Black Heart

by Marilee Strong

Through one of the most extensive missing person's investigations in history, to the shocking discovery of her husband's double life, millions became obsessed with the fate of a young pregnant woman and the man once believed to be the "perfect" husband. Their story both fascinated and repelled us because it exposed a frightening truth: we are most at danger from those we love. To understand this unspeakable crime, Strong travels to the darkest regions of the human heart to learn about those among us who live their lives behind a brilliant disguise. Perfecting to an art a template of legal and media manipulation first established in the O.J. Simpson case, Peterson very nearly got away with murder. But thanks to an unlikely cast of heroes, the Peterson case may have single-handedly reestablished public trust in the jury system.

Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Marilee Strong is an award-winning journalist who specializes in reporting on crime and psychological and social issues. She is the author of two previous books: "A Bright Red Scream," on the aftereffects of childhood abuse and trauma, and "Erased," which presented an original criminal and psychological profile of a particular kind of intimate-partner homicide. She has also written widely on topics such as child abduction, women in prison, gang violence, hate groups, and psychological treatment for sex offenders. She is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she awarded a Pulitzer Fellowship, the school's highest honor. She is the recipient of more than a dozen writing and reporting honors, including a National Headliner Award and the Society of Professional Journalists Excellence Award. She has been a guest on NBC's "Dateline," Fox News' "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren," the BBC, and numerous other TV and radio shows around the US, and has been appeared in several film and television documentaries on the subjects of her work.