Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, November 24, 2003
By A Customer
I waited a long time to get my hands on this book. I knew Michael Franklin, and watched the case unfold - every day it got stranger and stranger. The local papers didn't cover the story at all, and we had to catch snippets of information from the small local paper that Dave Keller was a reporter for. I assumed that since he had all the details of the case, his book would be a cohesive, chronological reporting of the case - Did Franklin really kill Ronna? Was there really enough information presented at trial to draw that conclusion? What information did the jury hear that wasn't reported in the limited coverage? These were the questions I had when I bought the book, hoping to finally have a chronological series of events that would help me understand why a guy who had it all would screw it up so badly.Unfortunately, I didn't get this out of the book. It seems Dave Keller was trying to make this a true "murder mystery" novel, whereas I was looking for an accounting, presented in an organized manner. Mr. Keller's writing style strayed off on side-bars, avoiding the details I yearned for. Michael spends his days in prison. The simplest of decisions are denied him, and justly so - IF he did it.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Michael Franklin, May 21, 2006
I dated Michael for about one year, having met him not quite a year and a half after the death of his wife. He introduced himself to me as a widower and talked often about the loss of his wife and his young son, Mikey (whom I met as an adorable three-year-old). Strange as this sounds, Michael offered to have a child with me--on our second date!
I am stunned to find that his story was translated to book format just a year after the murder trial ended in summer 2000. Although I have not yet read it, I am eager to do so.
I suspected fairly early on in our relationship that Michael's story of his wife's freakish death by drowning while on a snowmobile at a resort in Quincy was suspect. I pored over articles about him and his wife in the Sacramento Bee archives, never letting on that I was suspicious. I had dinner with him just days before he was arrested in March 1999; at that time, he seemed to be living an increasingly nomadic life, leaving his young son in the care of his parents during the week while he commuted to the wine country to work. He seemed to be running from something--it became obvious very soon thereafter from what.
As a previous reviewer noted, Michael presented himself to me as a grief-stricken widow whose in-laws were hassling him legally for "his son's money." He even introduced me to his lawyer, whom I met over drinks one evening in spring 1998!
As a former girlfriend, I was interviewed by private investigators for both the prosecution and the defense. I was subpoenaed to the trial but was never called to testify. True, he was charismatic, charming, and attractive. I have been asked many times if I was scared of him. Oddly, I never was; I am convinced, however, that he killed his wife for the insurance policies worth nearly $2 million. Are sociopaths scary?
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Monster Behind the Smile, June 4, 2004
By A Customer
Although it's not a perfect book, An Almost Perfect Murder presents the details of the case for those of us who couldn't attend the trial. I met Michael Franklin after his wife's death, and he told a very sad story about being a widower with a young child. Much like O.J. Simpson, Franklin was handsome, muscular, and charismatic. But this book shows his other side, which was manipulative, crafty and sociopathic. His eroding relationship with Ronna's family and her brother, in particular, is a particulary telling plotline. The book presents a compelling picture of an extremely self-centered man who deceived many as he meticulously plotted his wife's murder and his subsequent cover-up.
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