(35) Gawd. Embarrassed to have read this really. Blame it on the Netflix documentary 'The Staircase' and the fact that I've lived in Durham, NC for the past 20 years and have watched this all play out on local news. The true crime genre just emphasizes something faintly horrifying and voyeuristic about us as readers. But I can't deny that at times I am strangely fascinated. This is the story of a novelist and mayoral candidate in our city who found his wife at the bottom of the staircase in the wee hours of the morning bloodied and ultimately dead. First responders thought the scene suspicious and the blood dried which didn't jive with the husbands story. Unbelievably many years prior he had been the last one to see a close female friend alive before she too was found at the bottom of a staircase bloodied and dead - another accident. Or was it? The body is exhumed and the medical examiner rules this case too as a homicide. So a twisted story with high court theatrics and a slick high-priced defense attorney. A family divided with most standing behind the aggrieved and potentially wronged husband who is arrested.

The writing is decidedly pedestrian and I am not sure I would have been engaged if I hadn't seen the documentary or lived contemporaneously with this case in the news. While 'The Staircase' is quite biased for the defense; Michael Peterson - this book favors the prosecution. This book brings in things that were not emphasized in the documentary that shed a bad light on the defendant. In particular and most damning for me was the fact that there was a fracture of the hyoid bone - a classic finding in strangulation; as well as the fact that autopsy suggested she was alive for hours in shock from blood loss. And really, really - all this time he was out at the pool in shorts and T-shirt in 50 degree weather. That is not what he suggested when asked initially by first responders - he said - 'I just went out to throw out the trash.' And there is something off about his personality - even in the biased defense documentary; his actions/reactions all seem a bit choreographed.

Anyway, hopefully I have gotten this bit of true crime obsession out of my system. It just seems wrong to me to be fascinated by this. just wrong. Yet - here I sit writing my review. And how many hours now have I watched/read about this case. Basta! RIP Kathleen; I am so sorry for you and your daughters/family. ( )

This is a book that was recommended to my by my Book Club, the San Antonio Reader's Circle.

I read it in a good part of a day. It is a True Crime read which is why I gave it the category of Nonfiction as all the information in this book is factual and on record.

Diane Fanning does a good job of capturing the events in the life of one Michael Peterson who was convicted of First Degree Murder in a Durham NC courtroom for the death of his wife Kathleen Atwater.

I commended Diane for the tremendous amount of research in getting all the details regarding not only the case but the history but also all involved in the murder of Kathleen Atwater. This book kept me very interesting in the details surrounding this case and all the behavior's exhibited by those involved in this Murder. Now, I don't want to spoil all the details but just because others were not convicted of the crime doesn't mean they were not involved. It is interesting to see how the lives of all the family members changed due to this trial. Also, it is interesting to see the history of the family members and how everything falls in place at the end.

Also, Michael Peterson hid a secret that devastated the entire family.

The beginning was kind of hard to get through in that there were so many characters involved, that I felt like I needed a score card to keep up with them all. Also, I would have liked Diane to have blended more storytelling in with the actual facts. There were parts of the book that were kind of dry simply because only the facts were given.

I would recommend this book as a read. It was entertaining and was kind of exciting to know that indeed fact (in this case) is stranger than fiction. ( )

who is who?
What is it with the name Peterson and murder?

I recall that when I read this book at around the same time there was another guy also called Peterson who also murdered his wife. But there was also another Peterson who murdered his young pregnant wife.

I am trying to find out if Fatal Vows is a book I might buy. If that book is about the same case.

Fatal Vows is about Drew Peterson who killed his wife Kathleen and Stacy.

Then you have a Scott Peterson who killed his wife Lacy. Lacy Stacy. See why I am confused?

Drew Paterson also killed his wife Kathleen Savio. That name sounds so familiar.
Now Michael Peterson, the guy in this book also has a wife called Kathleen?

WTH.

I guess I am going to give fatal Vows a try. I can assure you that once I do I will have even more trouble remembering who is who.

Not once, during either of two frantic calls to Durham 9-11 did Michael Peterson mention the blood...and there was a lot of blood. During the early morning hours of December 9th, as Kathleen lay dying on the stairs, police and rescue personnel rush to the home on Cedar Street.

Connecting the complex sequence of dots that convinced a jury of his peers that Michael Peterson was indeed guilty of murder would have been the easy part, because the evidence had been painstakingly detailed during the five month trial. But, Diane Fanning takes the reader behind the carefully orchestrated performance in the court room and delivers the journey through the raw, unfiltered eyes of those who lived it. Detailing the crime scene, police procedure, the autopsy and the trial I fully expected, however, this book is chock-full of extras. Intimate conversations between Kathleen and her beloved sister, details concerning the exhumation and autopsy of Elizabeth Ratliff, the suspicious death of George Ratliff and much more. There's also eight pages of photographs that give the reader a glimpse of the Peterson's before, during and the aftermath is punctuated with a single photo of Kathleen's headstone.

During the trial, the defense displayed an air of arrogance both in and outside the courtroom. And much to the chagrin of Peterson's few remaining supporters, the author pulls no punches describing the showboating behavior of David Rudolf and Thomas Maher, the mysterious discovery of the missing blowpoke and the effect these antics had on the grieving families.

Superb, unflinching, emotionally gritty at times, Written in Blood is a stinging, in your face novel that paints a haunting picture of the madness that often lurks behind the gates of the nicest communities or in the home right next door. And reminds us all that the monster hiding in the shadows is easily recognized in hindsight...but, that's too late!

Although the last chapter of this story will be written by the North Carolina Supreme Court, Written In Blood is as complete a history of the Peterson saga as could possibly be written. If you enjoy reading a true crime novel that goes behind the scenes and beyond the glare of the cameras, Written In Blood does not disappoint!

Happy Reading!
-RJ ( )