim's husband, who they become convinced is the murderer and who is also revealed to be a classic antisocial personality or sociopath. Carney and his partner meet and overcome each obstacle that arises during the investigation, knowing that if they fail at any step along the way, the case will be over. Carney becomes relentess in his research and preparation, and ultimately, the case must go before a homicide panel [a group of attorneys each with substantial experience trying homicide cases] before the District Attorney's office will proceed to a grand jury. Carney wins, the case goes before a grand jury, and Overton is arrested. The book ends with his arrest.
The ending of the books is one of its faults. Overton was tried twice [the first trial resulted in a hung jury] and the only information about the trials were two sentences in an Epilogue at the end of the book. This case is bizarre and the evidence is so strange I was curious for some details about what a jury thought or about how the case was tried. This book also needed more details about Richard Overton and the development of his sociopathy. The book is well organized and structured, but the writing is plodding.
Overall, this is a worthwhile book, but it could have been better.
Rating: 4
Summary: Inside the mind of a sociopath
Comment: Final Affair was not like anything I've ever read before. It's the story of a detective who opens the Overton 'cold case file'. There are a lot of people against him, people who don't think that a woman's death was suspicious. Slowly he unravels various clues that were missed before. It's shocking to see just how far one man will go. This was a great book, and a really quick read.
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Title: Blood Will Tell : A Shocking True Story of Marriage, Murder, and Fatal Family Secrets by Carlton Smith ISBN: 0312977956 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 17 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death by Ann Rule ISBN: 0743202988 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Open Secrets by Carlton Stowers ISBN: 0312982143 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Last Dance, Last Chance by Ann Rule ISBN: 067102535X Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 30 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: An Hour To Kill : A True Story of Love, Murder, and Justice in a Small Southern Town by Dale Hudson, Billy Hills ISBN: 0312978359 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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