Beyond Obsession - Hardcover

Richard Hammer is the author of more than twenty fiction and nonfiction books, as well as numerous short stories, articles, and essays for major publications worldwide. He has won two Edgar Awards for Best Fact Crime, for The Vatican Connection (1982) and The CBS Murders (1987), and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Court-Martial of Lt. Calley (1971). Both the New York Times and the Washington Post named One Morning in the War (1970) and The Court-Martial of Lt. Calley one of the ten best books of the respective years in which they were published. Hammer’s first book, Between Life and Death (1969), explored the case that led to the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brady v. Maryland and its repercussions. He wrote and narrated the Academy Award–winning documentary Interviews with My-Lai Veterans (1970), and has been involved in many TV films and motion pictures. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer, he wrote for the New York Times and its Week in Review section, where he covered the war in Vietnam, the civil rights struggle, and most other major stories of the times. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, Hammer attended Mount Hermon School, earned degrees from Syracuse University and Trinity College, and did postgraduate work at Columbia University. He and his wife currently reside in New York City.
 

From Hammer (The Helmsleys, 1990; The CBS Murders, 1987, etc.), a scrupulously detailed account of a teenaged girl, her boyfriend, and the murder of her mother. Joyce Aparo was everything a murder victim shouldn't be: popular with her co-workers, known by everyone in her hometown of Glastonbury, Connecticut, and a highly competent career woman. She was also, secretly, everything a parent shouldn't be. She beat her only child, Karin, from the time the girl was three; forbade her to play with other children; forced her to dress as a miniature version of herself; and insisted she was a violin prodigy (during one recital, Aparo ran on stage screaming at Karin and dragged her off). Karin grew up with bulimia, anorexia nervosa, a suicide attempt, and post-traumatic stress syndrome. At 16, she met Dennis Coleman, 18--tall and red-haired with a splash of freckles, IQ 137, well bred and well spoken. After a few dates, the two were making love every chance they got, planning a honeymoon in Vienna, and progressing to sex with handcuffs and dildos. Coleman became completely obsessed with Karin, writing her every day (even when he saw her) and worshiping at ``my Karin shrine''--photos, flowers, and memorabilia of Karin covering every wall of his bedroom. Did they plot together to kill Joyce Aparo? (Karin had already tried to give her mother an overdose of Seconal.) Was Coleman acting on his own, as Karin maintained from the day she was arrested? Or was Coleman so compelled by passion that he could not resist anything Karin asked? How he came to strangle Joyce Aparo and the part that Karin played in the murder form the tangled plexus here. Hammer provides meticulous research--extensive diary entries, correspondence, psychiatric profiles, and verbatim trial testimony--in producing a solid but slowly paced and grim illustration that ``violent loves have violent ends.'' Not for sensitive souls. (Eight pages of b&w photos--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.