Every Mother's Nightmare (Onyx True Crime)

The information and characterization was well developed. It read more like a novel than true crime...all good. However the editor should be fired for incompetence. Among many other errors, corner is not spelled Comer and torn is not spelled tom. There were many incomplete sentences, and run on ones. Some words were so messed up, I could not find a word or words that might be the correct one. Three dictionaries were stumped, as well.

Tyler Winzen was but a toddler when he was found floating dead in a bathtub. Also dead in the same time was Stacy Price, a young woman in her mid-teens. This book is the story of Mari Kane and Jude Govreau's horrid trip through the justice system that did everything to protect the guilty and almost connived to deny peace to the innocent. Mari Kane is Tyler's mother with Jude the mother of Stacy. They were murdered by a friend of Mari's ex-husband and Tyler's father, Eugene Fleer. It was a mess of a crime, with another innocent, Mari's husband's friend. First, let me say that this book was extremely well-written. Author Charles Bosworth, Jr. is touted on the book cover as a NY Times best-selling author. I believe it. This was a complicated, and at times very dry with the details. But Bosworth did one helluva job conjugating nouns and verbs and with just a bit of concentration I was able to understand all the details. Not that this horrid crime should have to be understood. It was the act of the meanest and nastiest among us and yet the prosecutor took its time, a sheriff failed to notify the jurors and a witness caused a mistrial. There was a lot of drug dealing in this crime and events leading up to it. All of the "players" were involved with drugs, including, sadly but very much part of the story, young Tyler's mother. The motive for the murder has never been established. Some believe Fleer killed the kids to hurt Tyler's father, Steve Winzen. Some believe it was an attempted sexual assault on young Stacy. The story is compelling and I could not put it down. One character in the book, a Patricia Stallings, had been convicted unfairly and that case's effect on these murders is eerie. Every time the cock crowed some "harm" had been done to the defendant and in one incident, the entire court case was declared a mistrial. The suffering of those mothers as they tried to get justice for their children is very well documented, good use of language but not overdone and very believable. Download this book and give it a thorough read. Your mind will spin with the state of justice of late.

Riveting powerful, frustrating, heartbreaking all rolled up into one true nightmare story. I went to school with the babysitter, remember that scary summer day, terrified until the killer was arrested (even though I lived in the next town over), and reading the news accounts in next few years that followed. I also knew a few of the legal folks from the case. The author is true to form with the personalities of the characters, things that happened, description of THAT day. Oh I remember the weather that day very well 30+ years later. Mr. Bosworth's writing nails the details very well. One would hope this is only a novel but sad to say there is not a grain of fiction this book; it is true horrific crime to the end.

I gave this three stars because the proofing and editing was so terrible. For the cost of the ebooks, publishers can afford to do a better job. There were numerous misspellings, skipped words, grammatical, and punctuation errors throughout the book. The worst part is that these are things that could be caught with a simple grammar and spell check. Readers deserve that much in a purchase. The story was gripping. It shows the morass survivors are faced with in wading through the police and courts in an attempt at getting justice for victims. It was even more heartbreaking because the victims were children; one a young lady just beginning her transition from child to teen looking forward to adulthood and the other a brighter than average toddler whose full potential was cut short. It was tragic that the police were so content to lay the blame on Lester Howlett with all the red flags indicating he was not the perpetrator. It was the easy path and they attempted to thwart any efforts of the victim's families to do more than a cursory investigation until pushed by the district attorney. However, most people who have not dealt with the justice system do no realize that it not as easy as it is portrayed in films and on television. Even with the best police work, it can take months or years to build a case. The district attorney must determine if the case is sufficient to go to trial, room has to be made on the docket to begin the trial and that is dependent on how backed up the case load is, and defense attorneys can delay the process even further with various pre-trial motions. It is not the best of all possible worlds and the justice system is not perfect but it works more often than not in spite of its flaws. This book is excellent in keeping the focus on the victim's families and the victims. Stacey and Tyler will remain in the hearts and minds of the readers. The ordeal of Jude and Mari to get justice for their children will not go unnoticed. The sad part, besides the senseless loss of these children, is the impact on the survivors and the people devoted to helping them. I do recommend this book for the important of the subject matter but the editing leaves a lot to be desired.

Great read

A brilliantly written book covering every detail over these two mother's five year ordeal. The women worked so hard it is truly commendable. A disturbing but must read.

Tragic story of a monster that killed for absolutely no reason, though there are never "good" reasons most killers try and justify themselves and their actions, this was so horrific and pointless ending two young lives before they had even properly started, the writing I found to be a bit disjointed......the author in some parts, to me, seemed to plod from one point to the next and I had to re-read to find the flow of the point they were making. Apart from that quite a good read.

A sad story, but turgid and repetitive. In need of some hard editing, and correction of the typos, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. I gave up after the first few chapters - too many extraneous characters and too detailed description of the mothers' agonies and hysteria. (We can imagine for ourselves the depth of their distress - we don't need every fainting fit described.) I haven't deleted it from my Kindle yet - I might skip a big chunk and go back to it.

Didn't finish it - slow, pedantic