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Deadly Obsessions: Three True Crime Sagas
Three true crime classics of love, murder, and the mob by a Pulitzer Prize finalist who writes with “honest and gritty realism” ( Phoenix Gazette ) .
Award-winning author Joan Barthel uncovers the dark secrets behind some of the strangest cases in the history of American crime in these three captivating works of “first-class journalism” ( The New York Times ).
A Death in California : When twice-divorced Beverly Hills socialite Hope Masters fell in love with a handsome advertising executive, she thought her life was finally turning around—until she woke up to find a gun in her mouth and her fiancé dead in the next room. The killer was a new acquaintance who’d been visiting the couple’s Sierra Nevada ranch. Even more bizarre, however, was what happened at the end of the long, nightmarish weekend in which Masters saw everything she cared about She began to fall in love with her tormenter. “Superbly documented, brilliantly written. The suspense will keep readers caught to the very last page” (Ann Rule, bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me ).
A Death in Canaan : When eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly arrived home from the Teen Center one night to discover his mother lying naked on the bedroom floor with her throat slashed, local police made him their prime suspect. After eight hours of interrogation and a polygraph test, Reilly confessed. But the townspeople of Canaan, Connecticut, couldn’t believe the naïve teenager was capable of such a gruesome crime. With the help of some celebrities, including Mike Nichols and William Styron, the community rallied to the boy’s defense. Barthel’s “riveting” account of this fascinating and frightening case was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize ( People ).
Love or Honor : Police officer Chris Anastos was happily married and satisfied with his work on the NYPD’s anti-crime unit—until he was asked to go undercover to investigate links between the Italian mob and a Greek criminal network in Queens. For five years he moved back and forth between his comfortable home life and a murky, underground world of wise guys, pimps, and thieves. But when he fell in love with the beautiful, raven-haired daughter of a Long Island capo, Anastos faced his gravest threat yet. “For devotees of cop tales and mob lore . . . Tantalizing” ( The New York Times Book Review ).
Award-winning author Joan Barthel uncovers the dark secrets behind some of the strangest cases in the history of American crime in these three captivating works of “first-class journalism” ( The New York Times ).
A Death in California : When twice-divorced Beverly Hills socialite Hope Masters fell in love with a handsome advertising executive, she thought her life was finally turning around—until she woke up to find a gun in her mouth and her fiancé dead in the next room. The killer was a new acquaintance who’d been visiting the couple’s Sierra Nevada ranch. Even more bizarre, however, was what happened at the end of the long, nightmarish weekend in which Masters saw everything she cared about She began to fall in love with her tormenter. “Superbly documented, brilliantly written. The suspense will keep readers caught to the very last page” (Ann Rule, bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me ).
A Death in Canaan : When eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly arrived home from the Teen Center one night to discover his mother lying naked on the bedroom floor with her throat slashed, local police made him their prime suspect. After eight hours of interrogation and a polygraph test, Reilly confessed. But the townspeople of Canaan, Connecticut, couldn’t believe the naïve teenager was capable of such a gruesome crime. With the help of some celebrities, including Mike Nichols and William Styron, the community rallied to the boy’s defense. Barthel’s “riveting” account of this fascinating and frightening case was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize ( People ).
Love or Honor : Police officer Chris Anastos was happily married and satisfied with his work on the NYPD’s anti-crime unit—until he was asked to go undercover to investigate links between the Italian mob and a Greek criminal network in Queens. For five years he moved back and forth between his comfortable home life and a murky, underground world of wise guys, pimps, and thieves. But when he fell in love with the beautiful, raven-haired daughter of a Long Island capo, Anastos faced his gravest threat yet. “For devotees of cop tales and mob lore . . . Tantalizing” ( The New York Times Book Review ).
- GenresTrue Crime
1046 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 11, 2017
77 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Joan Barthel
15 books12 followersJoan Barthel is the award-winning author of five nonfiction books and a contributor to many national publications. Her cover story on Elizabeth Seton in the Times Magazine inspired her to bring the singular life of this first American-born saint into contemporary focus and ultimately led to her book American Saint.
