The Class Project: How to Kill a Mother: The True Story of Canada's Infamous Bathtub Girls

by Bob Mitchell

The Class Project investigates the incredible murder of a mother by her two teenaged daughters. Author Bob Mitchell details the murder trial and provides a troubling look at the youth culture that not only supported the two sisters but encouraged them to commit the crime and then revel in their secret for almost a year. Through interviews with witnesses, Mitchell reveals the world in which the girls lived, exploring the social and psychological elements that influenced their actions.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

356 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2008

About the author

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Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dude, run your manuscripts through Spell and Grammar check. The volume of the spelling, punctuation and grammar errors are over the top. I am also curious how you became an author when you don’t know the difference between exacerbate and exasperate.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book, I thought the story was interesting and scary, since it's so close to home, I work right across the street from the Police Division that dealt with this. But I have to say the writing was horrible, alot of repeating sentences, and it was just all over the map. One paragraph your 3 days before the murder, then the next your months after then right after your 5 days before. Got confusing and too repetitive.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

If someone asked me to name the top book I've read where the subject was very interesting yet the writing very terrible, I'd name this specimen right here. I read this over two months ago and am just not reviewing it. Luckily for me, I took notes. Due to time constraints I'll only include those notes which are about something I vividly remember or and still annoyed by.
1st note - Alan Cairns says, in the foreword, that "For various reasons I could not participate." (I see through you Alan!) I know why you didn't want to participate and I don't blame you an iota. I'd have distanced myself as well. I have a small note to remind myself that there are parts were "Beth" and/or "Sandra" told someone something and the reader has no way of knowing if this happened in the past, present, hell, the future, just no clues whatsoever as to whether this happened before the murder, after, etc. I remember this but I don't remember where the parts are. The fact that I didn't specify this in my note leads me to believe it's everywhere.
The next note isn't about the book but the murderers scumbag lawyer. Mitchell writes that the lawyer, Michael Bury, was distressed about how the murderers were treated. (I won't refer to them as girls. They're not. They're murderers and nothing more.)
Apparently, the "frightened" young "girls" "weren't even allowed to take their teddy bears with them." Give me a fucking break. Did they need their teddies when they murdered their Mother? Me think not. Why did they need them then? I can't believe an adult would allow that sentence to leave their mouth in that manner.
Another note about the story, not the book - "Sandra's" will and freedom of choice were overridden by the superior powers of the police." This was according to a judge. Yes. Indeed. Let's concern ourselves with the murderers choice and will and freedom and not the victims. Why not. It happens here in America all the time, Canada deserves no less.
I don't know if this woman was an alcoholic. By what I read here it seems she was. But that, IMO, doesn't mean she should be killed by her bitchass, greedy lying so-called daughters. I also read that Linda made sure the murderers were involved with any number of activities, some of which sure as hell aren't cheap here so I'm betting they aren't in Canada either. They were taken to Disney. Some kids never get that experience. Yet the murderers wanted to be removed and put in a "nice, rich foster home." Sounds like greed and a big ass dose of selfishness to me.
One person said the "murder was not done out of malice but to end pain." Wow. If only we could all have people like these two to care for is. No thanks.
While I truly believe they both should rot in jail for the rest of their lives and then hell for the rest of eternity, it does seem that the younger one, "Beth" was the absolute evil power here. She apparently tried to place the blame on her older sister while the older sister, "Sandra", tried to shield "Beth".
Most of my other notes are all about the writing, or lack thereof. I'm not going to share them all but... it's bad. Real bad. I guess I've seen worse. But this is definitely in the worst pile.
It's so bad that on page 284 and the very next page, page 285, the same exact paragraph is shared. It's exactly the same. And if I remember correctly that's not the first time. I know there were whole sentences repeated but this was maybe the only instance of an entire paragraph. I don't care what anyone says - that's bad. I thought I was going crazy for a minute until it hit me that I'm not crazy, the book is just written poorly.
As for a recommendation, I'd have to say that the story behind the book is fascinating. These two are intriguing if only because of the pure evilness they showed repeatedly. Try to find another book about them. If it can't be done and you really want to read about them, gear up. This isn't easy reading if a proper sentence is what you normally read.

[Keyreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in this book was horrible! Too many mistakes, I stopped counting. The only reason I kept reading was b/c I couldn't believe the crime these young teens committed. Would have rated higher if the writing wasn't so bad.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good story, but the writing was HORRENDOUS . Not only did the author need spellcheck, but the writing style was dulled down. Disappointing.

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The true story that this book is based off of is extremely interesting but the writing was terrible. It was like Mr. Mitchell didn't know of word document or its spell check option. It also wouldn't have hurt to have a grammar check either. Mr. Mitchell would have benefited a lot from an editor because I really wanted to read this book but forced myself upon false hope to keep reading.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and in depth. A little repetitive at times, but a really good true crime book none the less!

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book suffers from all the stereotypical flaws of self-published works: poor cover design, poor interior design, spelling errors and typos abounding...

It's the story of the murder of "Linda Andersen" by her daughters "Sandra" and "Beth" (since the girls were sentenced as juveniles, Canadian law prohibits their identities ever being made known), a carefully premeditated and executed murder, and the girls would have gotten away clean if the older sister had been able to keep her mouth shut. What makes the case particularly appalling is that several of the girls' friends knew what they were going to do ahead of time and offered advice and encouragement. One of them may have supplied the Tylenol-3's with which Sandra and Beth drugged their mother before drowning her in the bathtub. Nobody told the cops. Nobody told a parent. Nobody said, "Hey, wait a minute." And all the evidence is logged in MSN chats.

Mitchell writes like a reporter, so there isn't a lot of nuance or analysis, but the amount of direct quotation he does allows you to see how these girls talked, what they said and how they said it. What annoys me most about Mitchell is that there's a fundamental question at the root of the story: was Linda Andersen a hopeless alcoholic (as her daughters saw her) or was she a hard-working mother whose thankless daughters were never satisfied with what she did for them (as her friends and extended family saw her)? Were the Andersen family finances a wreck because Linda spent all the money on alcohol (daughters) or because her daughters demanded designer clothes (family)? And Mitchell, for all the things that he lays out as flat as asphalt, never explicitly says that Beth and Sandra were correct (although the fact that they spent the day of Linda's murder getting her drunk on vodka and lemonade is suggestive)--or never explains how the evidence shows that some of what Beth and Sandra said was correct (Linda drank too much) and some of what the family said was correct (Beth and Sandra felt entitled to a lifestyle their mother couldn't afford), which is the most realistic option. But "most realistic" isn't necessarily the same as true. Did Beth and Sandra have genuine reasons for feeling that no one would help them, since all the adults in their lives refused to admit their mother had a drinking problem--or was it in fact true that their mother didn't have a drinking problem? If I'm supposed to end this book uncertain about the answers to these questions, I would really have liked Mitchell to tell me that the evidence was ambiguous and I'm supposed to feel that way, instead of me being left feeling like Mitchell didn't do his job.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILERS: I was riveted by this story. So many things about it fascinate me: the girls' motivation for committing such an act, the fact that their friends went along with it, the girls' supreme intelligence and potentially sociopathic nature, the fact that one sister tried to seduce Tucker Max via the interweb, and more. The thing that fascinates me the most is that their identities are protected under Canadian law so it looks like we will never know who they really are, and the fact that they have already been released from prison.

[Whitsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bathtub Sisters

I wish I knew their real names to research this more. I personally feel like they got off extremely light, at least from what I know.

[Jessy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was hard to get through. And not because of the subject matter but because the fact this writer butchered the written word. I thought that it might have been my kindle messing with all the grammar and incorrect use of words. But I found out that it wasn’t my kindle. That others have had issues with it as well. Where was the editor for this? Because they failed miserably on this book. Which is so sad since the subject matter is actually quite interesting.

This author had a golden opportunity in providing readers with such a fascinating subject. We don’t get very many female killers, let alone two sisters. I also would like to know why the author focused more on Sandra when there was also Beth. There was just too much focus on the one sister.

I also felt it was weirdly written because it started off as like just a story. Something like a book of fiction instead of a nonfiction book. Then as soon as it got to where the trial was. That was when it felt like it was deep diving into all the technical things that was actually fascinating than the first half of this book.

Over all if I could I’d give this book zero stars. For the obvious lack of grammar and spell check among other things that gave this book such a snooze fest.

Also I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but I actually prefer the movie over the book.

[TJL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing was not great.

