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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful Writing About An Intriguing Case, November 6, 2002
This review is from: Deadly Secret, A: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst (Hardcover)
This is NOT just another true crime book. Matt Birkbeck can really tell a story and his writing style is excellent. He skillfully portrays a cast of real life characters who are affected by Robert Durst, a super wealthy, eccentric and evil man. Kathie Durst, his pretty wife went missing in 1981. Her body was never found. Ironically, she was planning to divorce her husband when she vanished. Some 20 years later, a raggedy-looking Durst was picked up for shoplifting in Pennsylvania, and detained mainly because a shrewd cop followed his intuition about the strange man. It turned out that Durst was wanted for the grisly murder of an elderly man in another state. But what else did Robert Durst do, and whatever happened to his wife? We may never know. Meet some great detectives, a cool private investigator, and Kathie's friends. Like 'em or not, you'll be turning the pages to find out what happens next. This is a current case so take the time to read it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed! There are so many plots and sub-plots to the story it's almost Shakespearean.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Murder Mystery That Never Ends!, July 23, 2005
Matt Birkbeck's writing style is not your usual 'whodoneit'. He writes with passion and grace, putting you right in the driver's seat on every page. I became aware of the Kathie Durst case through the ABC special "Vanished" and Cynthia McFadden's excellent reporting. I was one of the people who transcribed the interviews at the time and became totally caught up in the story. I would have never dreamed a few years later that the central character in the case, Bobby Durst, would end up going on trial in Texas for a totally different murder, and then found innocent! As I write this, he is now out of jail and living in a highrise apartment a free man. No one could make this up!
The book offered me valuable information that I had not heard before. Until tonight, after reading it in one sitting, I did not know Kathie Durst's best friend Gilberte, had a secret life of her own. I remember being reduced to floods of tears during her interview on the ABC special, and wishing I had a friend who cared that much about me. After reading this book, I now feel thankful I don't have such friends. Read the book and you'll understand what I mean.
Each person connected with the case (Police, family, friends, etc) are well-defined and sympathetic. It would be so easy to point fingers and say: If the Police had handled this case right from the onset, someone would have been arrested and tried for her disappearance and/or murder. But you can't point fingers. Based on the information at the time of Kathie's disappearance, the Police were under the false impression she had returned to Manhattan and had been seen alive after she left her home with Bobby that night. Then there is Susan Berman, his close friend. There are books out on her life and murder well worth reading. She's a whole other story. Another sad child of wealth.
This is one of those incredibly sad stories of pretty girl marries rich boy and does not live happily ever after. You think; If they had only kept the little store upstate everything would have worked out. Who is to blame? A young boy who is traumatized seeing his mother kill herself? A rich family who enables him in everything he does, even though they know he needs help? It reminds me of the Ira Einhorn murder case where he kills his pretty, bright girlfriend and almost gets away with it for years and years. He, too, is enabled by a member of a wealthy family who sends him money to live in Europe, knowing full well he killed her.
The book was written before the trial in Texas and before he was found innocent, so if you are not familiar with the case to-date, you're left hanging. Somehow I have a feeling we have not heard the last of Robert Durst. He will either live out the rest of his life in seclusion or will jump off a roof somewhere like his mother did. This story is not going to have a happy ending. It's an excellent read. Mr. Birkbeck is quite a writer.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty and gripping, November 6, 2003
By A Customer
True Crime books are, by genre, usual rehashes of police blotter and factoids. In "A Deadly Secret" author Matt Birkbeck carves a gripping narrative that takes us deep into the psyche of Robert Durst and the events surround the disappearance of his wife Kathie and the murders of Morris Black and Susan Berman. Along the way he shows us the stark reality of the ugly politics behind such a high profile investigation and the equally repulsive actions of a supposed friend of Kathie Durst. It's investigative journalism at its best..hard hitting, interesting, and dead on believable. Birkbeck has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Reader's DIgest, and his work is gutsy. This book has served as a guidline for investigators, and is a must for any true crime collection, or any book collection.
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