Customer Reviews

The Nanny Murder Trial (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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

 

 

The title of this review refers to all the ways a fire can be described in a few pages of a book...however, as cheesy as it seems, this was actually a really good book. I liked the author's style. Of course, sometimes the geography section of any true crime book can be a little slow. You can always feel free to skim those parts and get to the nitty gritty of the crimes. I think the prosecution did not prove their case and I guess I have to read the other account written on this Olivia Riner arson mystery. I don't feel the author was too slanted towards one side or the other. I think she was innocent too. You should never assume a foreigner can understand their Miranda rights without help from a translator or an attorney of their own. This is like the Amanda Knox case in that she was subjected to a foreign jury system without much help in the beginning. Both women were trying to be helpful to the other country's police and got in way over their heads.

I found this book to be very clumsily written. The author's diction is too informal, and he rambles from one subject to another with little or no transition between topics. I was annoyed by the vast amount of irrelevant information that he included. For example, he interrupts his account of Olivia's first days in the Fischers' home to give a seemingly pointless account of the celebration of St. Nicholas's Day in Europe. Mr. Davis is also obviously biased in favor of Olivia Riner. I had the impression that he had made up his mind about Olivia's innocence before he even started his research for this book. He repeats outrageous charges and wild rumors about the Fischer family which were proven false in Joyce Egginton's book, "Circle of Fire." I believe that Ms. Egginton's account of the Olivia Riner case is far superior to Mr. Davis's.

Another great book, very well written by Don Davis. It's pretty obvious she was innocent.

I am not 100% convinced that Olivia Riner committed this murder despite what Joyce Egginton says. Maybe "Circle of Fire" was more in-depth than this book but at least Don Davis pointed out that the police screwed up major time. He pointed out that John Gallagher lied about being expelled from high school and that the half sister conspired with him to lie about his driving record to get him insurance. That is just as bad if not worse than Olivia stealing a bag of baby clothes. How do you justify the police not securing the crime scene? That is the first thing you always do in the case of a crime no matter what. I still do not buy Ms. Egginton's psychological theories. Things are vastly different today than they were 100 years ago when the dissertation was written. You are entitled to your opinion just as I'm entitled to to mine.