Customer Reviews

Everybody's Best Friend: The True Story of a Marriage That Ended In Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Because I live almost in the Rabinowitz's backyard, and because I am of the same religious persuasion as the murderer and his wife, I was obsessed with this horrible crime when it occurred, and read just about everything I could get my hands on, including the newspaper articles cited in this book. Many of us who live in the area experienced this crime on a visceral level--it became personal.

Therefore, I welcomed the slant of this book, which is the heretofore untold story of the inner workings of the case--how police, prosecutors, and the media overturned the slimy rock under which Craig Rabinowitz lived his sorry life. I found it absolutely fascinating, and read the entire book in one quick sitting, barely able to turn the pages fast enough, even though I know quite well what happened in the end.

There are, however, many problems with this book, several of which have been pounced upon by other reviewers. Yes, it's an obvious rush-to-the-publisher mishmash of facts and suppositions. It looked to me as if the author gave himself a quick (and inaccurate, in many cases) lesson on Philadelphia and environs, an equally quick introduction to Judaism, and a day on the Net downloading newspaper articles about the case. There are some ridiculous errors about Philadelphia, one being the name of the suburban railroad, which the author refers to as the Pennsylvania Railroad. That name hasn't been in use for almost 30 years; the local railroad in question is run by a much-maligned but still beloved company that is known to everybody within a 25-mile radius of Center City. The author further states that Merion, where the murder took place, is so terribly exclusive that it doesn't even have a train stop. Wrong...the train stops in Merion, and not all of Merion is wealthy or exclusive, although it is predominantly upscale. The author's description of the Delaware River as viewed from Penn's Landing made me wonder if there is another river somewhere that I might have missed?

The same obtains for the quick, presumptive statements on Judaism; there is a yiddish word for mothers-in-law cited in the text, but it's misspelled and misrepresented. Had I written the book, I would have cut way down on the ethnic information. Yes, Jewish people bury their dead as soon as possible, not because they aren't embalmed, but because of respect for the dead and the desire to return dust to dust. For that reason, yes, autopsies are frowned upon, but of course they are conducted if needed. And so forth.

AND...I agree that the "haunting photos" are a joke. Not only are just about all of them shots of the legal teams and police, but they are stock photos, not even candids from the trial or its aftermath. Sheesh, people, do not lie to me! That did make me furious. On the other hand, I have to say that the desire by some reviewers to get comments and aftermath from the close friends of the Rabinowitz family belies these people's very real, and so stated in the book, intense desire for privacy. These people have never granted any interviews of which I am aware, and I don't blame them. It's not easy to live with the fact that your best friend murdered his wife and bilked your family out of a small fortune. As for Rabinowitz's childhood, who cares? I get so sick of books that claim that because so-and-so's puppy died, he grew up to be a mass murderer.

The simple fact was--and is--that Craig Rabinowitz was the worst kind of sleaze, and that he got caught. Thank God. Had the author only waited a bit to complete his research, I think he might have written a truly good book. This one isn't bad if you want a quick and dirty read. But don't expect Ann Rule.

The Rabinowitz murder was a featured case on the Discovery Channel's show The New Detectives. It was a fascinating forensic study but this book fails to show that. Instead, it offers long (HUGE) passages of dialouge. Dialouge that the author can not really know happened word for word. We don't need to read 3 pages of conversation when one paragraph of describing the convesation would have done the job.
The character of Craig Rabinowitz is completely unexamined. We know nothing of his childhood. His father's name is mentioned only twice and his mother does not make an appearance in the book until it halfway over. This man was obsessed with hookers and strippers. He was an accomplished con man who stole from his wife, his mother, his friends and acquaintances and was getting away with it. The book never tries to explain Craig it just wacks the reader with more boring diaglouge.
The character of Stephanie is also barely written about. What made such a bright, hardworking young woman love a fat, lazy lout?
The book reads like a slapdash-get-it-to-the-market-and-make-a-fast-buck job and left me feeling cheated.

If you love true crime, then this book will bore you.
The writer couldn't generate any interest in the character or the story. This book was completely focused on the investigation not the story behind the crime...which gets old real fast. The endless back and forth chatter of the lawyers and the investigators was hard to read. I actually stopped reading this book, which I never do.
Terrible!

This book tells the story about a murder that shocked Philadelphia and its environs several years ago. When a man called 911 and reported that his wife was in the bath tub and did not appear to be breathing, police and paramedics rushed to the home. There, they found Craig Rabinowitz waiting for them, and in the bathtub, apparently dead, was his twenty nine year old wife, Stefanie.

Although there were virtually no visible signs of foul play on the body and hospital doctors later categorized the death as accidental, a wily and astute county coroner and forensic pathologist ordered a post-mortem on the body. That resulted in a finding of death by homicide. From the very beginning, the only real murder suspect was the husband, Craig Rabinowitz, whom the police discovered had a very dark side, much to the surprise and dismay of family and friends. The Craig Rabinowitz whom the police investigation uncovered was nothing like the Craig Rabinowitz family and friends had described.

The book reveals some of the tawdry details of the secret life that Craig Rabinowitz had led for some time. There is, however, no reconciliation of the Craig that friends and family knew with the secret Craig . The reader also comes away knowing very little about the murder victim. The treatment of those involved in this criminal scenario is quite superficial and repetitive. . Moreover, while there are photographs included in the book, none are of the crime scene. Most of the eight pages of photographs are of those affiliated with the investigation and prosecution of the case.

This tepid book is a quick and easy read, but only moderately interesting, at best, and will probably appeal only to avid fans of the true crime genre.

