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Never Enough [Hardcover]

Joe McGinniss (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 14, 2007
At thirty-nine, Nancy Kissel had it all: glamour, gusto, garishly flaunted wealth, and the royal lifestyle of the expatriate wife. Not to mention three young children and what a friend described as "the best marriage in the universe."

That marriage -- to Merrill Lynch and former Goldman Sachs investment banker Robert Kissel -- ended abruptly one November night in 2003 in the bedroom of their luxury apartment high above Hong Kong's glittering Victoria Harbour.

Why?

Hong Kong prosecutors, who charged Nancy with murder, said she wanted to inherit Rob's millions and start a new life with a blue-collar lover who lived in a New Hampshire trailer park.

She said she'd killed in self-defense while fighting for her life against an abusive, cocaine-addicted husband who had forced her for years to submit to his brutal sexual demands.

Her 2005 trial, lasting for months and rich in lurid detail, captivated Hong Kong's expatriate community and attracted attention worldwide. Less than a year after the jury of seven Chinese citizens returned its unexpected verdict, Rob's brother, Andrew, a Connecticut real estate tycoon facing prison for fraud and embezzlement, was also found dead: stabbed in the back in the basement of his multimillion-dollar Greenwich mansion by person or persons unknown.

Never Enough is the harrowing true story of these two brothers, Robert and Andrew Kissel, who grew up wanting to own the world but instead wound up murdered half a world apart; and of Nancy Kissel, a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, a modern American woman for whom having it all might not have been enough.

In this singularly compelling narrative, Joe McGinniss -- past master at exposing the dark heart of the American family in the bestsellers Fatal Vision, Blind Faith, and Cruel Doubt -- explores his darkest and most disturbing subject yet: a smart and beautiful family so corroded by greed that it destroys itself from within.

Here is a family saga almost biblical in its tragic proportion but dazzlingly modern in flavor -- and utterly unstoppable in its pulsating narrative drive. From the shimmering skyscrapers and greed-drenched bustle of Hong Kong to the moneyed hush and hauteur of backcountry Greenwich, McGinniss lures readers irresistibly forward, as this twisted tale of ambition gone mad and love gone bad rushes to its terrible, inexorable conclusion.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The saga of the highly competitive and superambitious Kissel brothers—who both end up murdered—is the dramatic center of McGinniss's (Fatal Vision) newest account of the unsavory side of family life. Married in 1989, Robert and Nancy Kissel looked like the storybook couple: she was gorgeous, he was an upward bound investment banker. But Rob's family was a pressure cooker, and Nancy had a cruel, unforgiving streak (No Amish church practiced shunning with more rigor), and when Rob was transferred to Hong Kong, according to McGinniss, Nancy felt trapped and alone in the gilded cage of their luxury apartment complex. In 2002, she drugged Rob and bludgeoned him to death, then wrapped the corpse in a carpet and put it in storage. Despite her claims of self-defense against an abusive husband, a Hong Kong jury found Nancy guilty. The couple's three children, raised primarily by a nanny, were taken in by Rob's brother, Andrew, who was facing his own legal, marital and financial difficulties, and was soon found murdered in his Greenwich, Conn., house. The case remains unsolved. In McGinniss's compelling account, the Kissel family—full of potential but riven by endless battles among the brothers and their sister and father—represent the American tragedy in which ambition and the pursuit of wealth turn deadly. (Nov. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Readers have a real treat waiting for them in Joe McGinniss's latest book."

-Washington Post Book World

"It's riveting and compulsively readable...McGinniss patiently unravels the case with plenty of fresh reporting..."

-Entertainment Weekly

"McGinniss brilliantly deconstructs the highly dysfunctional Kissels...you can't argue with his ability to tell a good story. Readers of Never Enough get front-row seats to someone else's family horror fest."

-USA Today

"This is a mesmerizing tale, with more twists and turns than most steamy crime novels. The irony of two wasted lives makes this cautionary tale perfect reading for a chilly autumn evening."

-Tucson Citizen

"McGinniss...makes it absorbingly believable."

-New York Daily News

"In McGinniss's compelling account, the Kissel family -- full of potential but riven by endless battles among the brothers and their sister and father -- represent the American tragedy in which ambition and the pursuit of wealth turn deadly."

