A Perfect Husband by Aphrodite Jones Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Perfect Husband
Book Review: Fascinating
Summary: 5 Stars
A dyed-in-the-wool sociopath with genteel affectations and upper-crust snobbery and arrogance: He's a raving lunatic behind a mask of sanity. A most fascinating story. The supporting cast of characters (family members, attorneys) are compelling in their own right. "Written in Blood" is another terrific book on this case, and the film "The Staircase", a documentary about the case, is riveting and revealing. I was hooked on this one.Book Review: Great Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Even though I watched the entire trial on court Tv this book went in to so many other factors of Peterson that we did not know. Do not confuse this book thinking it's Scott Peterson.This is another Peterson. Great read could not put down the book.Aphrodite Jones goes in to such detail as if she was there herself watching this horrible situation. She is a great investigative True Crime Author. This Book is a must read.Book Review: If you followed the trial...you will enjoy the book
Summary: 3 Stars
If you followed the trial...you will enjoy the book but you might not learn a lot of new information. I found the writing style to be amateurish and felt that the author over-dramatized a lot of the content simply for effect but it is a one stop shop to get the story from start to finish.Book Review: Interesting
Summary: 5 Stars
I followed a lot of the story during the trial. The book gives a lot of interesting background on the Peterson family. I thought the book did a great job of portraying each member of the family, the closeness of the family and their almost storybook happiness. The book did a good job of gradually showing how the events of Kathleen's murder and the trial shattered what was once a family on top of the world. While extremely sad, this story is fascinating.Book Review: Look elsewhere for an objective, balanced account
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm a friend of Michael Peterson and believe him innocent, so I know my biases. Before reading this work, you should know Aphrodite Jones's.
Jones begins with sympathetic portraits of Michael and Kathleen Peterson, but she shifts and eventually labels Michael a sociopath, but not directly. She waits until chapter 54 to drop in a second-hand checklist of sociopathic traits. It's the culmination of her strategy of setting up a straw man to tear down.
Jones disingenuously uses her checklist to filter descriptions of Mike, and slyly loads her language against him. When he surrenders, he looks "very dapper," implying he takes the situation lightly. In court he looks like a "peacock" in his "designer loafers"--egotism being on her list. Time and again Mike "charms" people, subtly suggesting the use of magic or trickery. Guess what? "Superficial charm" is on her checklist. (I like and respect Mike, but I've never been charmed by him. He's good company because he's intelligent, knowledgeable, humorous, and shows a good-hearted interest in others and their stories.)
Jones shows her bias for the prosecution in her unbalanced treatment of the evidence. She ignores the defense's extensive fall analysis and modeling, medical testimony, and broad research of auopsies that challenged the medical examiner. She also ignores that a prosecution witness was totally discredited. While describing the ADA as "beautiful" and prosecution witnesses as having "hearts of gold," she counters defense arguments but not the prosecution's completely circumstantial evidence.
Jones relies on witnesses friendly to the prosecution for much of her background information, but she doesn't question their reliability. Did Kathleen's sisters know her as well as they think? The main source of Jones's information about events in Germany 18 years prior claimed in court that her memories came in "flashbacks." What's that about?
In her overblown prose, Jones concludes that Mike was an evil lurking in his home. Mike wasn't a perfect husband, and he's given his detractors plenty of ammunition. But many of us who know him and knew him and Kathleen together believe that the evil in this case has been committed against Michael Peterson.