Customer Reviews

Deadfall

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While well written with few misspellings or grammatical errors, this book leaves a lot to be desired. Despite Scott's history of true crime writing, I found that many things included in this book were simply not explained; and whether he noted it was because police or other entities failed or explain or he didn't explain it, most of those notations were not necessary anyway.

The one thing I found the most annoying, however, was that by the halfway point of this book, we had the condensed version of the killer's trial and sentence. The second half of the book details the struggle of victims' sisters searching for justice with the help Investigator Harris. We made privy to numerous email exchanges, strange occurences, and political power plays. However, as evidence becomes available to try John Annibel (the suspect of many murders and convicted murder of one) for twenty-five year old murder of his live-in girlfriend Andrea DeLaRoute, the book simply ends. It left me wondering: (1) Was he tried? Convicted? Sentenced?; (2) What about the case of Sherry Lynn Smith?; (3) What about the Georgina Pecharo case? Too many questions, too little answers.

Interesting read, plenty of suspense. But plan on being left hanging.

I am the wife of DA Chief investigator Tim Kiely. I read the book because it was about his interview and confession obtained on the Annibel/Sloan case. The Pacheco homicide was his first one as a detective with the Sheriff's office and still bothers him that it has never been solved.

I don't understand how the police depts and DA's office of Humboldt county could be so unwilling to get resolution for these families.

If I was Lisa I wouldn't give up. EVER! There is no excuse with all of the physical evidence, circumstantial evidence and Annibels history of violence and subsequent confession that the DA's office should back away from prosecution. Technology today wasn't the same as it was when this evidence was collected. What is the harm of testing it again. If DNA from Annibel is found on Sherry Lynn or Andrea-they need to open up the investigation and do the jobs are paid to do.

I am frustrated and had a long discussion with Tim after reading it. He feels the same way. I mentioned another missing coast woman to him, I believe her name was Kristy Krebbs, but Tim doesn't think Annibel was involved, however it was arround the same time in Fort Bragg and she has never been found. Kind of makes you wonder.

Robert Scott's book, Deadfall, reads almost like a mystery, because he recounts John Annibel's murder of Debbie Sloan, but also goes into other unsolved cases in the redwood region. Mr. Scott makes many good points as to why John Annibel is the main suspect in the murders of Andrea LaDeRoute and Sherry Smith. I see that Lisa, the sister of Andrea has made a review of this book. I found it very interesting that Lisa has a thread on Court TV's website called "Sister's Remains found after 22 Years!" This is in the Cold Cases section. Her thread is up to date as to where the cases stand on Andrea and Sherry. Since Mr. Scott seemed to have finished writing Deadfall sometime in 2005, Lisa's thread is a good way to see how things stand now. All in all, the book is fast paced and very readable.

Detective Dan

I usually don't read this type of book, but because I grew up in the Humboldt County area (Eureka) and know some of the characters in the book, I decided to read it. I felt the book was well written, accurately portraying the atmosphere of the time and place the events occurred. When I first saw the cover of the book I was a little concerned that John Annible might be glamorized and the victims not given the respect they deserved. However, the Author clearly wrote the book in respect to the victims and their families.

I agree that the book does leave you hanging because there isn't a clear ending. This is because John Annible has never been tried for all of his suspected victims. Hopefully, John Annible will eventually stand trial and a sequel to the book can be written answering all of the unanswered questions. Until then, I guess this case will continue to be a Cold Case unsolved...................

08-20-06 Addition: A petition to the Governor has been initiated, anyone interested in signing, please email: freenuma@peoplepc.com

This is in response to Linda's review from Tennessee. I can totally relate to her feelings about the book. You see, I am Andrea's sister, and quite honestly the reality is that even though there has been substantial evidence, and even though the authorities were noted as stating they would be looking over the cases again, nothing has developed as a result, ABSOLUTELY, NOTHING!

So without giving too much of the story away, all I can say is unfortunately this entire situation leaves everybody hanging.

Lisa Lawler

After having read several of Scott's books, I was greatly disappointed with this one. There are so many quotes from too many people that the storyline gets lost in the process. In addition, the pages upon pages of interviews with murderer John Annible are scripted verbatum, instead of being summarized. This made the reading process even more tedious. Scott usually puts out good text. He was way off on this one.

Humboldt County just snubbed a woman trying to bring justice for the horrible and brutal murder of her beautiful sister whom she loved so much. Her sister was brutally strangled by this mad man John Annibel and they do nothing, not a dang thing to help her in this case. Blood found on hacksaws (still not enough proof for them) and all of the evidence and witnesses Lisa could have rounded up would have been not enough for Humboldt county.
This book broke my heart and made me sick. Sick that this jerk got away with so much. Sick that they gave the raped and strangled victims little if any respect by trying to get this guy and he is running free. Just so sad that to them all of this proof was just a lack of proof.
God bless Lisa for trying her heart out and God bless all of the victims of that sick jerk that got away with so much!

I had a problem staying interested in this book. To many different people to keep track of I think.

I worked on this case as a young police officer in one of the cities described. I also grew up in a community between the two main crime scenes and knew some of the people involved. I moved away from the area in the 1980's and recently retired from law enforcement. I was not aware the case had come to any type of conclusion, until I saw something on the internet.

The book chronicles the events I was aware of during the late 70's and early 80's. It then seems to loose focus and wanders around with little other than the re-telling of the crime reports. As you near the end of the book it has no real finish and never explains some of the simple facts of the matter. What happened to the suspect? I assume he is still incarcerated, but the book really leaves that part blank. If the state attorney general looked into the case, what was the outcome?
Seems to be a rush to finish the book, to garner interest from the press it generated, without the ability to finish the story. Besides the ending in Mendocino county, the reader is left to make his/her own conclusion in the other (Humboldt county) cases. There are no interviews with any of the people involved. It does not appear the writer tried to contact any of the involved persons, besides the district attorney's office personnel. Due to the political nature of that office it is not uncommon for the line "no comment" to be used by that group of employees.

Having worked on similar cases that span county, state and federal jurisdiction, I know there is more information out there concerning the suspect and his ties to "serial crimes". Too bad the author did not have the ability to follow up and complete the story. It's an OK read for someone that has some interest in the specific crimes, people and/or jurisdictions involved. As for a "who dun' it", there is little doubt who, from the very beginning.

As a local Humboldt county girl, I had to read this since I know several of the folks mentioned in the book. My girlfriend's brother was even at the dance that Sherry was last seen at. Everyone I know at work is either currently reading this book or can't wait to borrow it. It is maybe not as well written as an Ann Rule book, but it is still great and the case itself is so amazing that the book is hard to put down!