Customer Reviews

Twisted Triangle: A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Violent Revenge

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I'm always pleased to see thoughtful True Crime in hardback and Caitlin Rother's previous effort, Poisoned Love, proved she can deliver the goods when it comes to the genre. Then there's the case at hand: the famous (infamous) "love triangle" between crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, FBI agent Margo Bennett and Margo's FBI agent husband Gene. Better true crime fodder can't be found.

Except that there wasn't much of a "triangle". No, the real story here is the abusive marriage between Margo and Gene. Both were successful FBI agents but Gene's willingness (or need) to employ larceny to augment the family income hardly fit with the traditional G-Man image. Insurance scams, side businesses and padded expense reports were all business as usual for Gene. So was emotional abuse and, ultimately, physical abuse triggered by Margo's determination to free herself from a miserable marriage.

This is Margo's story, told from her vantage point in terms of emotions and facts. The reader learns things about Gene as Margo learns them. We also see her relationship with Cornwell unfold through Margo's eyes. Even without sour grapes, Cornwell still comes across as a needy woman enchanted by her own sudden fame. Gene, however, remains something of a cipher. Aside from speculation that he became hooked on the high of undercover work, Rother doesn't do much to help the reader understand what makes Gene tick. He's a repellant character but what created him?

We get to see the long term impact on the entire family of Gene's deceit and violence, along with his continued attempts to manipulate his children. It's hard not to agree with Margo Bennett that Gene will come after he once parolled. It's also hard not to revel a bit in the novelty of an abused spouse who's had the police training necessary to save herself. Her cool thinking clearly saved two lives.

The exploitive sub-title is unfortunate because the book itself doesn't exploit the characters or the situation. All in all this is an enjoyable true crime story in which the victim not only survives but emerges empowered.

I stumbled on this book while looking up Patricia Cornwell to see if she had any new books coming up. I ordered it from the library and once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. Now Caitlin Rother is among my favorites. I can't wait to read the rest of her books. She is a wonderful author. Glad I found her.

Unless you have been in an abusive relationship it is truly hard to comprehend what a person must do to survive. "Twisted Triangle" by Caitlin Rother has shown how devastating that type of life can be. I applaud not only Margo Bennett's determination to survive an abusive husband and coming to terms with her sexual orientation but her willingness to share her story in the hopes of giving other the courage to do the same. Caitlin Rother has written a articulate story of Margo Bennett's struggles and given the impartial view point of each and everyone involved in the disturbing situation. With Rother's 20 year tenure as an investigative reporter and her newly developed skill as a thriller author, she has all the talent necessary to research all the facts of any non-fiction story and mold them into an intriguing and very readable novel

Twisted Triangle is a good true crime story and it highlights the sexism that can manifest in situations of domestic abuse, which is an under-reported issue. Even though most of the action described in the book took place in the 1990s, even today many people discount the threat that an alienated husband can pose to his wife. In the case of Margo and Gene Bennett, whose tale is told here, Gene clearly planned to harm his wife, yet he was able to fool law enforcement professionals into thinking that Margo was overstating the danger he posed to her and their children. I believe the reason for this is less that Gene was a master manipulator than that the mostly male FBI and police personnel were too willing to see Margo as a hysterical female with an overactive imagination.

The problem with the book is not its content, but the way that it was promoted by the publisher, which obviously tried to cash in on the brief sexual relationship that Margo had with crime writer Patricia Cornwell. While it is apparently true that Cornwell had a fling with Margo at some point, the relationship between the two really doesn't seem to have been much of a factor in the dysfunctional dynamic that existed between Margo and Gene.

I think it was misleading to portray this book as love triangle among Margo, Gene and Cornwell. Actually, it is a book about a husband who wanted to control his wife and when it appeared he couldn't went nuts and tried to kill her. Shame on Jossey-Bass/Wiley for misrepresenting Twisted Triangle.

