20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wait till this one hits the Clearance racks, here's the lowdown on this:, March 20, 2007
This review is from: 'Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse (Paperback)
If you are a True Crime fan, then you MAY want to buy this book but you should know something about what this book contains first, as well as the fact that the title is a bit misleading. This book isn't ONLY about the Mind of the Killer Spouse but a look at the pros and cons of love and marriage as well. If you are looking only for True Crime stories, you'll have to read a lot of theory and research along the way, much of it about marriage and why people get married, etc.
The first chapter is particularly heavy on the marriage research aspect of things, including a section about why people marry in the first place,along with such depressing details as the fact that a huge percentage of men and women (even those without murder in their hearts) are unfaithful. You have to get through that before you really start to get to specific cases of spousal murder. It is pretty dry stuff, unless you are MOSTLY interested in research about marriage.
If that doesn't dissuade you and you are willing to read about various theories in between the accounts of the various crimes, this might be worth a browse for you. But some of these cases HAVE been covered in detail before, including the one of Pamela Smart, a media services worker at school who got her much younger 15 year old lover to agree to be a hit man and murder her husband.
If you are a true crime reader, you may already be familiar with this case and others in the book. I think the Pamela Smart case was actually covered much better in the book To Die For (although it is a fictionalized version of the case) as well as the movie by the same name (starring Nicole Kidman in a tour de force performance).
In my opinion, this author needed either a better editor, proofreader or writer friend to help get rid of the drier material and hone in on the main points and focus onn the actual cases. I found this to be a pretty dull read - and that is saying a lot for a book which SHOULD be inherently pretty exciting and interesting, simply because of the subject matter. True Crime is a popular subject....but you, the reader, can do better than this one.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mildly Interesting, November 4, 2006
I was given this book as a gift from my son, who knows of my interest in the subject. I read the entire book (it's a quick read!) while I was waiting to have my car serviced. One of the reviewers on this site said "I've read better." No kidding. I didn't realize what a good writer Ann Rule is until I read THIS book! Robi Ludwig should stick to looking cute on TV while giving her fluffy opinion of what makes the criminal mind work. That works better for her than actually putting those opinions down on paper. Even a ghost writer couldn't make her sound educated or literate.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Theres better out there, April 20, 2006
If youd like a really good book on this subject read Gail SaltzMD new book "Anatomy Of A Secret Life; The Psychology of Living A Lie". Dr Saltz is a regular on the Today Show and many other shows. Having read both books Dr Saltz book is by far a better book, more researched, better written and has much more interesting information.
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