When successful investment banker Rob Kissel was brutally murdered by his wife Nancy in their Hong Kong apartment in 2002 she tried to plead self-defense. A Hong-Kong jury felt otherwise and sentenced her to life in prison. A short while later Rob's brother Andrew, who was taking care of their children, was murdered half a world away in Greenwich, Conneticut. The story that eventually emerged was one of dysfunction, inborn competitivness, and a desire for money that seemed to exemplify the all the worst of the American Dream.

Rob Kissel was transferred to Hong Kong by his form to take advantage of the changing money markets. He brought his family along with them and installed them in the upscale expat apartment complex. Nancy and the children wanted for nothing, in theory at least. For Nancy there was always something more; more clothes, more perfume, more shoes, and more scarves. Her marriage to Rob had been tumultous from the start and her entry into his volatile family was never happily accepted. Rob was making money hand over fist but Nancy would only complain more and more. When she went back to Vermont to begin building a summer home that would cost millions she made friends with a local blue-collar worker. After that it was only a matter of time before she began making plans for Rob, but as they say, the best laid plans...

While I like true crime stories, this one didn't really hold me. The murderer was obvious from the start, as were her motives, means, and methods. There were absolutely no unknown variables except the death of brother Andrew. This was really just another story of a rich girl gone wrong and it probably could have worked just as well as a magazine piece. If you like your true crime with suspense and some thrills, you won't find it here.
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Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (October 14, 2007)
ISBN-13: 978-0743296366
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