Murder In The Family (Pinnacle true crime) (Paperback)

by Burl Barer (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
On March 15th, 1987 police in Anchorage, Alaska arrived at a horrific scene of carnage. In a modest downtown apartment, they found Nancy Newman's brutally beaten corpse sprawled across her bed. In another room were the bodies of her eight-year-old daughter, Melissa, and her three-year-old, Angie, whose throat was slit from ear to ear. Both Nancy and Melissa had been sexually assaulted.23-year-old Kirby Anthoney was a troubled drifter who had turned to his uncle, John Newman, Nancy's husband. But little did John know that the nephew he took in was a murderous sociopath capable of slaughtering his beloved. But while police built their cases, Kirby bolted for the Canadian border.First they hunted him down. Then, authorities began their long, bitter battle to convict him. But justice would not be done until Kirby Anthoney took the stand in his own defence-and showed the world the monster he truly was.

About the Author
Burl Barer is an Edgar Award winning author and two-time Anthony Award nominee with extensive media, advertising, marketing, and public relations experience.

Barer wrote, produced, and often voiced, national radio and television spots for such performing artists as Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Carly Simon, Eric Clapton, Moody Blues, Fleetwood Mac, Liza Minelli, Temptations, Four Tops, and many more. Barer also created and produced national radio and/or television campaigns for Warner/Electra/Atlantic, Media One, Management III, and Seattle Pacific Industries. Other national/regional clients have included Penzoil, Safeway, Superlube, Black Angus Restaurants, the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts, and the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

While Barer contributed his media savvy to numerous publications and projects over the years, it was his internationally acclaimed 442 page critical/biographical study of Leslie Charteris' enduringly different Robin Hood of Modern Crime, Simon Templar, which earned him the highest honor from the Mystery Writers of America -- The 1994 Edgar Allen Poe Award. The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Television, and Film not only received the Edgar, but also an Anthony Award nomination from the World Mystery Convention.

Contracted by the estate of Leslie Charteris to pen a minimum of three new novels in the popular Saint series, Barer completed Capture the Saint, the first original Saint novel in thirteen years. Film rights to the previous 52 Saint books were acquired by producer Robert Evans. Paramount Pictures released the Saint, starring Val Kilmer, in 1997. Barer's novelization of the film's screenplay, THE SAINT, published by Simon and Schuster Pocketbooks, has sold over 100,000 copies in English, and has been translated into French, Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, and German.

At the request of Warner Brothers, Barer accompanied Mel Gibson, James Garner, and Jodie Foster on the set of the hit film Maverick, writing the colorful companion book to that rollicking, uproarious western. Man Overboard: The Counterfeit Resurrection of Phil Champagne (1995), a wry and humorous genre-bending true crime adventure earned a nomination for the coveted Anthony Award by the World Mystery Convention as Best True Crime Book of the Year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786011351
• ISBN-13: 978-0786011353
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,000,191 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars well written, September 6, 2002

By	Shayleen Eastman (Arizona) - See all my reviews

A while ago I read this book after living through this horrific tragedy first hand. In my intitial rating of this book I did not give it a very good rating. I would like to revise it at this time. After giving more thought to this, I realize that the author was just telling the story and not making judgement or light of the incident. Therefore, I would like to let him know it was very well written and thank him for keeping my family members "real people".

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The author reviews his own book, December 14, 2000

By	Burl Barer (Mukilteo, Washington) - See all my reviews

This book, and this crime, is heartbreaking, dramatic, touching, and REAL. I was pleased to see Ms Eastman remind readers that this is a TRUE STORY. I don't know if she gave the book only one star because of the painful memories or the nature of my prose. I shall assume for former.

Researching the Newman murders was emotionally draining and painful. My own daughter is only one day younger than Melisa Newman, raped and murdered by Kirby Anthoney. The crime scene photos haunt me to this day. While writing the book, I kept full color school photos of the two little girls taped to my computer monitor so I would never allow myself to forget that they were real people, not characters in a book. When I staarted this project, my friend and fellow true crime author Gary C. King said, "be prepared to cry a lot, and either be loved or hated by the victims' families for telling the story -- some will help, others would rather not. " My other true crime compatriot, Jack Olsen, said that any true crime book that doesn't talk about why and how the killer became a killer is nothing more than pornography.

Having now read my own book, and knowing how difficult these are to write, I honestly give it five stars, with 3 stars of it going to my editor, Karen Haas.

Buy the book, then write your review.

BB

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent True Crime book!, January 1, 2002

By	Roger A. O'Kay (just a little bit north of San Francisco) - See all my reviews

One of the best true crime books I've ever read. The case is very disturbing, so be prepared. The crime is real sick, and so is the killer. This book is exceptionally well written, and not easy to put down, but you might have to just to keep from having nightmares about Kirby Anthoney, the young man who raped and murdered his own aunt and her little girls. You might have seen this case on The New Detectives. The book is most interesting in that the author gives as much space to the killer's defense as he does to the prosecution. One of the most shocking true crime books, and one of the best.