-Publishers Weekly --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (October 14, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743296362
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743296366
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #761,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

56 Reviews
5 star:
 (24)
4 star:
 (21)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (56 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars It says plenty that I couldn't put this down, NOT my usual reading material...., November 16, 2007
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Never Enough (Hardcover)
I'm not generally a fan of true crime novels, although I understand their merits: when done well, they can reveal much about the backgrounds and experiences of those who are cold-blooded killers (or reveal that their cruelty is inexplicable). Even so, I tend to be drawn to other types of books.

I think that fact is important because I found this book impossible to put down. On the surface, the family at the center of this book, Robert and Nancy Kissel, seem to have it all. She is very attractive and he is an upwardly mobile, very ambitious businessman.

But both husband and wife had some serious personality problems, ones that led to tragedy. Nancy ended up committing a terrible crime and..well, this is where I feel ambivalent about how much to reveal. You can read the other reviews here for more details about the specifics of what happened.

I'd like to focus on what makes this book worth reading, even for those who don't usually like true crime - the writing and style of the author. McGinnis takes a lot of complex details about all the people in this book, including those outside the immediate family and is able to write a taut, suspenseful book. That is an art.

It is especially tricky in a book about the Kissel family because there is not just one murder in this book. McGinness is covering more than one tragic event and connecting it to the beginning, back when Robert and Nancy Kissel first married and then set off on a destructive spiral, from a seemingly perfect beginning. All of this is set in a background of wealth and that adds extra fascination to the tale.

In reading this, I was chilled by the description of Nancy, who seems to have a heart of ice or perhaps a combination of anger and lust for revenge when she feels wronged - which she does, often. Her husband did have to spend a lot of time overseas, taking care of business, but that isn't enough to explain all the issues in this marriage. McGinness goes into more detail. Also, Nancy's husband, Robert, has a brother who also has serious problems and he comes into the story as well. It just gets more and more intriguing, with one development after another.



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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional true crime writing, November 8, 2007
By 
This review is from: Never Enough (Hardcover)
Robert and Nancy Kissell were part of the American expatriate colony living in Hong Kong. Robert, an ambitious hard-driving investment banker, led an intense career that took him on frequent business trips all over Asia. His wife Nancy's extremely materialistic lifestyle kept her daily in the high-end shopping malls of Hong Kong. Their marriage deteriorated as the pressures of their high-powered lifestyles grew. The resulting bizarre death of Robert Kissell and his wife's arrest for his murder culminated in a sensational trial in Hong Kong.

Author McGinniss has once again written a masterpiece of the true crime genre.

His ability to describe seemingly complex subjects (e.g. investment banking, Hong Kong expatriates) in concise and clear prose is like seeing a powerful spotlight illuminate an object in the dark.

McGinness' latest approaches "In Cold Blood" in its exploration of the dark side of a highly dysfunctional marriage. It represents the continuing growth of a true crime master author.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, Well-Written, True Crime Drama, November 12, 2007
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Never Enough (Hardcover)
I don't read a lot of true-crime nonfiction, and I have never read any of this author's prior works, but I picked this up after reading an excerpt in a magazine.

The story resonates with me, as it involves well-off, educated people with three young children. That's about where the similarities end -- the family here, the Kissels, are a fractured, distorted version of the American dream, brought expertly to life by Joe McGinniss. Love, money, lust, power, and cold-blooded murder amid the lavish expat life in Hong Kong, this book has it all.

I enjoyed this so much I read it in a few days. McGinniss is a gifted writer, and he knows how to tell a compelling story that strikes at the heart of the myth of the perfect American family. Well done.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
lead statuette, stereo boy, packing cartons
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hong Kong, New York, Del Priore, Merrill Lynch, Robert Kissel, Frank Shea, Goldman Sachs, Justice Lunn, Bryna O'Shea, San Francisco, United States, Nancy Kissel, Bill Kissel, New Jersey, Stratton Mountain, Simon Clarke, Rocco Gatta, David Noh, Alexander King, Peter Chapman, New Hampshire, Wall Street, East Asian, Bank of China, Queen Elizabeth Hospital
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