With her first book, A Death in Canaan, Barthel uncovered the miscarriage of justice in the case of a Connecticut teenager accused of murdering his mother. Her work brought the case to the attention of celebrities such as Arthur Miller, William Styron, and Mike Nichols, who championed his cause. Barthel won the American Bar Association Gavel Award for A Death in Canaan, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a CBS-TV film that was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Following A Death in Canaan, Barthel wrote A Death in California, the story of a Beverly Hills socialite caught in the thrall of the man who had murdered her fiancé, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club Featured Alternate and became a four-hour miniseries on ABC-TV. Her next book, Love or Honor, told the story of a New York City undercover cop who infiltrated the Greek mafia and fell in love with the capo’s daughter. After Love or Honor, Barthel collaborated with Rosemary Clooney to write the legendary vocalist’s critically acclaimed autobiography, Girl Singer. With her daughter, Anne Barthel, she has written a screenplay, The Truth About Home, based on a two-part article she wrote in New Choices magazine
Barthel was a staff writer at the weekly Life magazine, contributing editor at New Times, and instructor in feature writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her many magazine pieces include cover stories in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and Notre Dame Magazine. She has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and articles and profiles on a wide range of people and issues: Ingrid Bergman, Bob Hope, New York governor Mario Cuomo, Sidney Poitier, Dan Rather, Nancy Reagan, Beverly Sills, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey; women and guns, medical ethics, the foster-care system, homeless families.
A graduate of the Writer’s Institute at Saint Louis University, Barthel holds an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. Her other honors include the Outstanding Article Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Distinguished Service Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. She lives in St. Louis.
- from her website
With her first book, A Death in Canaan, Barthel uncovered the miscarriage of justice in the case of a Connecticut teenager accused of murdering his mother. Her work brought the case to the attention of celebrities such as Arthur Miller, William Styron, and Mike Nichols, who championed his cause. Barthel won the American Bar Association Gavel Award for A Death in Canaan, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a CBS-TV film that was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Following A Death in Canaan, Barthel wrote A Death in California, the story of a Beverly Hills socialite caught in the thrall of the man who had murdered her fiancé, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club Featured Alternate and became a four-hour miniseries on ABC-TV. Her next book, Love or Honor, told the story of a New York City undercover cop who infiltrated the Greek mafia and fell in love with the capo’s daughter. After Love or Honor, Barthel collaborated with Rosemary Clooney to write the legendary vocalist’s critically acclaimed autobiography, Girl Singer. With her daughter, Anne Barthel, she has written a screenplay, The Truth About Home, based on a two-part article she wrote in New Choices magazine
Barthel was a staff writer at the weekly Life magazine, contributing editor at New Times, and instructor in feature writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her many magazine pieces include cover stories in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and Notre Dame Magazine. She has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and articles and profiles on a wide range of people and issues: Ingrid Bergman, Bob Hope, New York governor Mario Cuomo, Sidney Poitier, Dan Rather, Nancy Reagan, Beverly Sills, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey; women and guns, medical ethics, the foster-care system, homeless families.
A graduate of the Writer’s Institute at Saint Louis University, Barthel holds an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. Her other honors include the Outstanding Article Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Distinguished Service Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. She lives in St. Louis.
- from her website
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 9, 2017
True Crime
A fascinating book. The author writes three stories, each of them suspenseful and well written. This is some of the best true crime you will ever read. Well worth your time.
A fascinating book. The author writes three stories, each of them suspenseful and well written. This is some of the best true crime you will ever read. Well worth your time.
April 14, 2023
Two books quite good
Two of the books I enjoyed. I found a death in Canaan very boring.I had to give up in the end I thought it was never going to end.just looked on internet for ending.not sure I would read any more from this author.
Two of the books I enjoyed. I found a death in Canaan very boring.I had to give up in the end I thought it was never going to end.just looked on internet for ending.not sure I would read any more from this author.
August 8, 2017
Read all my reviews at www.littorallibrarian.org
What a deal for true crime junkies!!! Three books in one, and all of them fascinating!
The first story, A Death in California, is way more interesting than its generic title might suggest. More than thirty years ago, a beautiful Beverly Hills socialite named Hope Masters fell in love with Bill Ashlock, a handsome advertising executive in Los Angeles. She had been married an divorced twice, but she thought her life was finally turning around – and then this bizarro story: she and Bill went to her family’s ranch in Central California, and were joined by a new acquaintance of Bill’s for a weekend getaway and supposedly a photo shoot. The next day, Hope wakes up with a gun in her mouth and her Bill dead in the next room. Then, after a weekend of rape and torture, Hope began to fall in love with Taylor Wright, the killer.