Also, for all the shock at the friends who knew and did nothing about the impending murder, I'm kind of disappointed that the angle of the girls' family and CPS (or whatever they said the Canadian equivalent was) not intervening despite the girls reaching out MULTIPLE times for help regarding their mother's alcoholism was never explored too deeply.

It just reeked of denial and ass-covering to me. There was even a blatant contradiction- Aunt Martha claimed she didn't know the girls were drinking in her home, but then later the author says that Sandra was stealing alcohol from her aunt until she caught her doing it, before she was arrested. That directly contradicts the aunt's version of events, but the author never really leans in too hard on how the girls' family and their denial of reality contributed to the situation.

[Sasha Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen the film 'Perfect Sisters' a couple of times and the 'Deadly Women' case twice. Obviously, the film and the writers could only do so much when making a film dealing with people that didn’t – and couldn’t – agree to have a film made about them. I never understood what the author meant when he said the film writers and director made Sandra and Beth way more sympathetic than they deserved but now I see it.

So many details were changed for the film to make Sandra and Beth easier to sympathize with. They weren’t easy to sympathize with.

There's also a lot of typos in this book. A pretty extensive narrative though.

[Francesco Di · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cold killers

I watched the movie "Perfect Sisters" and it is completely different from this book. I read this book because I never heard of this crime until a friend told me about it. The girls were portrayed as victims in the movie but they are really manipulative and self serving. This book could have been shorter, was really repetitive. The writing was horrible. I can't believe he was a journalist with all the grammatical errors. I had to read several sentences a few times to try to figure out what Mr. Mitchell was trying to say. Shouldn't someone proof read before the book was published?
If you can get pass all the errors it is an interesting read.

[Journey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is very wild and sad and it was cool to read after doing a podcast episode on the girls. However, this book could’ve used some editing and revision. There were lots of repetitive information that could’ve been cut out or simplified and resulted in a much shorter book. There were also so many spelling and grammar mistakes that felt odd for a published book by a newspaper journalist to have. I definitely skimmed the last 40% of the book but if you want to know more about these girls, then give it a read. He did an alright job of arguing both sides of what happened so it was nice to see some other perspectives on the crime.

[Ann Prewett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful account

Worth reading if for nothing more than to muse over a personality “type” that could be responsible for such heinous acts.

What circumstances can give rise to such horrific events and are there parallels in our own “normal” lives.

Agree though with previous reviewers that the number of grammatical mistakes, misspellings and omitted words had me continually wincing. Perhaps the author was intentionally careless? It is sure to offend the sensibilities of the intelligent yet malevolent girls he portrays.

[Taylor Skoglund · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story about two sisters who murdered their mother, and then later get caught. I really enjoyed reading this book, because I thought it was interesting to hear there thoughts after years of being caught and how they wished they wouldn't of done it. I think anyone who enjoys reading about different murderers and the impact it has on the killer's brain would really enjoy it.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This ebook read like it wss put together by a middle schooler. So many frustrating formatting mistakes. It was incredibly long and provided so many detailed dialogues that it was actually boring. Couldn't even get through the whole thing. I'd say this was a case of "the movie was better". Which I never say.

[Malarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to read through this. It was an interesting subject matter. I wasn't expecting great writing anyways as it is a non fiction crime book which are normally poorly written. I had watched the movie Perfect Sisters prior to this so I knew a bit about the murder.

[Sandra Layden · Rating 2 out of 5]

The spelling errors in this book are, unbelievable. Was the first draft accidentally published? I found it hard to follow along and it was more of a spewing of information from the trials. Very repetitive.

[Bri Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the movie perfect sisters so I was really excited for this book. However the writing style just wasn’t for me. There was a lot of the same information repeated over and over again. There also was some parts I couldn’t figure out how it even related to the case or the book.

[Quinn Strange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining but the writing could not have been less professional. How did this ever get out in this state! The publisher should be ashamed.

[Tammy Lynn Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done Canadian True Crimer about two sisters who commit matricide...and then tell all their friends about it.

[Dr Dreea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting case (of which I was not aware) but not an exceptionally well written book. Lots of repetitions. Lots of typos and/or incorrect spellings.

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This case, oh my goodness this case. It's chilling. I read this book for the first time nearly ten years ago for my Intro to Criminology class. I was eighteen, a first year university student. I was idealistic. This book jaded me in ways I didn't expect. Reading it for the second time, so much later, it hits me a little differently than it did then. But it still hits.