I think the author is a good writer. What was disappointing to me was that I would have liked follow-up on the friends that were betrayed. More detail about them. Also, there was barely any mention of his childhood or his family. Just all this repetitive detail about the prosecution's case.

What was really blatant false adversting, was the bold words "EIGHT PAGES OF HAUNTING PHOTOS". There was one picture of the victim holding her baby and one picture of the accused holding the baby. Six other photos were of detectives and lawyers. How brazen! Kinda follows that it was a cheap, made for profit book.

This was a quick interesting read. However, as other reviewers have pointed out - there were more questions raised than answered. Chief among them, was what truly motivated Craig to do what he did? Of course, this might not have been forthcoming from Craig himself - but the author could have focussed on his upbringing and family life to try and come up with some reasonable hypotheses. Why was he drawn to strippers and prostitutes? What made him cross the line from sleazy husband to killer? Was he a passive-aggressive hiding anger and hatred towards his wife and circle of friends? Much of the book dealt with the strategy of the prosecution and defense team which I found rather tedious. It was basically a compendium of newspaper reporting with some added dialog. My verdict: okay if you want a decent bed time read but definately not something for a lengthy flight or vacation on the beach.

I am originally from the Philadelphia area so I was totally psyched to get this book about a case I was pretty familiar with. What a disappointment! I guess that since the event took place so recently, there really isn't that much information. The book had pretty much the same info that the Philadelphia Inquirer had. Craig hasn't made any admissions about what was going through his head or what actually happened -- there is just a lot of speculation. The stripper at Delilah's Den does nothing more than deny ever being involved with Craig R. I have a hard time believing that one! Maybe as time goes on, more information will come out. All I learned from this book was how truly disgusting and manipulative Craig was. I checked out the pictures of him - he was definitely not a looker . . . I certainly hope (as it is implied in the book) that he had the personality to match his ego! He sure didn't have the looks! It is a shame for all the people (including Stefanie's parents!) who believed him for as long as they did. He basically took advantage of everyone and apparently has no remorse about anything. He never really displayed any emotion or even apologized for his actions. He really thought he could get away with murder -- and what a relief it is that he was caught! I just feel sorry for the poor baby. All in all, it was not the best book I've read - not enough info or "dirt" for me, I guess . . . maybe if I wasn't already so familiar with the case, I would have enjoyed it more.

Another disappointment from St. Martin's True Crime Library! The Senior Editor, Charles Spicer, advises the reader in the intro that, "Each month we offer you a fascinating account of the latest, most sensational crime that has captured the nation's attention." I believe that herin lies the problem. A rush to publication, long before more mature insights emerge and a full complement of knowledgable participants are able or willing to speak, combine to form a shallow , dry, and one-sided depiction of events. Ken Englade's, "Everybody's Best Friend", is a perfect example. We never get to know anybody. The murderer's family and family background are virtually absent from the narrative. There is absolutely no insight into the victim. Purported dialogue is so hackneyed and stilted as to be a joke - totally divorced from actual conversational speech. Psychological insight into motive and behavior do not exist here. And where is the viewpoint of the defense attorneys? There is a note at the end of the book that they declined to be interviewed. Perhaps they were not approached in the right manner. Their view is sorely missed. I can understand why the D.A.,(Bruce Castor), in his reader's comment quoted elsewhere in this column, is so pleased with the book. It's HIS book! Maybe because he was so frustrated at being unable to actually try the case and reap the inevitable notoriety, he was willing to reveal to us, in such excruciating detail, the machinations of his case. In any event, these problems exemplify what happens when a complex, almost biblical tale of greed, lust, and murder, jumps straight from the tabloids, (the author actually counts newspaper paragraphs!), to the non-book format. Such a frustrating disappointment! Hopefully, in years to come, a more sophisticated re-telling of events will emerge, perhaps via a Tommy Thompson, Joseph Wambaught, or Jerry Bledsoe. I will be waiting.

I liked this book, "Everybody's Best Friend" by Ken Englade. It's a story about the desperate downward spiral of Craig Rabinowitz who murdered his wife in 1997 (his child was sleeping in the next room). My favorite books have always been about crimes committed by family members, so this one fits the bill. Although it is not the best read ever, it holds up and kept me interested from beginning to end. I would have liked to have known more about Craig's wife, Stefanie. Very little information is provided about her. The reader only gets to know that she was a lawyer and devoted mother who loved and trusted her husband enough to give him $7,000, pretty much all she had left. The reader gets more insight into the lifestyle of the killer - he took everyone for as much as he could get - he borrowed money (and I'm not talking small sums here) from family and friends to maintain his relationship with the beautiful Summer (not her real name) who worked as a stripper (oops, she didn't like that word, she preferred to be known as a dancer) in a local club. The money that he spent for his obsession went into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The finale of the book was anticlimactic (no pun intended), because he ultimately decided to plead guilty to his wife's murder. Craig Rabinowitz was truly pathetic and the book makes that clear. This book was good enough to keep me interested - a quick easy read. I would not want to read this book again.

This is a relatively short book, good true crime story, and a very quick read. It is a story about a man who had been living a lie and, instead of coming clean and embarassing himself in front of friends and family, decided to kill his wife in order to collect her substantial life insurance and "solve" all his problems. The book does not go into in-depth detail on much of anything -- the characters' lives, the investigation, or a trial (in fact, there was no trial in this case). The investigation part was very interesting, but this was not a tough investigative case, so things move on at a really good speed. There is just enough about the family members and close friends to add some emotion to the story. I recommend this book highly to any true-crime fan and to anyone wanting to check out true crime books for the first time.