Join Caitlin Rother, author of the true crime thriller, Poisoned Love(Kensington), as she virtually tours the blogosphere December 5 – 16 2011 on her second virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!
About Caitlin Rother
New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored eight books, including her first novel, Naked Addiction, which comes out in January 2012. The others areDead Reckoning (Kensington, February 2011), Twisted Triangle(Wiley, 2009), Body Parts(Kensington, 2008), Deadly Devotion(Simon&Schuster/Pocket, July 2011), and NYT bestseller My Life, Deleted (HarperOne, October 2011). Her latest true crime project, Lost Girls(Kensington, July 2012), chronicles the rape and murder of two innocents, teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, by sexual predator John Gardner. Rother, a Pulitzer-nominated investigative journalist with 270,000 copies of her books in print, has also been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and The Daily Beast. She has done dozens of TV and radio appearances as a crime expert on E!, the Oxygen Network; Greta Van Susteren’sOn the Record, Investigation Discovery, America at Night, American Radio Network, XM and numerous NPR/PBS affiliates. Rother also works as a book doctor/editorial consultant and teaches journalism and creative writing at University of California San Diego Extension.Caitlin is presently on tour with her book, Poisoned Love.
You can visit her website at http://caitlinrother.com or visit her at Twitter atwww.twitter.com/caitlinrother or on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/caitlinrother.com.
About Poisoned Love
Kristin Rossum had everything going for her: Beauty, brains, youth, and the start of a brilliant career in toxicology. But the 24-year-old daughter of accomplished academics from Claremont, Calif., was torn between three relationships: one with her husband, who was found not breathing with red rose petals sprinkled over his body; one with her married boss; and one with crystal methamphetamine, an old friend with whom she had become reacquainted. In the true crime thrillerPoisoned Love, Pulitzer-nominated investigative journalist Caitlin Rother tells the story behind the “American Beauty murder” case, a cautionary tale that illustrates how an obsession for passion, a fatal attraction to crystal meth and easy access to dangerous narcotics can devastate not just one life, but many others in the process. This updated edition explores the psychological aspects of this complex case, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation and major players that the public never got from the mainstream media. The 496-page book reveals e-mails, diary entries, letters and other court evidence that lend insights into Rossum’s character, as well as 16 pages of new developments about her appeals, which raise forensic questions about her conviction.EXCERPT:
Paramedic Sean Jordan and his assistant, April Butler, had just finished a quick dinner at Rubio’s, a fish taco restaurant, when they got a call at 9:23 p.m.: young male down, not breathing and no pulse. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) had purchased the La Jolla Del Sol complex about a year earlier as off-campus housing, so the 911 call went first to the campus police dispatch center.
“My husband is not breathing,” Kristin Rossum told the dispatcher.
Jordan and Butler carried their gear up the stairs to the second-floor apartment, where they found Kristin standing in the living room, crying and talking to the 911 dispatcher on a cordless phone. She motioned them to the bedroom, where her husband, Greg de Villers, was lying on the floor, flat on his back. His slim, six-foot, 160-pound body was dressed in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. His skin was pale, and his lips were blue around the edges. Red rose petals were scattered on the carpet around his upper torso, with a single stem and stamen next to him.
Jordan started setting up next to Greg’s left arm. Butler squeezed into position, setting aside an unframed wedding photo of the couple, which had been propped up against the base of the bureau, as if someone had positioned it just so.
Greg looked a little nervous in the photo. He smiled for the camera with a quiet contentment, all dressed up in his tuxedo and striped cravat, his dark brown hair slicked back and his blue eyes shining. Kristin looked radiant, her shiny blond locks pulled up under a white-flowered tiara, and a veil trailing down her back. She wore a string of pearls with her white dress, which had short lace sleeves that covered her shoulders, and she held a bouquet of pink and white flowers tied with bows of ribbon. They both seemed so very happy as Greg declared his supreme devotion to her in front of their friends and family.
In all the commotion, the wedding photo got moved to the top of the chest on Greg’s right side, next to a blue plastic cup of clear, odorless liquid that looked like water. And a yellow cup, also containing clear, odorless liquid, rested on a nightstand on the opposite side of the bed.
“My husband is not breathing,” Kristin Rossum told the dispatcher.
Jordan and Butler carried their gear up the stairs to the second-floor apartment, where they found Kristin standing in the living room, crying and talking to the 911 dispatcher on a cordless phone. She motioned them to the bedroom, where her husband, Greg de Villers, was lying on the floor, flat on his back. His slim, six-foot, 160-pound body was dressed in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. His skin was pale, and his lips were blue around the edges. Red rose petals were scattered on the carpet around his upper torso, with a single stem and stamen next to him.
Jordan started setting up next to Greg’s left arm. Butler squeezed into position, setting aside an unframed wedding photo of the couple, which had been propped up against the base of the bureau, as if someone had positioned it just so.
Greg looked a little nervous in the photo. He smiled for the camera with a quiet contentment, all dressed up in his tuxedo and striped cravat, his dark brown hair slicked back and his blue eyes shining. Kristin looked radiant, her shiny blond locks pulled up under a white-flowered tiara, and a veil trailing down her back. She wore a string of pearls with her white dress, which had short lace sleeves that covered her shoulders, and she held a bouquet of pink and white flowers tied with bows of ribbon. They both seemed so very happy as Greg declared his supreme devotion to her in front of their friends and family.
In all the commotion, the wedding photo got moved to the top of the chest on Greg’s right side, next to a blue plastic cup of clear, odorless liquid that looked like water. And a yellow cup, also containing clear, odorless liquid, rested on a nightstand on the opposite side of the bed.
My Thoughts:
This chilling account of Kristin Rossum and the murder of her husband Greg
de Villers is a fast paced, very well researched book. This is a true account involving the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office, the Rossum and the de Villers families. The book also displays the human emotions and heartbreak of the families and friends on both sides. I was especially impressed when I read in the back of the book the countless hours spent by the author researching this case so she could tell a true account of what happened, using transcripts, emails, letters etc.
A story of love, lust, drugs, murder and deception by Kristin Rossum, Michael Robertson (the man she killed for) and the people in the Medical Examiners office who aided in the cover up of missing drugs and other imformation. The story takes the reader from the early lives of Kristin and Greg, through the trial and conviction. If you love to read Ann Rule and other true crime writers, than this is the book for you.
I loved to read true crime and enjoyed this book.
I received this review ebook from Pump Up Your Books and was not monetarily compensated for my review.
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