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Book Reviews of Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder

Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder
Bitter Blood A True Story of Southern Family Pride Madness and Multiple Murder
Author: Jerry Bledsoe
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ISBN-13: 9780451402103
ISBN-10: 0451402103
Publication Date: 4/1/1989
Pages: 573
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 41

3.9 stars, based on 41 ratings
Publisher: Onyx Books
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

17 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

catbookmom avatar reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 52 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I nearly couldn't put this down. The story is engrossing and well-written, with extensive background and histories of the people involved. The families involved lost so much, and you cannot help mourning with them. Fritz Klenner was a seriously deluded and extremely manipulative person, and whether she was part of the planning or not, Susie Lynch, a different sort of flawed personality, was a big part of the cause of these tragedies.

In the aftermath, Susie's brother Rob Newsom, a lawyer, said something that will stay with me for a long time: "Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence ... was not designed to handle sociopaths with automatic weapons. The police cannot and do not protect us. They avenge us sometimes, but they don't prevent anything."
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 35 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book tells the story of what can happen when family arguments go too far. This is an amazingly powerful, tragic story, and a must-read for anyone who is a fan of the true crime genre.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 209 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This one will keep you awake! Extremely well written and frightenly true.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 21 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
If this had not been a true story it would have been hard to believe ...... sticks in your mind long after finishing the book.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 35 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very well written, hard to put the book down.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 94 more book reviews
The writer of this novel-like true crime book based it upon his extensive coverage of multiple murders in two prominent southern families for his newspaper. He has done a masterful job of detailing these terrible tragedies. The fact that the murders were committed by beloved family members makes the story all the more poignant. The historical perspective is interesting and the personalities and psychological makeup of the characters are presented through the even-handed interviews with friends and family memers. This is a heart-breaker.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 2 more book reviews
great reading you will not be able to put down the book....
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 194 more book reviews
The first bodies found were those of a feisty millionaire widow and her beautiful daughter in their posh Louisville, KY, home. Months later, another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law were found savagely slain in Winston-Salem, NC. Mystified police first suspected a professional in the bizarre gangland-style killings that shattered the quiet tranquility of two well-to-do southern communities. But soon a suspicion grew that turned their focus to family. The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. The only link between the three families was a beautiful and aristocratic young mother names Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child "princess" and fraternity sweetheart have committed such barbarous crimes? And what about her gun-loving first cousin and lover, Fritz Klenner, sone of a nationally renowned doctor?
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 44 more book reviews
Excellent read for fans of true crime books.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 335 more book reviews
The first bodies found were those of a feisty millionaire widow and her beautiful daughter in their posh Louisville, Kentucky, home. Months later, another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law were found savagely slain in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mystified police first suspected a professional in the bizarre gangland-style killings that shattered the quiest tranquility of two well-to-do southern communities. But soon a suspicion grew that turned their focus to family. The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. The only link between the three families was a beautiful and aristocratic young mother named Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child "princess" and fraternity sweetheart have committed such barbarous crimes? And what about her gun-loving first cousin and lover, Fritz Klenner, son of a nationally renowned doctor?
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 47 more book reviews
excellent
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 52 more book reviews
Very interesting story.
romeo avatar reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 334 more book reviews
The dying began on a Sunday. A feisty millionare widow and her beautiful daughter are murdered gangland style in their big house in Louisville, Kentucky. Months later another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law are also slain one night in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The mystified police first suspect a professional killer, then turn their focus on family.
The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. Three well-to-do families, all linked by an aristocratic young mother, Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child princess and one time fraternity sweetheart, the daughter, granddaughter, ex-sister and ex-daughter-in-law, be involved in these murders? And what about her close and obsessive first cousin, Fritz Klenner, who dreams of succeeding his nationally known successful doctor father?
In this tightly wound and unrelenting tale, events build to a horrifyingly dramatic and shattering conclusion that leaves the remaining family members and the citizens of two states devastated.
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 130 more book reviews
Riveting true crime story. One of the best I've read!
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 18 more book reviews
A true story of Southern family pride, madness and multiple murder.
Readnmachine avatar reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 1440 more book reviews
True crime story of murder, madness, and obsession in the mid-80s, as a child-custody battle escalates into mayhem and ends in tragedy.

Bledsoe loses points for bloating the book with entirely too much backstory about not only the protagonists (and their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents), but gets some back for carrying on after where many true-crime tales would have ended, discussing the impact of the crimes and their aftermath, not only on the families of the victims but on the law enforcement officers involved
reviewed Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder on + 88 more book reviews
If you like true crime, you don't want to miss this one. The author does a great job researching this story, and making it read like a novel. I really like the way he writes.