I like this book in as much as I appreciate the research done by the author and putting the story into print. But, I must say that the only reason this entire affair (Sunny Von Bulow's comatose state and Claus Von Bulow being a suspect) is a story is that they were rich. Take their money out of the equation and this book doesn't even happen nor the rabid coverage. Of course, some will read this and say, "duh!"
With every true crime book there is some exposition and background information about the main players. I found nothing compelling about Sunny Von Bulow and Claus Von Bulow. They were incredibly wealthy, attended elitist parties, traveled the world and had many servants. If that makes a person interesting then every wealthy person should have a book and/or a reality show. Let's retell this story with the Von Bulows being middle class. Now they attend parties not attended by princes and heirs but principals and hair dressers. Now they travel, not all over the world but maybe to their timeshare. Now their servants are the eldest of their children forced to help around the house. My point being, yes they are doing things ordinary people can't afford to but there's still no intrigue.
Even their personalities weren't noteworthy. Claus was a European socialite that loved rubbing shoulders with the elite. Sunny was an American heiress that was more of a recluse but otherwise ordinary. They did nothing that was unexpected of them.
The story heats up when Claus begins to have an affair. From that point on it is a series of events that lead up to Claus being tried for attempted murder. Much of the information that is divulged throughout the book gets repeated during the trial phase of the book which makes the trial phase redundant. And speaking of the trial phase, of the dozens of true crime books I've read, this is the first to mention the verdict at the very beginning. Granted it was a real event that many knew the outcome of but I didn't! Not only did I not know the verdict but it's just poor writing to tell the ending at the beginning.
Still, with the knowledge of the verdict I was interested to know how that verdict was garnered and the author, William Wright, probably understood that as well. If the rating scale was 10 I would have given it a 7 which would correlate to a 3.5. Since I can't give it a 3.5 I've rounded it up to a 4 out of 5.
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