Mary M. (emeraldfire) - , reviewed on 6/9/2013

The story no one else can tell...except perhaps a family member. What happens if, after being given up for adoption as a child, you reestablish contact with your biological family - only to discover that your true brother is a killer? Anne Bird, the sister of Scott Peterson, knows firsthand. She gives her account of her brother's marriage and his disturbing behavior - and tells how she realized that her brother was capable of murder.

Soon after her birth in 1965, Anne was given up for adoption by her mother, Jackie Latham. Welcomed into the well-adjusted Grady family, she lived a happy life. Then, in the late 1990s, she got back in contact with her birth mother - now married - and her family, including Jackie's son, Scott Peterson, and his wife, Laci. Anne was welcomed into the family, and over the next several years she grew close to Scott and especially Laci.

Together they shared holidays, family reunions, trips to Disneyland. Anne and Laci even became pregnant at roughly the same time, and the two quickly became confidantes. On Christmas Eve 2002, Laci Peterson went missing, and the happy facade of the Peterson family began to crumble. Anne immediately rushed to the family's aid, joining in the search for Laci, even allowing Scott to stay in her home while the police attempted to find his pregnant wife. Yet Scott's behavior grew increasingly more bizarre as the search for Laci intensified, and Anne grew suspicious that her brother knew more about the situation than he was telling. She began keeping a list of Scott's disturbing quirks. And by the time Laci's body - and that of her unborn son, Conner - were found, Anne was becoming convinced: Her brother Scott Peterson had murdered his wife and unborn child in cold blood.

Filled with news-making revelations as well as intimate glimpses of Scott and Laci, the Peterson family, and the investigation that followed the murder, Blood Brother: 33 Reasons my Brother Scott Peterson is Guilty is a provocative account of how long-dormant family ties dragged one woman into one of the most notorious crimes of our time.

I have to say that while I generally enjoy reading about true crime, I prefer reading books about certain crimes told from the family's perspective - about the personal effects of that specific crime on them as members of the family, or of the search for justice for their loved one. I give this book a definite A+! It was well-written and easy for me to read and I truly sympathized with Anne and the difficult position that she found herself in.

Anne Bird went through so much due to her initial support of the Peterson family and her preliminary belief in Scott Peterson's innocence. Her marriage suffered, but as the police investigation revealed more and more inconsistencies in Scott's alibi, Anne eventually had to choose between her burgeoning loyalty to the Peterson family and her lasting loyalty to her husband and two sons - knowing that as her own sons grew up, they deserved to know their mother's thoughts on such a infamous crime.

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