The mystery of what happened to Mac and Muff Graham on the isolated Pacific Island atoll called Palmyra was enough to draw me in. I wanted to know what would become of Buck Walker and Jennifer Jenkins, the only two other people on the island at the time of the Grahams's disappearances.

The mystery supposedly at the heart of this book was what I cared about. Unfortunately, Bugliosi ruined it with his grandstanding, continual pointing out how he had outwitted the judge, the prosecutor, and some of the witnesses. For being so smart, he was dumb enough to trust his client, despite the fact that she lied to the FBI, police, and judge and jury in previous trials.

Bugliosi was overly verbose. Thinking that it was necessary to take over 5 hours in his final summation with the jury is one example of his rambling nature. While it might have worked in the courtroom (I'd have keeled over with boredom), it didn't work in this book. Whatever things Bugliosi might have been accomplished at, he wasn't at writing a book. This book needed to be honed down 300-400 pages. I'm not sure how much editorial say Henderson had in writing this book but my guess is not much with Bugliosi's domineering personality.

While in the skilled hands of an author such as Ann Rule, who was able to perfectly explore the motivations of criminals while also managing to center on the VICTIM within a reasonable amount of pages, Bugliosi couldn't or wouldn't either of these tasks. This is a guy who cleared loved nothing more than the sound of his voice and besting opponents.

I appreciated the crime story but the courtroom narrative went on FOREVER. Even if it hadn't, he lost me on his focus on Jennifer Jenkins, a known liar and spineless pushover rather than the victims. This dirtbag even had the nerve to posit after the story, the baseless rumor that Mack might have even killed his wife. Disgusting.

I was really loving this until Bugliosi decided we needed to read his ENTIRE FIVE HOUR SUMMATION when, in fact, we had already read an incredibly detailed account of the trial for the past three hundred pages. My dude, I respect you so hard, but ain’t nobody got time for that.

I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this case before, especially when Bugliosi’s other cases are so well known and this is such a juicy unsolved mystery. Oh, Jennifer, you enigma.

It was like reading two different books. The first half, the events leading up to the crime, was a lot more compelling than the dead-horse-beating that followed. I lost interest around page 400 or so, soon after the trial began, but thankfully I still had another 800 pages to go. The murder trial was a leeeeeetle too detailed, and Vincent Bugliosi a lot too pompous, for my tastes.

I ended up skimming through the last few chapters which contained the closing arguments. (Did I mention all the dead horses being beaten?) I couldn't-could not-would not read anymore of Bugliosi's superior legal intellect. Sorry but I came here for murder mystery, not a lesson on the American legal system.

And after all that, I'm still not convinced of her innocence. That might just be out of spite for her defense attorney though.

As with his other book, Helter Skelter, fascinating story. The writing style, ugh....

Just finished this ....I enjoyed reading the majority of it but got antsy near the end during the end of the trial. Very interesting.

I had set out to read something spooky for Halloween, but what I got instead was mostly a legal procedural. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because this is a story that was worth telling.

A lot of reviewers here seem to be aggravated by Bugliosi's perceived egomania. To me, his text doesn't scan so much as bragging as just telling the facts. This was indeed a complex legal battle, and Bugliosi and Weinglass had an uphill battle.

There are some small dry patches of legalese, but most of these have thankfully been deposited into an appendix at the end of the book for those who don't need the legal mumbo jumbo. Overall, this book has left me a little more knowledgeable in the legal field, and it has left me a little wiser with regards to withholding judgments until I have all the facts.

I was not overly impressed with this book. While the first, verifiable part of the story was quite interesting and held out hope for a book of over 700 pages, the latter part of the book was merely speculation and lawyer talk about how to get their client acquitted of a murder charge.

This is one of the last few books by Attorney Vincent Bugliosi that I had not yet read. He's also written a very long examination of the JFK murder trial and all of its conspiracy theories, and probably best known for Helter Skelter, about the Manson murders, which he was the prosecuting attorney for. In this case, a hippie couple, Jennifer Jenkins and Buck Walker, and a well-to-do couple, Mac and Muff Graham encounter each other on a deserted tropical island with fatal consequences. Each couple was expecting to have the island to themselves, only to find that the other was already there. The annoyance turned deadly when Mac and Muff disappeared. Jennifer and Buck maintained that they had drowned in a boating accident, but some years later, evidence suggests otherwise. This is an easy-to-read book which was mostly focused on the murder trials of Jennifer and Buck, at times a bit focused too much. My gripe with the book isn't really with the book itself, but more of why hasn't anyone done anything more substantial to find the (presumed) dead. The book is well written and tells a tragic story that I had not heard before.

Although this book was not a work of fiction it read as one. Oh my, to me it was a wonderfful page turner. Mr Bugliosi tells a story like a person spins yarn. I really enjoyed it.