Customer Reviews

If You Really Loved Me

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

 

 

I live in the Atlanta area and followed this story in the newspaper. When I heard a book was being written about it, I was excited. Finally, I would get all the facts of the case, I thought, but I was sadly disappointed. The book
reads horribly, it is confusing, and leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the realtionship between Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum. At times, the author is critical of the police and Bruce Jordan, then he is praising Jordan. The author should have divided his story into two sections: Before he talked to the lawyers and after he talked to the lawyers. It seemed as if his opinion and the story's perspective changed drastically after he talked to the lawyers. Save your money, and wait for a better book. Right now, I am reading An Hour To Kill by Dale Hudson, and highly recommend this book. Good story, good author!

I reported not only on this story but some of the other Jordan cases mentioned in this book. The author got alot of the facts wrong and I mean alot of facts are wrong. Some of the things written about didn't even happen. The photographs were horrible and looked like they were taken with a poloraid. It doesn't surprise me that the girls lawyer liked it because it is nothing more than a tribute to the lawyers and those poor poor girls who were tracked down by those mean old police just because they killed a couple of people who were old any way. I can't believe this got published. Whatever publisher put this out really hurt their reputation

I stayed up late last night, unable to put this book down. I only wish it had gone on longer, but then I wouldn't have gotten any sleep at all.

I was mesmerized by the details of the killers' tawdry, brutal childhoods and the depravity of the murders, especially the description of the ruthless slayings from one of the murderers' own mouths. All the characters were made real: the murdering teenagers, the relatives who tried to help them, the cops who hunted them down and the lawyers who fought to defend them. I love true crime books, and this is one of the best I've read in years. If you're looking for a gripping page-turner, this is the book for you.

You gotta be kidding me? IMO, it's not written well enough for a newspaper article. The last reviewer must have been reading a different book than If You Really Loved Me. This could have been a good story, but the author butchered this one. I read a lot of true crime books and this is one of the worst true crime books I have ever read. How this story got by the St. Martins' editor is beyond me. It is shallow, disjointed, and laced with errors. The author has a hard time keeping his facts straight and overgeneralizes important parts and transitions in the case. I feel for the police who did a jam-up-job in handling this case, but the author knew so little about police investigation that what they did he considered trivial. Did he even interview the police about the investigation? And so little thought was given to the backgrounds of the murderers and victims that the book read like it was written overnight. I would not recommend this book as good true crime reading. My suggestions are that you read some of the classic writers like Jack Olsen, Carlton Stowers, Joseph Wambaugh, Dale Hudson, and Ann Rule. These writers know how to craft a story and I guarantee you their stories are interesting and reliable.

"If You Really Loved Me" was a somewhat disappointing read. While the true crime story itself was somewhat unusual (two teenage girls kill the grandparents of one girl so that they can continue their lesbian relationship)and certainly should have provided an interesting and in-depth read, something was missing from the story. The author, Kevin McMurray, does provide some background information on the victims, Carl and Sarah Collier, but mainly over the course of a page or two. I found similar treatment on the background of the two girls, Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum. Maybe it was this skimming that caused the book to feel so lightweight, but I felt that McMurray really cheated the reader, and the Colliers, by providing such skimpy detail. We can understand that together the two girls made an explosive combination, but what exactly drove them to kill?
An additional issue I had with this book was Mr. McMurray's seeming sympathy toward Ms. Harvey and Ms. Ketchum about midway through the book. Reading of such gruesome murders, and committed against the people that cared for and reared Ms. Harvey for much of her life, I had absolutely no sympathy for either teen girl and I found it angering that Mr. McMurray seemed to have more for them than for the people they killed, or even the Colliers' son.
All in all, what could have been an interesting read into the dark and depraved minds of two teenage girls, and their violent outcomes, was instead more like a People magazine read. Disappointing.

