Customer Reviews

Over the Edge (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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

 

 

In the first few pages the crime is committed. The remaining 250 plus pages are devoted to rehashing the crime; over and over and over again. Although Peter Bergna was convicted of murdering his wife, the reader never finds out his true involvement in her death. Likewise, we're not given a definitive motive. The entire book is speculation, guess work, and accusation. Put together, it makes for a very dull book.

If you have trouble sleeping, this book is for YOU! The author rehashes the same facts of the crime over and over as if he was chewing on a tough steak. I never got a sense that I knew or even cared about the people involved and that includes Bergna, the victim, either family, their friends, the police officers or the attorneys. It was as dry as reading a deposition. And this is the first true crime book I've read in my entire 20+ years of being a devoted true crime fan in which, after finishing the book, I'm still not convinced the accused did it! The only thing that kept me plodding through it was the hope that nestled somewhere inside its sleepy pages was a sensational blockbuster that would blow the lid off the whole case and cause me to bolt upright in my armchair. Sadly, that moment never came and the book ended with more of a whimper than an explosion. My only regret (other than buying it) is that it's impossible for me to give it less than a one star rating.

An interesting true crime story whose appeal is diminished by the author's unnecessary repetition of the facts. Story could have been told in half the book's length.

This is probably the first Michael Fleeman book that I have read. While the story is kind of redundant, a spouse knocking the other off. He does get you into the nitty gritty police work and all the questions about the murder disguised as an accident. First, Peter Bergna comes across as an arrogant, despicable human being who completely contradicts himself. He thought that he done the perfect murder by making it look like a car going over the cliff with his lovely wife, Rinette inside. Sadly, Rinette was truly a genius but vulnerable as a wife. She wanted a different life and I think the idea of divorce was something that she dreaded. Peter wanted children, his wife did not. He wanted a wife at home, Rinette wanted to travel the world as a tour guide rather than be stuck in a pharmacy. Divorce would have been the answer but Peter had another agenda because his wife was worth more dead than alive. Anyway, the murder of a beloved woman like Rinette by her own husband is even more tragic because she trusted, loved him, and was faithful. If Peter could not handle her new career, he should have just left her rather than kill her senselessly and needlessly.

Peter Bergna was a whiner.

His wife didn't want to have kids (maybe he should have discussed that with her BEFORE the marriage took place) and he was tired of being alone. Gee, maybe if he had a REAL job, he wouldn't have had time to feel alone.

I mean, gee - how DARE she make a career change that he didn't like?

His story about the "accident" was SO phoney it was laughable.

I'm glad this guy is doing life!

I bought and read the book because I knew the Bergna's. Mr. Fleeman did a fairly thorough job researching this book and reporting on the trials. He also wrote it with an interesting and compelling style and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys true crime.

My heart will always ache for Rinette, murdered by the man she loved, trusted and married. And I hope Peter rots in prison forever because he is a stone cold killer who does not belong in society.

A well written book is one where you forget that someone is writing the book and you just get caught up in the story. This book is a very well written book. The story is one where you (or at least I) just can't decide whether this husband deliberately sent his truck with his wife inside 'over the edge'

I hoped that this book would end my search for answers. I can't say whether he was guilty or not. Only, Peter knows for sure. The evidence was cirucustantial. He was pronounced by the Press as guilty before the trial even started. The gossip around town was that the he was guilty and then they put these people on the jury. I felt it was an unfair trial, with inadmissible evidence, errors and faulty proceedings. There was the jailhouse snitch who lied and never even met Peter. A big deal was made about the gas can which he always carried with him, if he found cheap gas he would fill them up and carry them around in the back of his pickup. They were bought at a garage sale and I beleive at that time they were already missing the safety cap. I too lost the little safety cap on my gas can. I still carried it around in the back of my truck. I know not to smart.

I think that the most tragic thing is that supposedly Peter was driving about 32 miles an hour, if hang gliders had not removed the bolts then the guardrail should have stopped the truck from going over the cliff and he would not be in jail today.