It’s hard to put my finger on why but this book just doesn’t live up to what I expect from a true crime book.  It’s still pretty good – nicely written by Bloom and Atkinson.  Again, it’s an older book but it must be pretty good because it’s been made into film one place or anther and it’s still being published.  The Audible version was produced in 2019.

Evidence of Love: A True Story
of Passion and Death in the Suburbs
by Jim Bloom and  John Atkinson
1988 
Read by Charles Constant, 12h 32m 
Rating B+. /  True Crime

As far as I can recall,  I’d never heard anything about either the case or the books/movies before I saw it on Audible.  I suppose it goes to show that these kinds of books don’t get “dated” the way some others do. There are still True Crime books written about happenings in Victorian England or the Wild US West and whenever some big bad bizarre crime (especially murder) is being investigated and tried there’s bound to be an journalist probing and a book deal somewhere. 

Each true crime book is a bit different in its own way – each crime is different, the people and motives are different.  Some are family feuds or difficult members. Some are serial killers. Some are police procedurals. Most are a combination with one or another thing emphasized.  

This one is a smallish town or suburb and a local church community near Dallas with some general unhappiness for the busy wives and after awhile there’s some adultery going on in spite of the Marriage Encounter which the wives recommend to each other.  Bad feelings are aroused and then someone is found dead, very brutally murdered. The media makes a great sensation of it. 

This all happened before the days of cell phones and 24/7 news coverage but there is nation-wide reporting anyway and the courtroom is packed every day.   

The thing about this is the trial is very quirky. It’s different because of prejudices and egos and fears and some psychological elements are all involved. 

So it’s a good book but I think it could have been better. Maybe two authors writing it jointly was a problem.  ???