The author finally admits, when the book is almost complete, that he is sympathetic to the murderer. He stops shy of this admission, actually, writing that his wife felt he was, to the point of being angry with him. This book is an apology for the murderer, and the author forgot that the murder was not a quick act of passion, but rather a planned, gruesome saga that involved living with the corpse for over two weeks, and setting up a horrid tableau in order to scar those who followed the instructions in his suicide note. Brown works so hard to exonerate, somehow, the murderer from the full guilt of his crime that the book becomes a history of the war at some points. ( )

This was a story that was unfamiliar to me. I think I might have seen it on the news, but we're fairly far away from NO. It is, in part, the story of a murder-suicide that happened not long after Hurricane Katrina - and a pretty gory, horrific one that ended when the murderer jumped off the balcony of a hotel building.

It's also, in part, a story about the shameful way that we (and yes, I do mean all of us; this is funded by OUR tax dollars, yours and mine) treat our veterans. Especially the way we treat veterans coming back from a tour/multiple tours of duty in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. ( )

This was a story that was unfamiliar to me. I think I might have seen it on the news, but we're fairly far away from NO. It is, in part, the story of a murder-suicide that happened not long after Hurricane Katrina - and a pretty gory, horrific one that ended when the murderer jumped off the balcony of a hotel building.

It's also, in part, a story about the shameful way that we (and yes, I do mean all of us; this is funded by OUR tax dollars, yours and mine) treat our veterans. Especially the way we treat veterans coming back from a tour/multiple tours of duty in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. ( )

This was a story that was unfamiliar to me. I think I might have seen it on the news, but we're fairly far away from NO. It is, in part, the story of a murder-suicide that happened not long after Hurricane Katrina - and a pretty gory, horrific one that ended when the murderer jumped off the balcony of a hotel building.

It's also, in part, a story about the shameful way that we (and yes, I do mean all of us; this is funded by OUR tax dollars, yours and mine) treat our veterans. Especially the way we treat veterans coming back from a tour/multiple tours of duty in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. ( )

I became interested in the story of the murder of Addie Hall and suicide of Zack Bowen after watching the television show, Final Witness. I had a few questions after watching that program and I thought that maybe this book would answer them. While a few were answered, I found myself with more questions.

The book says that it is about the murder, but when I read it, I found that it was more about Zack, his history in the military (including fighting in Iraq), how he dealt with his past once he got to New Orleans, and what New Orleans was like after Katrina and after the murder-suicide. Information regarding Addie was sparse. When she was mentioned, it was often in a more negative fashion. Her mental health problems were ridiculed, while Zack's were treated with compassion. That was rather disheartening to me.

I hated that the book was billed as being about the murder, but really had very little to do with it. It almost felt like a very long op-ed piece about how the military failed veterans and how the government failed Katrina victims. While those topics are important and are worthy of discussion, they weren't really as pertinent to the story of Addie and Zack as the writer made them. If he had looked into her past and done as detailed of an investigation of why she was the way she was, then he might have been able to provide a better picture of why the murder happened. Instead, his presentation of his research ended up feeling disjointed and unfocused. ( )