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    Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret that Tore a Family Apart
    Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret that Tore a Family Apart
    Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret that Tore a Family Apart
    Audiobook9 hours

    Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret that Tore a Family Apart

    Written by Diane Fanning

    Narrated by Callie Beaulieu

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Michael Peterson was driven to succeed.

    An army brat-turned-marine, he saw combat in Vietnam, and returned a decorated soldier. An avid reader, his dreams of being an acclaimed novelist came true. His desire to find love was fulfilled when he married brilliant executive Kathleen Atwater, the first female student accepted at Duke University's School of Engineering. The Petersons seemed the ideal academic couple-well-respected, prosperous, and happy.

    And compelled to kill.

    All that came crashing down in December of 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home in an exclusive area of Durham, North Carolina. But blood-spattered evidence and a missing fireplace poker suggested calculated, cold-blooded murder. Her trusted husband stood accused. Prosecutors introduced evidence at trial that sixteen years earlier, Peterson was one of the last people to see his neighbor alive before she was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her home in Germany. A dramatic trial followed in the explosive final chapter of a life that no novelist could ever have conceived . . .
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJul 30, 2019
    ISBN9781630155414
    Author

    Diane Fanning

    DIANE FANNING is the author of the Edgar Award finalist Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart, as well as several other true-crime books (available from St. Martin’s) and the Secret City mystery series. She lives in Bedford, Virginia.

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    Reviews for Written in Blood

    4/5

    34 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a book that was recommended to my by my Book Club, the San Antonio Reader's Circle.

      I read it in a good part of a day. It is a True Crime read which is why I gave it the category of Nonfiction as all the information in this book is factual and on record.

      Diane Fanning does a good job of capturing the events in the life of one Michael Peterson who was convicted of First Degree Murder in a Durham NC courtroom for the death of his wife Kathleen Atwater.

      I commended Diane for the tremendous amount of research in getting all the details regarding not only the case but the history but also all involved in the murder of Kathleen Atwater. This book kept me very interesting in the details surrounding this case and all the behavior's exhibited by those involved in this Murder. Now, I don't want to spoil all the details but just because others were not convicted of the crime doesn't mean they were not involved. It is interesting to see how the lives of all the family members changed due to this trial. Also, it is interesting to see the history of the family members and how everything falls in place at the end.

      Also, Michael Peterson hid a secret that devastated the entire family.

      The beginning was kind of hard to get through in that there were so many characters involved, that I felt like I needed a score card to keep up with them all. Also, I would have liked Diane to have blended more storytelling in with the actual facts. There were parts of the book that were kind of dry simply because only the facts were given.

      I would recommend this book as a read. It was entertaining and was kind of exciting to know that indeed fact (in this case) is stranger than fiction.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This book shows a rush to judgement against Michael Peterson. I believe he is guilty and prosecution knew he was guilty and got laxed with the evidence. The crime scene was contaminated and the blood spatter expert lied about how many cases he worked giving Peterson a way off from his prison sentence. This is written before the recent events and Peterson has served 8 years but now is out on a plea of guilty manslaughter. Very interesting book!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Not once, during either of two frantic calls to Durham 9-11 did Michael Peterson mention the blood...and there was a lot of blood. During the early morning hours of December 9th, as Kathleen lay dying on the stairs, police and rescue personnel rush to the home on Cedar Street. Connecting the complex sequence of dots that convinced a jury of his peers that Michael Peterson was indeed guilty of murder would have been the easy part, because the evidence had been painstakingly detailed during the five month trial. But, Diane Fanning takes the reader behind the carefully orchestrated performance in the court room and delivers the journey through the raw, unfiltered eyes of those who lived it. Detailing the crime scene, police procedure, the autopsy and the trial I fully expected, however, this book is chock-full of extras. Intimate conversations between Kathleen and her beloved sister, details concerning the exhumation and autopsy of Elizabeth Ratliff, the suspicious death of George Ratliff and much more. There's also eight pages of photographs that give the reader a glimpse of the Peterson's before, during and the aftermath is punctuated with a single photo of Kathleen's headstone.During the trial, the defense displayed an air of arrogance both in and outside the courtroom. And much to the chagrin of Peterson's few remaining supporters, the author pulls no punches describing the showboating behavior of David Rudolf and Thomas Maher, the mysterious discovery of the missing blowpoke and the effect these antics had on the grieving families.Superb, unflinching, emotionally gritty at times, Written in Blood is a stinging, in your face novel that paints a haunting picture of the madness that often lurks behind the gates of the nicest communities or in the home right next door. And reminds us all that the monster hiding in the shadows is easily recognized in hindsight...but, that's too late! Although the last chapter of this story will be written by the North Carolina Supreme Court, Written In Blood is as complete a history of the Peterson saga as could possibly be written. If you enjoy reading a true crime novel that goes behind the scenes and beyond the glare of the cameras, Written In Blood does not disappoint!Happy Reading!-RJ