Never Enough: A Shocking True Story of Greed, Jealousy and Murder [Paperback]

I enjoy the genre of true crime, and this author is an excellent chronicler of the evil that men do. In this book, he focuses on the Kissel family, in which two wealthy, well-educated brothers are both murdered on different occasions and by different people. One was bludgeoned to death, and the other was stabbed to death. What are the chances of that?.

The book tells the story of two good-looking, well-educated, highly intelligent brothers, Robert and Andrew Kissel. Both grew up under the thumb of Bill Kissel, a wealthy entrepreneur, who was an extremely domineering and harsh father. Robert Kissel, the younger brother, grew up to be a brilliant and successful investment banker. He married Nancy Keeshin, a college dropout working as a waitress at the time that they met. Andrew, the older brother, grew up to be a real estate developer. He married Hayley Wolff, a well-educated stock analyst and former world class skier.

The book focuses primarily of Robert's story, with Andrew as the secondary story, which pretty much mirrors the way life treated them. Robert's story is the more interesting one, as it has many juicy elements, such as marital infidelity, a fascinating foreign city in which the murder took place, and the glamorous life style of wealthy ex-pats , all laid out against the backdrop of some gothic family drama. Andrew's story, on the other hand, is more pathetic. He simply turned to a life of crime, lived way beyond his means, and embezzled money from the cooperative apartment building in which he lived.

The author skillfully outlines the events that led to the murders. In Robert's case, his wife's infidelity and her obsession with Michael Del Priore, her blue-collar lover, prompted her to do the unspeakable. A year and a half later, Andrew also followed in Robert's footsteps, having been stabbed to death just as he was getting to face the music for his crimes. Who killed Andrew, however, was not known at the time that this book was written. That murder was not resolved until much later. Unfortunately, this left a bit of a void in this well-written true crime book. All in all, however, the story of the Kissel brothers is a fascinating one and a true American tragedy on many fronts. Those who enjoy the true crime genre will not be disappointed by this book.

This is a very entertaining read for several reasons! It can only be non-fiction, for what writer could dream up a fictional group of such awful human beings?! The main characters and their families are about as dis-functional and loathsome a bunch that you'll ever read about - the kind you love to hate! The author did a fine job of research and telling the story to make it a page turner...I simply had to see what happened next! In the end, they got what they deserved.

Joe Mcginnis cannot make any of this crew, the Kissels and their assorted family members-by-marriage seem, well, not unpleasant. Though nastiness is not an excuse for murder, it's hard, real hard, to generate much sympathy for either crime victims or perpetrators. Mcginnis does a good enough job wading through the sleeze, both in Hong Kong and in the US, in telling this story. But I'm left with thoughts that are better left unsaid in a public review.