Customer Reviews

Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder

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Don't all of us wonder why some people cross the line and commit murder? As an avid True Crime reader, that is all that matters to me--WHY? And Kathryn Casey, the master of True Crime, never disappoints. David Temple seemed to be a cherished son of Texas and certainly the "All-American Boy" with his superb football skills. He had an intense and charming demeanor which was seemingly irrestible, especially to certain women. He was adored by his parents and brothers, to the extent that all of them seemed to overlook or simply ignore his dark side, and there were plenty of warnings that it existed. Casey lists all of them. Did the delightful Belinda Lucas fall so desperately in love with this overbearing man because of her equally overbearing father? Certainly that's one explanation, but fall she did, to her enormous peril. There are some who still question that David Temple marched his eight-months-pregnant wife upstairs while holding a shotgun to her head and executed her, but I have no doubt he committed this chilling crime because of all the family background supplied by Kathryn Casey. I'm sure his parents (who never chastised David for anything--BIG parental lesson here) still consider him innocent of killing their daughter-in-law and granddaughter, but in this case the jury got it dead right. It's a true cautionary tale, well worth the read.

As a neighbor and trial witness for this case, I can say that Ms Casey does an outstanding job showing readers what a wonderful person Belinda was and what a monster David had become. I agree with many other reviews in my assessment that David was coddled and never had to take responsibility for his actions.

She shows the reader that the Temple family circled the wagons around David and acted like THEY were the victims. When Belinda and Erin were the true victims, as well as all of Belinda's family. How insulting that Belinda'a parents were not even contacted regarding their daughters funeral arrangements...unreal.

All of what is said about the Chow, Shaka, is true. One day my wife and I were sitting in Belinda's front yard with her, Evan and Shaka. I tried to befriend Shaka and even with Belinda beside me talking to calm Shaka, that dog would have torn into me if not restrained.

I have a sneaking suspicion that David is not held in such high esteem in the Texas Penitentiary system, and rightfully so.

I feel mostly for Evan and what he will be dealing with in the coming years.

This is a MUST read for all true crime readers.

Belinda Temple was loved by all: her fellow teachers, students, her family, her husband's family.

Yet she was a troubled woman, suspecting her husband David of having an affair.

And her suspicions were right on target. David was sleeping with one of his fellow teachers, Heather Scott.

When Belinda, eight months pregnant, was found murdered in her home one afternoon by her husband, police were determined to catch the person who would commit such a cold, brutal crime.

David, of course, was their first suspect. As the evidence continued to mount, it was obvious he was the ONLY person who could have killed his wife and his unborn daughter.

But the Temple family wagons would circle and if not for the determination of one police investigator and a tough-as-nails prosecutor, David Temple might still be free today; free to live with his mistress-turned-wife and, possibly, kill again.

Kathryn Casey doesn't disappoint true crime fans with her latest book that grabbed many people's attention when it aired on 48 Hours Mystery. More in-depth than the hour long television show, Casey creates a book that's extremely difficult to put down.

Definitely add this one to your true crime reading list!

Kathryn Casey's latest true crime work, SHATTERED, is the story of David Temple and his wife Belinda. Temple was a huge football star in his hometown of Katy, TX, and later at Stephen F. Austin University. As happens regularly around the country, David's football prowess afforded him the status of local hero in Katy. And, as also happens regularly, David was given a pass on having to conform his behavior to societal norms.

He was huge which made it easier to indulge his penchants for bullying, violence, and control of any situations he found himself in. David and Belinda Lucas married while they were in college. They both became teachers. At some point David grew tired of Belinda and hooked up with another teacher at his school. Not long thereafter, in January 1999, Belinda, along with their unborn baby, was found brutally murdered.

SHATTERED is written in linear fashion and, as is typical, features background and history on the principal players, police work, and trial.

Dividing my opinions of the book in three separate sections:

1. The story is outstanding for true crime. It's as interesting as you'll find. This is due to in great part to...

2. Casey's exhaustive and in depth research. The reader learns volumes about David, Belinda, their families, and their upbringings and is provided with lots of information about other major participants as well.

3. But in my opinion the book falls short in they way it's written. It is certainly not awful. Casey really knows how to move a story along and what to include or omit. As a result, the reader doesn't get bogged down in boring minutiae. And Casey handles the trial segment beautifully. These segments in the hands of a lazy or incompetent writer can be deadly boring, but Casey knocks it out of the park, making it a pleasure to read.

But where I feel the writing falls short is in that there is a fair amount of repetition involved, and that the book is over-written throughout as soap opera, something I consider a true crime irritant at best. We are told over and over that Belinda Lucas Temple was the most wonderful person anyone who ever knew met her ever knew. Her only flaw, ever in life, was that she wouldn't stand up to David's bullying. For all I know this may be true, but I didn't need to read it on a regular basis.