Ten years ago, I had little to no experience with true crime beyond what I read on CBC news or in my city's local news outlets. These accounts are not nearly as detailed as a true crime novel.

This book horrified me back then. Now, I have a bit more experience. I have a better grasp of the atrocities humans can inflict on other humans. I am hardened by these atrocities. I may have a different perspective now than I did then, but I am not completely unaffected.

Before I get to the nitty gritty, I have to comment on the writing and style of this book. The writing is riveting. Mitchell spins the story quite well. We go through the case point by point, fact by fact, gleaning information from what must have been hundreds upon hundreds - if not thousands - of official court records and statements. That's a painstaking task.

Where I draw most criticism is that this book reads as entirely unedited. I am not, nor have I ever been, a professional editor. I have no idea how the editing industry works. But I would hope that glaring spelling and grammatical errors would be the very first things addressed. In this book, they most certainly were not. There were needless, and constant, repetitions of phrases - often mere paragraphs apart - with the exact same wording and inflection. Whether this was done in error, for emphasis, or as filler I do not know. But it was annoying, to say the least.

I must reiterate that I am not a professional - or amateur, for that matter - editor. But trying to wade through the editing mess made for very slow, very frustrating reading.

All of that said, this case is truly fascinating. A pair of teenagers decide to kill their alcoholic mother by drugging her, plying her with alcohol, and drowning her in her own bathtub. This was a deliberately planned act. This was first degree murder.

Their downfall was months and months worth of MSN Messenger chat history between friends - friends who had known this was going to happen. Friends who had contributed their own thoughts to the plan. Friends who, at no point, ever told anyone.

That was a recurring theme throughout the book - that multiple people were aware that the sisters had planned to kill their mother, and then proceeded to do just that. It boggles my mind that these kids - and they were all kids, teenagers - didn't say anything. The book goes through all the excuses: kids being kids; they didn't think the girls were serious; they didn't want to get in trouble; so on and so forth. I have a hard time believing that.

The sisters, however, certainly didn't have a hard time gloating about getting away with murder. At one point, rumours were flying throughout the girls' high school, people hearing that they killed their mother from second-, third-, and fourth-party sources. It sounds outrageous. It sounds surreal. And yet, somehow, no one sounds the alarm. This is the part I have the most trouble with - that no one is concerned or alarmed enough to alert an authority figure.

Until one person does. And the meticulous murder plot comes crashing down on the sisters' heads.

This case has stuck with me for ten years, and will likely stick with me for ten more. It's haunting and fascinating. It's a case I truly hope I never see repeated.

[T.J. Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a tough review. This book had a really interesting and tragic premise, but the writing really lets it down. Even though this is nonfiction, the writer sometimes attempts to incorporate a narrative dramatisation structure, and this does little to make it a more engaging read. I was fine with the simplistic writing style, but the editing had too many grammatical mistakes that were too difficult to ignore. Many of the chapters were repetitive. to the point where several could have been cut and the reader wouldn't have missed out on anything

Mitchell's journalistic skills shine the most in terms of facts and research. However, the lack of structure or definitive answers to many questions made this book read like the author was trying to meet a word count. I think this book would have benefited from having a different editor or another author to structure the book better and collaborate on the prose for telling this story.

Reading this gave me much food for thought with my upcoming project.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering the author of this book is a reporter for Canadas largest daily newspaper (for 30 years no less) I was rather unimpressed by the writing and overall flow of this book. The story itself is interesting enough, and the details are disturbing. I found the taped recordings content to be especially twisted. Just wish the author could have written the book in a more fluid and organized manner. That would have given the story a more impactful delivery.

[Celine]

Very interesting topic and story but too long and very repetitive. The timeline was sort of wonky and it could have been a lot shorter if it were "condensed". Things like assertions the girls had made and some pieces of evidence were mentioned at random times and it got very repetitive. It was clear that the author was used to writing newspaper articles. I think that he wasn't so successful with the novel as it was not logical or cohesive.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

INSANITY. These 2 teenagers killed their own mother by giving her pills (mixed with alcohol - she was a severe alcoholic) and put her in the bathtub... How they could drown their own mother is beyond me. And the fact that they show little/inappropriate emotion is very disturbing.

[Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book I loved it from begining to end. To think it actually happened is scary. I recomman this book to all those who love murder mysteries and true crime!!