This was a very well paced and detailed account of a true unbelievable crime. The way Rother explains everything and pulls you in as she describes the events makes it a page turner. To think the husband was that crazy and yet actually smart...WOW! What she went through to hide her sexuality and deal with her CRAZY husband...makes you think your life is not that bad! Only thing I did not like was the small part Cornwell played in all this. From the cover you would think more of that part of the story would develop, but it left me flat wondering why Cornwell was even brought up in name. It could have been a faceless woman and the outcome of the husbands rage would probably have been the same. Overall..GREAT BOOK!

It is hard to imagine that this story is true, but it is. I am acquainted with Margo Bennett, and have been since this story unfolded, so reading this book was especially personal for me. Caitlin Rother's Twisted Triangle does a wonderful job of illustrating the emotional journey of a woman tormented by a psychotic husband, and her untimely and illicit encounters with a world renowned author. Superficial details of Gene Bennett's plots to defraud the FBI and various insurance agencies, and his attempts on the lives of his wife and her minister were covered in depth by the Washington, DC area press, but this book delves into the emotions Margo felt and the pain she suffered while trying to protect herself from her deranged husband and her daughters from their father. And while her detractors might say that she made a number of poor decisions in her life that ultimately lead to the events depicted in Rother's book, others will certainly counter that poor decisions are never an excuse for abuse, mental or physical. Rother has captured those abusive moments in vivid detail. I applaud Margo for having the courage to tell her side of the story. This book is definitely a page-turner - one you will find hard to put down.

Usually it takes me a week, and more like two, to read a good true-crime book. "Twisted Triangle" demanded that I finish it over two sneak-in-a-few-pages-every-chance-I-could days.

It's not an easy task to condense some quarter-century of a life into a taut, fast-paced, compelling narrative. But Caitlin Rother's newsroom-honed skills takes the unbelievable you-couldn't-make-this-stuff story of former FBI agent's marriage to fellow agent Gene Bennett and turns it into a seamless stay-up-till-3.a.m. tale of astonishing torment -- and ultimate triumph.

The real skill in recreating such a story is in knowing what to leave out -- and knowing that what must be expounded upon are often the most painful details. It takes a canny, empathetic interviewer to draw those details out, and it takes an attentive, deadline-seasoned journalist to weave those details into a wider connective tissue of time-sensitive narrative so it makes sense and sends the reader steaming full-bore into the next shocking series of events.

It's Margo Bennett's story that should keep most readers captivated, and rightfully so. But as an aspiring true-crime writer myself, I find myself intrigued by the author's skill at taking on this enormous task, boiling it down to its most compelling and relevant elements, and delivering an attention-grabbing potboiler that doesn't lapse into sensationalism or skimp on necessary details and context.

After "Poisoned Love," Rother's true-crime debut, I wrote a review in which I expressed the wish to see what Rother could do when she has a point of view from which to write. Now I know ... and know I know she was more than up to the challenge. In a world of hacks and cash-in artists, it's good to know that there are still authors like Caitlin Rother who deliver compelling goods while not giving an inch of ground away from objective truth.

(My only quibble with the book is that the title seems to promise readers more dirt about Patricia Cornwell than the book can -- and frankly, should -- deliver. Cornwell is rightfully relegated to supporting-character status here. But part of that is Cornwell's own fault -- had she cooperated with the authors of this book as she initially said she would, her part of the story would have been that much more interesting and richly realized. And the irony is that there was no downside to cooperating -- it's not like "Twisted Triangle" hurts her reputation or makes her seem like a bad person.)

Anyone who is familiar with Patricia Cornwell and likes true crime will find the setting and characters intriguing. The book does have real FBI agents, a few walk-on mentions of A-list movie starts, and Patricia Cornwell as part of the story. The problem is, the story is depressingly ordinary. Other than the fact that it has brushes with fame and the FBI, it's really just a story a woman who marries an abusive small-time con man. And, like some others, I didn't think there was much insight into the people or why they did the things they did. The writing is workmanlike, and occasionally there is a recitation of detail without much to tie it all together. Ultimately, I think the book would've been better if Cornwell had written it...or Ann Rule. :)

In her true crime work TWISTED TRIANGLE, author Caitlin Rother presents the story of FBI agents Margo Bennett and her husband Gene. Gene Bennett is portrayed as a violent, dangerous, evil, and cunning man who, upon the impending dissolution of the marriage, devised a tangled plot to harm, and likely kill, Margo thus assuring that he would gain custody of their daughters. The plot also served as payback for a previous incident involving Margo's testimony which resulted in Gene's incarceration for a year.