Worse, however, is Casey's continual melodramatic reporting on the emotions of the people involved. After Belinda's murder EVERYONE who knew her was seemingly crying regularly - except David whose affect wasn't what various friends, relatives, cops, whoever, considered appropriate. As apparently reported to Casey by the majority of people of Katy, David NEVER cried! (Except once when his good friend Quinton came up to him and hugged him. David cried then, but my wife, when I mentioned his uncharacteristic flow of tears, suggested that maybe it was because, as a practitioner of the macho, he was being hugged by a man.) I know who cried and who didn't - and when - because Casey discusses it over and over and over.

The melodramatic hi-jinx continue when Casey feels the need to describe emotions other than sorrow. I know nothing about Katy, TX, but what I've learned from this book is that when they're not crying (or not not crying) everyone in town is walking around p****d off. EVERYBODY is "fuming", EVERYBODY is "furious" all day, every day. Soon I was imagining a couple in Katy going to a restaurant for a nice meal, but beginning to fume when told there'd be a brief wait for their table. But that initial fume would be nothing when compared to the full-blown fury they'd feel upon learning that the menudo was sold out. I didn't count, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Casey described someone as `fuming" or "furious" over 50 times in SHATTERED.

In my opinion that's weak and not particularly hard-working writing. And what's especially unfortunate about it is that Casey has proven she can be a GREAT writer. Her first four TC books, EVIL BESIDE HER (a/k/a THE RAPIST'S WIFE), A WARRANT TO KILL, SHE WANTED IT ALL, and DIE, MY LOVE are all outstanding. And what made them different from this one, as well as from her TC work, A DESCENT INTO HELL, is that Casey just told the story. She did not melo-dramatize it. She didn't feel the need to attribute feelings to everyone. And she DIDN'T need to. She just told the story and let her exhaustive research and her superior ability to write carry the story.

And it was so unnecessary. SHATTERED's story is one that's so interesting that it provides more than enough of its own drama, and Casey's attempts to add more feel forced, fall flat, and detract from the book.

SHATTERED is still a fine fast-paced read, and most true crime fans will enjoy it. But it could have been so much better, and, based on her last two TC books, Casey appears - though she has a long way to go - to be sliding downward toward Ann Rule/Diane Fanning true crime/soap opera territory. I truly hope I'm wrong.

I am an avid reader of many genre'. This books was one, that once I started, I couldn't put it down.

David Temple was a handsome, large, hometown high school football and college hero. He was often referred to as the "Temple of Doom." While attending college David met Belinda Lucas. Belinda was a loving, beautiful, intelligent girl, with a zest for life. Both became teachers.

Being a football hero, David got away with many things, that a regular Joe would not have gotten away with. He came from a so called "Christian Family (with Christians like the Temple's, who need's sinners?."

After they were married, they had a son named Evan and Belinda was 8 months pregnant with a baby girl, Erin at the time of her murder. David had an affair with a fellow teacher Heather Scott.

David controlled Belinda, going as far, as keeping her and their son away from her family. Once they were married, they did celebrated ALL holiday's with his family.

David thought he was above the law, and he was for a good many years. Several years after Belinda and Erin's murder, David was finally arrested and charged with murder. He and his family tried to intimidate witnesses, and right out lied for David.

If you enjoy true crime books, you will enjoy this one as well. Kathryn Casey has hit it out of the park, with this one!

I am very knowledgeable about this case because I am a Katy native and a Katy High School graduate. I followed the case from day 1 and bought the book at release. The book did not disappoint.....most of all, it gave those of us who knew David as a high school student some understanding about his college life, Belinda, his career as a teacher/coach, his post high school friends, etc.

The only negative thing that I would say about the book is that it didn't paint David as cocky as he actually was.....he was painted as cocky, but he was actually much worse than depicted. And the town of Katy wasn't explained with as much detail as some of us natives could have provided. Let me give a few thoughts to explain:

1. Katy was a farm town originally. And in farm towns, boys were held in higher regard than girls. Katy was also emerging as a football powerhouse thanks to David and the Rebels. So football-playing male children were held in the highest regards. This was how David was raised. Therefore, David was thrilled to have Evan....but wasn't enthused about the upcoming birth of Erin.

2. As said previously, Katy held boys in higher regards than girls. Within the ranks of girls, those who stayed thin were accepted while those who gained weight were not. Kathryn Casey did an acceptable job talking about David calling Belinda fat, but I think this could have been explained more. David was especially critical of Belinda's weight gain after attending his 10-yr high school reunion. That wasn't mentioned at all.

Great book though. I highly recommend it to all KHS graduates especially.

Just finished reading this book and I just couldn't put it down once i started. Kathryn Casey is one of the best true crime writers to come along in a long time. She literally makes the characters come alive. I especially like the way that she does not give a word for word description of the trial. So many true crime writers do that & quite frankly, tend to lose my interest in the process. If you like true crime books, this is a definite MUST READ. I have all of her other books too and they are also great reads, the kind that you keep on your shelf so you can read them again. Buy this book, you won't be sorry!

