A Perfect Husband by Aphrodite Jones Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.24 You Save: $1.26 (19%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of A Perfect Husband
Book Review: Not exactly perfect
Summary: 1 Stars
Incredible! Outrageous! Unbelievable! It boggles my mind to know that a kind, wonderful person like Michael Peterson can so easily be railroaded into prison. The only "true crime" in this book is an innocent man being punished for a murder that never happened. I find it interesting that the only people Ms. Jones interviewed for her book were people who didn't really know Mr. Peterson well or who had much to gain from his conviction. Truly one-sided yellow journalism at its best.Book Review: Not the best book on this murder
Summary: 2 Stars
There is a much better book concerning this murder ( and the first murder ) committed by Michael Peterson. It is "Written in Blood" by Diane Fanning, and it is by far the superior book. Much less confusing, much less meandering, Fanning's book manages to span the time frame between two similar crimes of women associated with Peterson.
Much more horrifying is the fact that the children of his first victim in Germany became his wards, and remained in his custody, loving him, the murderer of their mother.
I suggest that anyone confused or put off by this author's style pick up a copy of "Written in Blood." Everything is more cohesive and the spine prickles much more pronounced.
There will be no doubt in your mind that Peterson committed both murders. Evidently the courts agree with Diane Fanning, too, as Michael Peterson's final appeal against his life sentence was denied in 2007.
Book Review: Poorly researched, unreliable, and marred by author's agend
Summary: 2 Stars
Having watched the documentary "Death of the Staircase" with great interest, I turned to this book to get more background information on the case, and the individuals involved. More specifically, I was hoping that it would perhaps clarify the reasons why there was a conviction, as the documentary clearly showed that there was reasonable doubt that Michael Peterson murdered his wife, and that Peterson's sexual preferences as well as local politics had a part to play in his conviction. Unfortunately, it soon became evident that this book is flawed on many levels. One example is the total lack of objectivity. Aphrodite Jones is clearly convinced that Michael Peterson is the murderer, and as a result, she spends a great deal of effort trying to prove that he's a sociopath. She finally rests her case lamely in chapter 54 in which she simply lists the characteristics of a sociopath. I guess that she figured that after all of her "evidence" that we would all have an "ah ha!" moment and be convinced of his guilt. But much of her "evidence" is gossipy trifles gleaned from interviews with people who had come to believe that Michael Peterson was the murder--most notably the Atwater family. But not only was this book poorly researched, the writing is quite poor as well. Aphrodite Jones is just not a good writer, and leaves me wondering how she became one in the first place, and who would have entrusted her with covering such an important and controversial case. Well, whatever the case, it would seem to me that in the end there is reasonable doubt that Michael Peterson was responsible for his wife's death, and so I guess that this is yet another instance where the American justice system has failed.Book Review: Really awful
Summary: 1 Stars
A book about the murder of Kathleen Peterson, for which her husband was found guilty at trial. Rather than give us a dispassionate history of events and personalities, Jones stumbles along with a badly constructed narrative, which consists of poor prose and doubtful value judgments. Not only is Michael Peterson held to be the devil incarnate, but also his legal team, who weren't found to be guilty of anything. The team for the prosecution, however, are perfect in every way and en route for canonization. Jones peppers this book with quite awful clangers - Kathleen Peterson "stayed locked away for months, just crying.." and in the next sentence "busier than ever with work"; "her infidelity wasn't all his fault" a web-site was "highly pornographic" yet only "quite offensive". I found it hard to keep a grip on moving forward to trial and the series of events as Jones stumbles back and forth in time. We do get a chance to review how poorly the Petersons managed their money, or rather lack of it, with hints about theft, forgery of wills, and harrassment. However, there was no real explanation of how a strong woman like Ms. Peterson had such bad judgment that she had to resort to living off credit cards. I had no confidence that all the facts were being presented, only those to fit Jones's angry treatise and rant about Michael Peterson. He'd be just as guilty had she included all the facts, and the story would have been more interesting. This case deserves better than this poorly written, poorly constructed trash. We deserve better. This is People magazine level writing, not the New York Times.Book Review: Shocking!
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot believe this story could be true: A fiction writer plots the death of his wife. This book is Aphrodite Jones at her best.