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Customer Rating:
This book arrived fast and in excellent condition. The seller is great to do business with. I am very pleased, so far.
The book reads well, like a crime novel -- of course, but with some courthouse and investigative insight.

Good synopsis of the investigation/case

Customer Rating:
As I mentioned in another review I've recently started reading all the books about the Scott Peterson case that got decent reviews. So far this one has offered the best all around synopsis of the investigation beginning with day one. This book told me a lot I didn't already know about the case, but then I only generally followed the case when it was occurring. Perhaps, as other reviewers have stated, this book doesn't really tell us anything "new," but for some (like me) who don't know the intimate details, this book appears to outline many of them.

I gave the book 4, rather than 5, stars for a couple of reasons. Someone told me that the book was filled with "inaccurate garbage," some of the dates and names were apparently wrong but I'm not exactly sure what those inaccuracies are. I suppose if I did enough research of my own I could find the discrepancies, but I was just looking for a general overview of the case. The fact that a few people who know this case inside and out find inaccuracies in this book leads me to take Crier's assertions with a grain of salt.

Secondly, I found numerous places in the book where things didn't quite come together as Crier probably intended. I won't list specific examples but there are places where Crier mentions something or someone she assumes you already know - but many times I didn't. I found her thoughts a bit scattered at times and there were a few typos - which surprises me with professional editors/publishers. From a literary standpoint I'm surprised that some of this wasn't caught before the book was published and I'm not a professional by any means, just an average reader.

Whether or not you'll like this book depends on what you're looking for by reading it. I wanted a general overview of the case and why from the get-go police were convinced Scott was guilty. This book gave me that. It gave me insight into how investigators were operating and details about the investigation. How accurate it is, I can't say but I have to assume that the majority of it must be true to have made it to publication.

Overall, it's a good all-encompassing view of the Scott Peterson case which is just what I wanted.

Worth reading

Customer Rating:
The author does a good job of covering all the bases of this case. I would definitely say it is worth your time to read if you are interested in the Laci Peterson disappearance. While most of the book is very compelling, there are some parts that clearly remind you that she is a former lawyer (think wordy and boring). The upside of this is that she can give insight that someone not in the legal profession would lack so it is worth plodding through the slow parts.

The investigative side

Customer Rating:
If I were on the jury and read this book before I listened to testimony in court, I would have convicted him right away. I read it right after the jury found him guilty, if you have followed this story, it's a good read. It did tell of things not reported by the media.

A Deadly Game: Catherine Crier's Bias Is Shamefully Evident

Customer Rating:
A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson InvestigationCatherine Crier, former CNN news personality, former Court TV anchor, former civil attorney, former assistant D.A., former judge and author of a half dozen books which all have their basis in the legal system has written an encyclopedic rendering of the infamous trial of Scott Peterson. Having worn all the hats she has and having occupied each legal eagle seat in a courtroom, I am shocked by her bias toward Scott Peterson. She freely admits that she had him pegged as a sociopath from the very beginning and cuts him no slack in a case that was, for all intents and purposes, circumstantial at best.

Crier disallows virtually every piece of "evidence" that might have shed a more illuminating or different light on the case and on Peterson. While the book itself covers the case like frosting covers a triple layer cake, the feeling I had while reading it was, without a doubt, that she approached this case with a presumption of guilt and not innocence. From a person with her credentials, I find that approach quite shameful and appalling. It would have been a better book, carried more weight and been more appropriate had Crier taken it from the presumption of innocence through to its end.

Crier, having worn her many hats, should be more than superficially familiar with the behavior of a sociopath and yet she professes the sophomoric views of a lay person with no legal knowledge. While Scott Peterson may very well be a sociopath, why does Crier expect normal reactions from Scott Peterson when she fully realizes that no such thing is possible from a true sociopath? The jump from sociopath to murderer, in this case, is nothing short of a giant stretch of a stunted imagination from a biased reporter who should know better, in my opinion.

You'll learn some new things in this book but nothing to further your overall knowledge or clarity of the case in this over-written book by Catherine Crier.