I am such a die-hard true crime fanatic that even if a book doesn't grab me from the earliest pages, I will still give it fair chance of several chapters before losing interest. But this particular book was so packed with excessive details of the main character's high school and college football games that by 20-percent through (I read on kindle) and several nights of reading (waiting for it to "pick up", already), I just couldn't take any more.

If you're into football, you might enjoy it more...but I was highly disappointed that I was ready to dig into what promised to be a fascinating crime, only to read page after page (and chapter after chapter) of his "football history" - which could've been better condensed into a mere few pages of background information.

I probably would never have considered reading true crime if I hadn't been caught up in the Scott/Laci Peterson ordeal. However, I didn't read any of the books available on that case until very recently. But in a slight, new-found interest in true crime stories, I stumbled across Kathryn Casey's works and, as a Texan, was immediately drawn to those, specifically. It also helps that she is a particularly good writer. She knows how to combine the emotional and the factual elements of a story so that one doesn't overpower the other, though a few reviewers on this book in particular seemed a bit exasperated at the in-depth focus on football and its importance in Texas in general and Katy, TX in particular. Again, as a Texan, I understand why those elements would matter so much in this particular story. Football heroes are revered here far more than they should be, particularly in small communities, where the stars of the high school football team can be put on a ridiculously high pedestal. They are coddled, protected and their sense of their own infallibility is consistently reinforced.

That said, after reading this, IMO David Temple makes Scott Peterson look like a teddy bear. When Laci Peterson disappeared, Laci's family stuck by Scott for at least a month before they finally began to admit to themselves that he just wasn't "acting right." None of her friends or family initially doubted his love for Laci and their unborn child. At least he put on a much better act. He actually pretended to feel excited -- most of the time -- about his unborn son, working on the nursery and whatnot. In poor Belinda's case, when friends and family first found out about her murder, the immediate reaction from nearly all of them was that David had done it. Initially, even his own mother had some doubts about her son's innocence. At one point she couldn't keep from expressing out loud in a police interview that just maybe he was capable of doing something like that.

David made no attempt to hide his flirtations with other women and humiliated Belinda at his high school reunion by openly flirting with other women right in front of her. He certainly didn't bother to hide his contempt and complete disrespect for her, even jeering at her and speaking hatefully to her in front her own family. He was a bully; he was openly narcissistic and controlling with a hair-trigger temper that he made no attempt to control. Even his mistress-turned-wife cannot be compared favorably to Amber Frey. Frey was almost as much a victim (though a luckier one) as Laci Peterson had been. On the other hand, Heather Scott KNEW Temple was married, KNEW his wife was pregnant, and carried on the affair in spite of that knowledge. She did turn out to be lucky, though. She didn't live with David long enough for him to come to hate her, too, and possibly send her out of this world in the same way he sent Belinda. In a bizarre twist, she is now raising Belinda's orphan. Why Belinda's parents didn't at least try to get custody is baffling, but I'm not versed in such legal matters.

I did have to snicker when I read the Author's Note where DeGuerin claimed that everything the Harlans had said about their former "friend" was "Lies; absolute lies." I always think it's funny in these cases where the defense loses and then the defense team insists that every, single one of the prosecution witnesses lied their butts off. All of them. Regardless of the fact that there may have been as many as 20 to 30 prosecution witnesses, they all somehow got together secretly, all decided what their story was going to be in order to make sure an innocent man went to prison. It never occurred to DeGuerin that the Harlans had also been Belinda's friends, and knew first hand what misery their "friend" David had put their friend Belinda through on a daily basis.

In the end, David's family turned out to be no better than the Peterson clan. They knew he'd done it, but they were willing to lie to everyone both in and out of court to keep him from getting the punishment he deserved. It would be interesting to know how each family felt about the others' son in their cases. Would the Peterson clan insist that, of course, David was guilty? Would the Temples insist that Scott Peterson certainly was guilty of murder? How the Temples can all live with themselves is beyond me, but at least they don't have a website soliciting money for their efforts to appeal his case.

Living in the Katy, TX area for the last 15 years, I am all too familiar with this story and actually know some of the people mentioned in the book. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but there wasn't too much I hadn't already heard. I was confused about some factual errors though. It mentioned that in 1994 Don Clayton helped Blenda and David find jobs in the Houston area after he became the head coach of a new school in Katy. This is incorrect because Cinco Ranch HS (Clayton's school) did not open until 2000. He may have returned to Katy, but it wasn't to open a new school. It also said that the USS Lexington is based in Galveston (it's in Corpus Christi) and that the Harris County Sheriff was Tommy Thompson (it was Tommy Thomas). Also it said Klein High School at one point when it clearly meant Katy HS.

Like I said, overall it was pretty good, but I think I liked the one about the Jennifer Cave murder was better.