TWISTED TRIANGLE's subtitle is "A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Violent Revenge" and is misleading. While a substantial portion of the book deals with Margo's brief fling with well known author Patricia Cornwell, the entire affair consisted of two evenings in bed, plus a considerable amount of grooming of Margo by Cornwell - gifts, flowers, etc. The lesbian relationship really has very little to do with the heart of the story, which is the increasingly dysfunctional relationship between Margo and Gene, other than the fact that Gene found out about it and that later Gene's lawyers raised the issue at the trial. The amount of play this aspect is given in the book is disproportionate to its actual importance - although a restrained presentation is necessary as Margo's lesbianism is an important factor if the reader is to fully comprehend her personality. But the "relationship", which in effect was little more than a couple of hot dates, is overplayed to the level of tabloid sleaziness with the obvious aim of selling books.
The book's title is also a cynical exercise in sleaze as throughout the book Margo is presented in dignified terms as gradually recognizing and coming to terms with her lesbianism. She does not appear twisted at all, but I suppose QUIETLY DIGNIFIED TRIANGLE doesn't quite reach out and grab you.
Though there is little depth to the story - almost no background information on either Bennett - the first 2/3 of the book is fast moving, well written, and a fast and fun read. Rother tells the story well, and the events as they unfurl are interesting. But then we get to the final 1/3 of the book.

TWISTED TRIANGLE is almost totally Margo Bennett's story, and with the exception of a few other sources - cops, lawyers, FBI agents - perhaps 95% of the information comes directly from Margo. Rother is not at fault for this, and she states that both Gene Bennett and Cornwell would not consent to being interviewed, but the result is what you would expect, and Margo is portrayed in a light more favorable than she might appear if there were more disparate sources of information. (Which is not to say that she remotely deserved what she suffered at Gene's hands.) This final part of the book deals with the trial and the subsequent lives led by Margo and her two daughters, and it becomes sappy. Margo is told she is "brave" by no less than 3,229 various lawyers, cops, and friends. Her divorce attorney, Kathy someone, allowing Margo to speak to the media is quoted, "'I wouldn't let just any of my clients be interviewed by the TV reporters, but then you're not just any of my clients.' Margo laughed."
There is way too much of this over the last hundred pages, and the whole thing turns into a kind of warm, fuzzy, and often somewhat extraneous soap opera. And the reason I referred to her lawyer as 'Kathy someone' is to illustrate an example of Rother's writing that I found annoying. I realize this is not a big thing, but Rother continually refers to all of the characters in the book by their first names. Since rather than sporting colorful monikers like Fawndreta or Biff all the characters are named Paul or Dianne or Kathy or John, and since there are a lot of characters, it becomes difficult to remember who anyone is. Of course there is, thoughtfully, an index in the back we could refer to - except the alphabetization is by last name. Oh well.

This book is okay. The first part moves well and I enjoyed it. But the final segment flattens out into predictable, clichéd boredom. This would be a good book to read on an airplane or at the pool, and there are many worse true crime books out there, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it.

It's a cliche, I know, but this was a book that I could not put down. I took it with me on a weekend trip to visit my sister and her family. During a major family party - dozens of guests - I kept slipping away to the spare bedroom I was occupying to read another chapter.

Part of what makes it so good - and utterly frightening - is that it is a true story. I would like to think that insane relationship behavior such as chronicled here happens only in cheap crime novels and bad movies, but these events really occurred. The story will stay with you, whether you want it to or not!