Ginette B. (Niteowl7) reviewed on 10/14/2005 + 242 more book reviews

This book is a thorough account of the horrible murder of Ernie Bendel, Alice Bendel and their 8 year old daughter. All because of Chris' greed and illusions about himself and his abilities. Thinking himself a savvy commodities investor, he is, in reality, a con man. Ernie becomes incensed when Chris "loses" Ernie's $15,000 investment and reports Chris to some governing board. Despite Chris' pleas, Ernie refuses to drop his report. Everything comes down on Chris all at once. His landlord wants him out of his office since he's very late for his rent; his wife serves divorce papers on him; he's kicked out of his home with no place to live; the car he uses is his father-in-laws and is taken from him; and, the commodities fraud agency is sending 2 men to check his books. Chris knows they'll find illegal activity on his part which will cause him to lose his license and never be able to practice in the commodities field again. As terrible as this avalanche of woes is, the reader is shown clearly how Chris' greed and overestimation of himself caused all these problems. Unable to take responsibility for his own actions, Chris turns all his rage against Ernest Bendel. The book's title "Death of an Angel" is really about two adults and their little girl, Emily's murder. However, Emily was the innocent "angel" in this case and she's the one that galvanizes law enforcement into finding the killer. This book, though very sad, is hard to put down despite some unnecessary details. Do we really need to know Emily's social security number? It's mentioned once and never enters the case. Then Chris gives a long, convoluted account of what happened which is all based on lies. A true sociopath with no hint of remorse whatsoever. I didn't feel the authors' needed to write the whole testimony which I ended up skipping much of out of boredom.
I found myself getting frustrated, as I often do, when a killer can't be indicted for murder despite the wealth of cicumstantial evidence. It was only when the bodies of the 3 victims were found was the murder indictment put into place.

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