Customer Reviews

The Preacher's Son: A True Story of Murder in North Carolina

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The story itself is fascinating and holds the reader's attention. You really do want to read the whole book from start to finish. However, the author's style is somewhat disjointed and "choppy". This is her first book, and I think that this will improve with more experience. I'm not sure if it would have been as interesting to me if I did not have a connection to the locale of the story.

This book is 294 pages of captivation! Your interest stays with you throughout the book. I found myself unable to lay the book down! Lynn Chandler-Willis does a great job in telling this unfortuante story. Her chapters are descriptive enough so that it's easy to invision what you read. For anyone looking for a true crime story to read, I highly recommend this book! Also included are 8 pages of black and white photos. It was such a good book that I hated to see it come to an end.

Having lived in the community where this true tragedy takes place, I was reliving every moment of the gory details of this insane murder while reading "Unholy Covenant".

Lynn Chandler-Willis has recreated the incidents with spellbinding details and incite into the minds and hearts of everyone concerned with this murder case. It was a senseless murder of a beautiful young woman concocted by her husband for his own selfish, monetary gain. Chandler-Willis has definitely come across with a writing style in this book that is intended to keep the reader hooked from the first page to the last!

I wish her much success with "Unholy Covenant", her first published book, and look forward to any other books she may write in the future.

I really could not get in to the book. I was ready to stop after the first chapter. Then I saw the entire story on American Justice and it was interesting watching it. There was so much more in the T.V story then the book I felt. After I saw the show I finally finished the book .It is an ok read.I just found it to flat and that made it boring.

This could have been a fascinating book. With a very likeable victim, a devious husband, family secrets and several unanticipated twists and turns, it was a story begging to be told. Unfortunately, a lot was left out of the book I felt. For one thing, I never really got a feel for any of the people involved. I wanted to know more -- a lot more. I also never really understood the motive. There was the insurance angle, but that petered out quickly and left ... what? Nothing. So did he do it for the insurance he thought was there? Did he just get tired of her? If he was after the insurance, what was his reaction upon not getting it? The book also mentioned that Ted dated several women after Patricia's death, but we heard absolutely nothing about that.

It was an okay story, but I felt it left a lot of the human interest stuff out. I've been reading true crime for over 20 years and I like to know what went wrong. What went wrong with that person, that family, that marriage? Did anyone foresee this kind of evil in this person at an early age? Were there any other indications? How long did it take the families to begin suspecting the truth or did they know right off the bat?

Both trials, the escape attempt and the sentencings were covered in a few pages!

Good story with a lot of potential, but I had too many unanswered questions when I was finished.

THE TITLE"The Preacher's Son" should have been The Preacher's SonS. Story was very predictable, so story was sort of boring.

Patricia Blakely fell in love with her husband- to- be a long time before Ted Kimble, a fellow Christian, began to return her affection.What Patricia did not know was that Ted was desperate to marry in order to obtain a store he had been promised. He had previously proposed to Patricia's cousin, Janet and when she wanted to wait, Ted began to court Patricia instead, even giving her the same ring he had intended for Janet!This is the best true crime book I have read this year. It is written with warmth and empathy and I hope to read more from Lynn Chandler-Willis in time to come.

Any book which I feel compelled to read a second time is definitely worth reading, as was the case with this book. It was a very interesting case of how an older, stronger, more intelligent brother manipulates his less-adept brother into killing his wife. However, I've read dozens of true crime cases and never before have I seen one which includes this rather strange editorializing by the author. She includes paragraphs, oftentimes in italics (but not always)which seem to be her attempt to make this writing more like a fictional story rather than a true crime case. Most of these include things that the author couldn't possibly know, such as thoughts the victim had on her wedding day; casual conversation between detectives that wasn't pertinent to the case; and what the murderer was thinking. I really don't think that she actually had a conversation with murderer regarding how he felt irritated that his mother hadn't put his clothes away after she laundered them, etc.

I really enjoyed this book, especially considering that I live close to where this took place. The author did a good job of developing the characters and the story moved at a good pace.

Great book.

This is one of the better quick read true crime books I've read in a long time. I found myself totally engrossed in this book and loved the character development of the detectives. Too often true crime books get caught up in just the forensics, leaving out the important people behind the crime solving. The ending was a little confusing, at least to me. I had to re-read it a couple of times just to be sure I was getting it, but the rest of the book held me captive throughout the entire story.