Murder in Italy [Mass Market Paperback]

This is just an awfully good book that has withstood the test of time. It has outsold by a fair margin any other book on the Knox-Sollecito Trial and the murder of Meredith Kercher. It is the only book on the subject to be honored with a prize. And all with good reason. Dempsey gets the tone exactly right and her highly reputable publisher had every "fact" double sourced and double checked. British readers will especially appreciate the fact that Dempsey never forgets that the ultimate victim of this tragedy is Meredith Kercher. Thoughtful readers will appreciate Dempsey's very humane narrative in which she never for a moment forgets that she is dealing with real human beings.

This book had its origins in the blog "Italian Woman at the Table." Dempsey took an interest in the case because it involved both Italy (she's Italian-American) and Seattle where she currently lives. The blog was in fact started as kind of a memorial to Meredith Kercher. But Dempsey also committed the cardinal sin (in the eyes of some) of arguing that Knox and Sollecito were entitled to a presumption of innocence and a fair and impartial trial. She was also quick to note that many of the journalists covering the case were ignoring the defense altogether and merely taking dictation from the prosecution and police.

Dempsey went to Perugia to research her book and attend a good many trial sessions. Unlike others who claimed to have gone through the entire case file, she actually did and uncovered a wealth of information that directly contradicts the pro-guilt fairy tale that became the main press narrative for far too long. We learn for example:

--The time of death was clearly much closer to 9:00 PM than to 11:00
--The evidence suggesting multiple attackers was highly equivocal and not very convincing
--There were not "48 wounds" but three serious wounds to the throat and some defensive wounds (the rest were bruises)
--No part of Knox's journal is missing and she continued to write right up to the day of her arrest
--Filomena Romanelli was in fact far more unreliable and self-contradictory in her testimony than Amanda Knox
--The idea that Raffaele made his famous phone call after the police arrived is unsupported, speculative nonsense
--The idea that Amanda Knox was turning cartwheels was almost certainly a gross, not very persuasive exaggeration added by the police at the last minute
--Far from being unfeeling about the tragedy, Knox was actually terrified and devastated by it.

In short, if you want a highly useful and readable account of the days between the murder of Meredith and the arrest of Amanda and Raffaele and if you want to actually learn something about the case, this is the book for you. The 2nd edition will deal much more with the aftermath of the trial and the appeal which saw Knox and Sollecito exonerated in the strongest terms possible. I can't wait to read it.

Candace Dempsey, an Italian reporter who has followed this case from the start, has done in depth interviews and research covering all angles of this complicated case. It is a pleasure to read, for she does not lead the reader into her opinion. Instead, she states the facts and leaves the reader to form her/his own conclusions.

It is riveting, foot-noted, and accurate. If you read one book on the Kercher murder/ and the subsequent trials of Knox and Sollecito, you would do well to discard the others and read this.

It is NOT tainted by personal career motives nor by conjecture... just the facts. How refreshing!

This is an essential book for anyone interested in the case. It is easy to read, interesting, well written, and extremely well informed. It reads like a novel but there is no hint of fiction. The reader is apprised of detailed knowledge of the events at close quarters, especially with regard to Amanda. Also the reader begins to feel that she or he knows the protoganists as real people.

One learns of pertinent facts relating to the events, and the context of those events, which throws a different light from that applied by the news media. The narrative starts when Amanda travels to Europe up to a considerable time after the the verdict is announced. Abundant background information is presented where it is relevant or interesting.

The author's position is balanced. This does not mean that the reader comes away unsure about whether the verdict was correct. Since the guilty verdict was wrong, and clearly so to anyone who looks at the case impartially, the reader is made more aware of the details of this astonishing miscarriage of justice and how it came about.

There is also a 'time line' at the end of the book giving a chronology of the main events.

This is a first class piece of work and it rightly deserves the awards it has won.