Search - Beyond All Reason: My Life With Susan Smith

This was an easy read, and intriguing. David Smith's POV on the tragic loss of his two children at the hands of his wife. He intermingles the story of their struggling marriage, affairs, with the events of those 9 days the kids were "missing" while his wife lied about what really happened...that she drowned them by strapping them into their car seats and rolling the car into a nearby lake. David includes at the end some of the many (21,000) letters he received after the news hit about the kids being dead. Good book, well written.

Although it's terribly sad, I'm glad I read this book. It's good to hear his point of view, and I was surprised at the level of personal detail he was willing to provide. Truth is, that made it sadder, because they just seemed so normal. Small town kids who met young, married young, had many of the very typical conflicts and struggles of many young married couples, and a nasty breakup in a small town. Affairs, arguments, family members in the middle of all the drama, kids caught in the middle, on-again off-again with the marriage, yet as messy as it was I couldn't find anything about their story leading up to the tragedy that really seemed so out of the ordinary. Everyone you know has at least a few or more of the problems they had, and while there are some really sad and upsetting parts in each of their histories, it still seems inconceivable this young mother was capable of murder. The details were often uncomfortable and abrupt, but in all it was a very human book describing flawed but well-meaning people in a terrible small town tragedy. I still recommend it for a sort of insider understanding of what seemed an unimaginable crime.

Easy fast read. A lot of false self-deprecating, in my opinion, about his affairs, etc, and trying to garner as much sympathy for himself as possible. Sad story, for sure, but it was a bit of an annoying book.

Riveting. Although heartbreaking,
read from cover to cover in one day.
A good read, though sad; an eye-opener.
JoJo