Customer Reviews

Cruel Games: A Brilliant Professor, A Loving Mother, A Brutal Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is one of the kind of Books that readers of True Crime just find so difficult to read. The author gives no insight, appears to have only put together a glorified news account. She clearly does not understand what makes a really good true crime account. This book repeated info so many times and devoted a whole chapter to a Gazebo, that could have been a paragraph. I had to make myself finish it by shear will and that was done in a matter of hours. Do Not waste your money!

I enjoy mysteries but never expected such an engaging and fast read. A married couple, Ellen, wife/mother/friend a woman just like women in my social circle, and Robb, an arrogant man who felt he could control not only his wife, his child but authorities, the DA, detectives, his attorneys, prosecutors, co-workers, no one was beyond his control, hopefully like no one in my social circle. The author captures the personalities and lives of all involved without boring details. I felt an intimacy with each personality in this book.
I knew little of the story only that it is based on fact which made me feel I must read it.
The reality is overwhelming and engaging - this is a horror story of what goes on behind closed doors. You cannot help but become emotionally involved. Cruel Games (perfect title) is exactly what this is all about. And to think there are victims that live in situations like this everyday and the accused can get away with it. To read that the defending lawyer indicates that the victim must have done something to deserve it is beyond my comprehension!
This is not just another mystery but demands an awareness to continue to help all victims in a dangerous marriage.

The author provides a fascinating read that places you in the middle of the investigation of this cruel crime, one that received a lot of media attention in the Philadelphia area. Enjoyed Ciotta's smooth story-telling of hard facts - not something that is easy to do. You won't be disappointed.

As a resident of Southeast Pennsylvania, I followed this case when it was in the news. Only recently did I learn of this book. The story is mainly about two gifted professionals: the Killer Robb and Montgomery County DA Bruce Castor. Unfortunately for Robb, he was NOT a professional killer and Castor WAS a professional killer-catcher. The arrogance of Robb was stunning to think that he could deflect real life homicide detectives by using his "game theory" techniques. Clearly the murder was not planned out, but the cover-up sure was. What I liked most about the book was learning how much time and effort our police put into solving these crimes and prosecuting those responsible. Castor is a well-known figure here, and I always saw him on TV, but I never gave much thought until now how many people working together under were needed to secure those successes. This book is a fascinating insight into that dynamic. People just plain don't know what it takes to do this kind of case and Rose Ciotta lays it all out.

Dr. Rafael Robb was an Ivy league professor of game theory at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He lived in the main line suburbs with his wife, Ellen Gregory, and their twelve year old daughter, Olivia. Sadly even in best of neighborhoods with the best education, Ellen was brutally murdered only five days before her fiftieth birthday and right before Christmas holidays in 2007. I believe this is the author's first book and she is an accomplished local journalist in the Philadelphia area. The book is an easy read overall and I never heard of the case so I'm being educated along the way. I'm sure some Wharton and Penn Alumni wouldn't mind reading this book.

Although the story is riveting (especialaly because I live in Philadelphia), the information furnished is enough to completely confuse.
The inside of the cover says, "This is fiction, etc."., and in the middle of the book where there are some photos, one photo shows the villan "after he confesses to murdering his wife". The first leaves you confused about whether you are reading fact or fiction, and the second gives away the ending. In addition, the author needs a lot more experience in writing. She is not good at all. All in all, a lot was taken away from a story that could have been a real thriller.

Cruel Games: A Brilliant Professor, A Loving Mother, A Brutal Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library) okay true crime book but too much technical game theory information. Could have been much shorter and made a better story.

This book is about the arrogant motivations of a Penn Professor who thought he could control not only his own family, but also the external world of law enforcement, etc. The authors writing style is riveting, do not listen to the other reviews that say otherwise, they clearly have no experience reading quality writing. The way the author describes various aspects of the story, and provides clear insights into the world of both the professor and his wife lead you to come away from the story with a real understanding of what went on behind closed doors. This book will lead you on a roller coaster ride of emotions inside this riveting addition to the true crime library. This is by far the best true crime book I have read. I can not say enough about the sheer quality of the writing. Rose Ciotta has done an outstanding job! Buy this book without question, you wont regret it!

This may be an interesting story but NOT as it's told by this author. It's not well-organized and clearly not well-written. The grammar and some run-on sentences are surprising. How does this get past an editor? But the WORST part is the constant repetition of facts...BORING. This could be an article in the Sunday supplement of a newspaper but it doesn't exactly rivet the reader as a book, in my opinion. There is no suspense at all.

As others have pointed out, anyone who knew Rafael Robb, or knows anything about economics as an academic discipline, knows that being a game theorist doesn't give you the magical ability to outwit anyone. Yes, there was a murder and an attempted (kind of lame) cover up. What happened was tragic, and brutal from all accounts.

But, anyone who knew Robb professionally would tell you that there was absolutely no indication that he was capable of doing such a thing, and specifically, of planning and executing something like this. Aha! I know you'll say - that just shows how calculating he was! But for me the lesson is that we never really know much about other people, or what they're really like in private.

Perhaps the real tragedy is that an enterprising 'true crime' author is just using this as an excuse to make some money. Who do you think is the real calculating one here? (Of course, if the proceeds are going to go to the family / daughter by all means, buy the book... but seriously...)