There is more family dysfunction than you can imagine, and I don’t think anyone will ever know what really happened…but this is another case set in Los Angeles, where you can definitely get all the justice money can buy.
The second book is A Death in Canaan. When eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly arrived home to find his mother naked on the floor with her throat slashed, he was immediately the prime suspect. local police made him their prime suspect. After eight hours of interrogation and a polygraph test, Peter confessed following many hours of harsh interrogation and a lie detector test. But the people in Canaan, CT couldn’t believe he did it, and they began a campaign to seek justice. It reminded me of Adnan Syed, where the police first decide on a suspect, then look for evidence (and, ideally, a confession) to point to that suspect as the killer, without looking anywhere else. Scary stuff.
Finally, in Love or Honor, a police officer named Chris Anastos, who was happily married and busily working on the NYPD’s anti-crime unit, was assigned to go undercover in order to investigate possible links between the Italian mob and a Greek criminal network in Queens. Anastos did this for five years, going back and forth between his comfortable home life and a criminal underground world of “wise guys, pimps, and thieves.” Then he fell in love with the daughter of a Long Island gangster…what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!?!
Excellently written, and sure to be enjoyed by fans of true crime. Five stars and thanks to Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my review.
What a deal for true crime junkies!!! Three books in one, and all of them fascinating!
The first story, A Death in California, is way more interesting than its generic title might suggest. More than thirty years ago, a beautiful Beverly Hills socialite named Hope Masters fell in love with Bill Ashlock, a handsome advertising executive in Los Angeles. She had been married an divorced twice, but she thought her life was finally turning around – and then this bizarro story: she and Bill went to her family’s ranch in Central California, and were joined by a new acquaintance of Bill’s for a weekend getaway and supposedly a photo shoot. The next day, Hope wakes up with a gun in her mouth and her Bill dead in the next room. Then, after a weekend of rape and torture, Hope began to fall in love with Taylor Wright, the killer.
There is more family dysfunction than you can imagine, and I don’t think anyone will ever know what really happened…but this is another case set in Los Angeles, where you can definitely get all the justice money can buy.
The second book is A Death in Canaan. When eighteen-year-old Peter Reilly arrived home to find his mother naked on the floor with her throat slashed, he was immediately the prime suspect. local police made him their prime suspect. After eight hours of interrogation and a polygraph test, Peter confessed following many hours of harsh interrogation and a lie detector test. But the people in Canaan, CT couldn’t believe he did it, and they began a campaign to seek justice. It reminded me of Adnan Syed, where the police first decide on a suspect, then look for evidence (and, ideally, a confession) to point to that suspect as the killer, without looking anywhere else. Scary stuff.
Finally, in Love or Honor, a police officer named Chris Anastos, who was happily married and busily working on the NYPD’s anti-crime unit, was assigned to go undercover in order to investigate possible links between the Italian mob and a Greek criminal network in Queens. Anastos did this for five years, going back and forth between his comfortable home life and a criminal underground world of “wise guys, pimps, and thieves.” Then he fell in love with the daughter of a Long Island gangster…what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!?!
Excellently written, and sure to be enjoyed by fans of true crime. Five stars and thanks to Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my review.
October 8, 2017
I liked the first two stories in this book better than the third, but still this was excellent overall, for anyone who enjoys true crime books. This one will take you a while to read, it's a rather long collection, but I was able to get lost in it pretty quickly. They are right when they say that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and that is definitely the case with the first book in this set.
This collection kept me busy for an entire weekend and made me think about life as we know it and how one little action can change everything. I recommend this to anyone who likes true crime. It was fascinating and kept me guessing at the motives of the criminals and what they were thinking.
I liked it. Each of the books included have their own merits but the first two really captivated me.
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
This collection kept me busy for an entire weekend and made me think about life as we know it and how one little action can change everything. I recommend this to anyone who likes true crime. It was fascinating and kept me guessing at the motives of the criminals and what they were thinking.
I liked it. Each of the books included have their own merits but the first two really captivated me.
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
June 30, 2017
For any true crime fan, this is gift. 3 full true crime stories that are very good. My favorite was "Death in California". You cannot go wrong with this bundle. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this collection.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews