Customer Reviews

Love, Lies & Murder

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

 

 

I'm not sure a couple of the other commenters read the same book I did.

I've read a couple of King's books and I think I like this one the best. Its obvious (at least to a lay person like myself) that King put a lot of research into this story. Between the descriptions of international law to the near-verbatim deposition, there is a ton of info in this story I doubt you could get from the TV versions alone.

I, personally, thought the deposition chapters were fantastic. Well written and easy to follow. Not to mention fascinating. Talk about getting into the mind of the murderer?? I'm not sure any writer could have expressed the workings of Perry March's mind in a better way than to present his actual words. I was also fascinated by the way the attorney for Janet March's parents drilled Perry during this deposition. It was a chess match!!!

I liked how King linked all the keys to the case together. Even though its fairly linear, I can't imagine its easy putting all that info together in a manner that is easy for the reader to follow and understand. Of course, it doesn't hurt that its a sad, tragic, but still amazing story. I am always amazed at what human beings are capable of doing to each other, especially toward those they supposedly love.

I doubt the author was looking for a Pulitzer when he wrote this book, but it is certainly entertaining. If you like the true crime genre, it is definitely worth a look.

A couple people seemed to really enjoy this book but I finally had to put it down out of boredom and frustration. So much of the book is transcripts from depositions and testimony that it got very old very quick. A summary would have been a lot more interesting. As one reviewer noted..this is typing not writing. I wanted to read an account of the case not pages and pages of verbatim documents.
UPDATE:
*******************************************************************
Since writing my review I found another book on the March case called An Unfinished Canvas. An unfinished Canvas is a vastly superior book in every way. All the pages of tedious verbatim transcripts in this book are handled in a few short paragraphs in Unfinished Canvas. You still get the same sense of a killer trapping himself in a web of lie after lie, and you still understand how the whole decade long search plays out but it is written in an engrossing way and was really hard tp put down. If you are interested in finding out more on the March case, skip Love Lies and Murder and go straight to An Unfinished Canvas...you will be glad you did.

As with most true crime books, the endings are mostly well publicized and already known. I read these books for a deeper understanding of the detail. The author does a great job of crawling through the important facts and getting beyond the summaries of short newspaper recants. I learned from this account.

As with the other books I have read by this author, I was hooked from page one.

As a true crime junkie, I follow television, internet, newspaper coverage of these cases with great interest. I personally believe that NO OTHER WRITER covers the intricacies of these cases like this author. A word of warning, if you tend to be a "big picture" reader, you will find this book too detail oriented. For those of us who follow these cases closely, we crave this level of detail. Nothing fascinates me more than learning indepth about the working of the criminal mind, what the killer was thinking, why he did what he did, and how he tries to extricate himself from the crime. Additionally, the police procedural work, the courtroom theatrics, etc., all add tremendously to the details of the whole case. Nothing clarifies the actual case like words taken directly from the mouths of the involved....the criminal (or the accused), the victim or survivors, the families and friends of both, and the law enforcement officials involved.

I recommend this book and author to anyone who needs the details of the cases.

King brings a case featured on TV's 48 HOURS skillfully to the printed page. His meticulous research into each character must take hundreds of hours, but worth every minute. Although another reviewer didn't enjoy reading the true court transcript, I learned how a real one differs tremendously from how they are portrayed on TV.

This book was just page after page of depositions and recorded phone calls, with a few chapters of narrative.
This book is about Perry March, a man suspected and then convicted of killing his wife Janet.
I picked it up at a local grocery store thinking that it would be good because I love true crime stories.
Pfft.
Most of the book is just straight transcribing.
I flipped through most of it because it was boring and really added nothing to the book itself. A lot of it could just have been summed up.

Pass on this.

The story was so very sad and was told in detail with so much suspense you could not put this book down. I do wonder the real reason the other poster bad rated it. Could be the murderer's new wife in Mexico who knows. As a long time true crime book reader this is one to get.

"That's not writing, that's TYPING!"

Mostly typed up police and court transcripts, that is...