Review by Booklist Review
Brottman weaves a sinister and compelling true-crime account of the disappearance of Mike Williams. Mike and Denise, Brian and Kathy, were all friends from high school whose bond only strengthened through their weddings, parenthood, and deepening Christian faith. Until the morning of December 16, 2000. Brian and Mike were supposed to go duck hunting together, but Brian didn't go, and Mike never returned. His body was never found, and it was assumed he fell, drowned, or was attacked by alligators. But suspicions arose when Denise received more than $1 million in life insurance--and compounded when Brian later divorced Kathy to marry Denise. Mike's mother and a dogged local reporter keep the case on public and police radar, and what unfolds over the following decade is truly shocking. Brottman displays her psychoanalyst skills as she diggs under the surface of Brian and Denise's twisted relationship and how they reconciled their behavior with their faith. This is less about solving a case than a deep dive into human nature, and isn't that truly what makes the best true crime?
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Psychologist Brottman (Couple Found Slain) meticulously catalogs the illicit passions roiling beneath a husband's murder in this enthralling true crime narrative. The Winchesters (Brian and Kathy) and Williamses (Mike and Denise) were tight-knit friends who met at North Florida Christian High School and remained close through college, marriage, and parenthood. In 2000, Mike went missing while duck-hunting in an alligator-infested lake. Rumors flew when Denise collected $1 million in life insurance, but without a body, little could be proven. A few years later, Brian divorced Kathy and married Denise, raising eyebrows among the couple's social circles. When Brian's sex addiction and drug use spiraled out of control, Denise filed for divorce in 2015, and Brian snapped, kidnapping her at gunpoint. After he was arrested, authorities cut him a plea deal, and he eventually testified that he and Denise, who had long been lovers, killed Mike and collected his insurance money. Though the case itself doesn't harbor many surprises, Brottman excels at evoking Denise and Brian's Southern Christian milieu, and she paces the proceedings with aplomb. Readers won't be able to look away. Agent: Betsy Lerner, Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner Literary. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The British American psychoanalyst and true crime author returns with an excavation of the luridness and venality underneath a smiling, all-American façade. Brottman, author of An Unexplained Death, Thirteen Girls, and The Maximum Security Book Club, narrates the tangled story of two couples: Mike and Denise Williams and Brian and Kathy Winchester. They had been a tightknit group ever since high school, partying together on Saturday nights before going to church on Sunday mornings--until 2000, when Mike disappeared while duck hunting. Just a few years later, Brian divorced Kathy and married Denise. From there, the rumor mill in their community went into overtime. Had they been a couple before the divorce? Were they involved in Mike's death? Brottman digs deeply into the investigation, which gripped the community and divided loyalties. With the help of a Tallahassee Democrat reporter and pressure from Mike's mother, the case gathered momentum, and the public watched the murder trials live on YouTube. "It's commonplace murders, not grotesque or bizarre ones, that hit the public nerve," writes the author. "The Winchester-Williams case exemplified a kind of thrilling hubris: adulterous Baptist lovers beat a murder rap, collect on the insurance, but can't escape each other. People love a tale of outrage and scandal; they love to witness the unmaking of those who haven't practiced what they preach." Through meticulous research, Brottman reconstructs the backgrounds of the principal players and provides context on the role of Christianity in their lives. Even though we know the ending, the author mostly holds readers' attention; as the conclusion nears, she ratchets up the tension, unspooling the untimely end of Mike's life and the desperate lengths to which his friend and wife went to cover it up. An atmospheric tale that unwraps the wholesome, God-fearing exterior of two lovers to show the rot underneath. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
