Written in Blood by Diane Fanning Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Written in Blood
Book Review: Interesting story, but the book needed improvement
Summary: 2 Stars
The saving grace for this book is that the story is interesting. Parts of the book were fairly well written, but much of it wasn't. There were so many typos that I wondered if it had actually been edited. But, the misusage of words was what bothered me the most. For example, the author continuously used the word "podium" in place of "lectern." A podium is defined as something a presenter stands upon. I found myself laughing hysterically when I read about one of the attorneys pounding his finger on the podium. I thought the image of this grown man bent over and pounding his finger next to his feet in a courtroom was quite comical. I also thought it was incredible that a published author would use words without knowing their meanings.
Book Review: Loved it
Summary: 5 Stars
I think the author was too kind to the killer, actually. She told the truth about him and in a way that never got in the way of the facts. Some people don't like the fact that Mike Peterson is a killer (probably a double killer) but that's the way it is. And if you like a page turner, this is it. I think Diane Fanning is among the BEST of the best true-crime books and will buy anything she writes. Thank you.Book Review: Masterful Edgar Award nominee
Summary: 5 Stars
This masterful true crime book was nominated for an Edgar Award--an astonishing accomplishment for a paperback original in the Best Fact Crime category.
Written in Blood has the most accurate and diverse presentation of facts than any other book or televised documentary about this fascinating case. It is thorough and riveting. It is written so well that
I could not put it down.
Book Review: Mixed verdict
Summary: 3 Stars
I became interested in this case after watching the documentary on the Sundance channel this April. I came away from that believing that I would have acquitted Peterson on the basis of reasonable doubt even though I thought it POSSIBLE he was responsible for his wife's death. I decided to read Fanning's book to deepen my knowledge of the case and understand why the jury acted as they did.
Fanning's book certainly provides information that the documentary ignored...no need to itemize here and ruin a good read. The net effect was to move me towards believing that Peterson was PROBABLY responsible for the death. At the same time i don't believe he
initially intended to kill her, but that his probable actions(assault) or inactions
(letting her bleed to death) emerged after recognition that his
probably assault (he seemed to have a hair-trigger temper) went too far and that his marriage would not survive it and he would be
unable to live in manner he had become accustomed to if she left him as a result of it.
Fanning, however, even with occasional demurrals, writes as if he
planned to kill his wife that night and wholly accepts the prosecution belief that his bisexual adventures negated his love for his wife, ignoring social science evidence that very few male adulterers commit adultery (heterosexual or homosexual)because they no longer love their spouses. She also accepts the likelihood that he premeditated killing for financial GAIN, when his wife was, in fact, likely to be worth far more alive than dead because of her great earning potential...even if her current job was in jeopardy because of the fate of her employer in the current market. His income GAIN would be shortlived , given the couple's debts, and his earning power as a writer, while considerable, was sporadic.
Beyond this disagreement about the interpretation of the case Fanning exhibits some annoying habits that prevents this from being a far better book:
1) she imputes states of mind to persons that she couldn't possibly know...wife is dead and Mike Peterson
didn't discuss his thoughts with Fanning
2) exhibits a double-standard in describing and characterizing
prosecution and defense work...both are simply doing their respective jobs under exisiting rules...if defense experts are paid, prosecution ones are typically state employees who don't have to be compensated above their salaries...
3) making silly psychological observations....Peterson didn't suffer from writer's blocker after death of wife as a sign of his guilt becasue stressed out, grieving widower would...people handle stress in all sorts of DIFFERENT ways. Some become workaholics.
4) relying on dumb psychiatric diagnoses.."narcissistic personality disorder" which sound meaningful but have the same value as "loving dark chocolate personality disorder"...simply describing behavior not an underlying medical condition that
produces behavior symptoms. Besides, Peterson had exhibited lots of different behaviors in his life and not all were narcissistic.
She is very selective in viewing data.
5) an awareness and yet denial that our court system is based on an adversarial relationship and not a search for truth. jurors could have easily created a hung jury and were deeply divided initially. outcome of jury deliberations often hinges on personalities, grouop dynamics, leadership roles, demographics.
had the jury hung would she have written the book the same way?
these problems, which readers should keep in mind while reading the book, are worth mentioning because those same readers may be jurors some day and apart from that may be reacting to other trials which receive much attention...the Michael Jackson one, for example, where his admittedly peculiar nature may trump weak evidence and work against him.
Book Review: More informative than the documentary.
Summary: 4 Stars
I did not want to read this after seeing the documentary, but I am very glad I did. It did not focus so much on Peterson's sexual orientation but on the facts. Very well written. Peterson is right where he needs to be, locked up.