My wife is the big true crime reader. I read mainly fiction. And since this crime happened about 30 miles from where we live I thought I would surprise her and give her this book. She handed it back to me the next day and told me it wasn't any good. She told me to read it and I would know why. She was right. This book was very confusing, in that it jumped around a lot. I found myself having to look back through the chapters to keep up with who was who. I had hoped the author would have gone into the psychology of the criminals, but he kept to the surface material which was a little more than found in the newspapers. Like the other people who gave their reviews, I would not recommend this book as a good true crime book. I guess I've learned my lesson. It's best to stick with writers that you know something about.

I live in Atlanta and was interested to hear a book had been written about the Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum case. These two young (15-and-16-year-olds)murdered Holly's grandparents. When I read about it in the newspaper in 2004, I thought it was a fascinating story, and so did the press and media. Just the idea of two girls killing someone so that they could be together was unique, but even more so given that the persons they killed were one of the girls' grandparents. I couldn't wait until the book came out so I could get the inside scoop, but all I got with IYRLM was the same old information the
newspapers had reported. The narrative in this book was
horrible, as well as the sequence of the events occurring in the book. So many times, I had to look back to see who did what,
when, and where. The book was so generalized that the author still left me with many unanswered questions. I had to read parts of the story over and over again to make sense of them. And the author used the same phrases over and over again to describe the people. I wanted to say, "I have already read that, tell me something I don't know." Also, the author portrayed the Fayette County Sheriff Department (especially Bruce Jordan)as nothing more than an angry mob, who were out to get these two "misunderstood teenagers," and administer justice for the grandparents' deaths. Hey, I am not a big fan of the cops either, but come on, give the guys a break here. What the author forgot to mention is that the deputies (with Jordan in command) were able to track and capture these cold-blooded killers-I don't think anyone will dispute that decription of Holly and Sandy-before they killed someone else while eluding capture. My opinion is just that, one opinion, but I would not recommend this book to anyone. Save your money and go on line and read about the case from the newspaper articles and story at Court TV. In the end, you'll be glad you did.

As a big reader of True crime, and also a scuba diver, seeing a book by Kevin McMurray peaked my interest. The author of Deep Descent, McMurray kept me spellbound page after page so I expected nothing less with his new book If YOu Really Loved Me. Boy was I disappointed. It was boring and tedious, dry and not the page turner I'd hoped. In the attempt to tell the story of the two young girls gone wrong and their complicated lives, McMurray has jumped around like a jumping bean, back and forth in time and discussing different characters so much I began to get confused. After the first 100 pages I decided it was too tedious and I had lost interest in finding out what happened after their arrest. The author was never able to make the characters real to me in any way, neither the victims or murders seemed real. I hope McMurray can recover from this horrible attempt at True Crime. Ugghhh.

The story of two teenage girls committing a double homicide makes an interesting story in itself. But when one considers the fact that the teens were more than friends and their atypical family backgrounds, this has the potential to be a very interesting read. Though some readers seem to believe this book contradicts media sources of the time, generally accepted facts now seem to suggest this book to be a truthful source.

When Holly Harvey and Sandy Ketchum fatally stabbed Holly's grandparents in a seemingly drug induced rage, it was a sensational news event of the most unforunate circumstances. Some might point to the poor family structures of the two girls that allowed them to partake in such an act. While the author does not directly spell out the motive as some readers might want, the motivation is directly implied throughout the book. I think the average reader could easily see this.

My one objection with the book is the poor formatting of the final chapters. In a interview via letter with Sandy Ketchum, the author list all the questions first, before listing all the answers together. So if the reader wants to know what Sandy is talking about, he/she has to flip back a few page to rediscover the question. Aside from this somewhat aggrivating flaw, I found this book hard to put down.

The subject matter was so horrific that I just had to buy this book. I read it from cover to cover in one day. I feel the author gave a well-rounded account of what happened. There was no need to sensationalize as the facts alone were almost incomprehensible in and of themselves. Of the greatest interest was the author's inclusion of a question and answer section, done in letter form, with one of the girls. Sadly, the other girl was unable to participate as she was still a minor at the time this book was written. I believe that this story will always stay with me. Even 20 years from now I will still be interested to see if either of the girls are released. Buy it. Read it. It will leave you wondering "Why?" There really didn't seem to be an explanation of this brutal act. This is what leaves you unsettled. Good Job!