An Unexplained Death

The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere

By: Mikita Brottman

Narrated by: Mikita Brottman

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

This program is read by the author. An Unexplained Death is an obsessive investigation into a mysterious death at the Belvedere - a once-grand hotel - and a poignant, gripping meditation on suicide and voyeurism.

“The poster is new. I notice it right away, taped to a utility pole. Beneath the word ‘Missing’, printed in a bold, high-impact font, are two sepia-toned photographs of a man dressed in a bow tie and tux.”

Most people would keep walking. Maybe they’d pay a bit closer attention to the local news that evening. Mikita Brottman spent 10 years sifting through the details of the missing man’s life and disappearance and his purported suicide by jumping from the roof of her own apartment building, the Belvedere.

As Brottman delves into the murky circumstances surrounding Rey Rivera’s death - which begins to look more and more like a murder - she contemplates the nature of and motives behind suicide and uncovers a haunting pattern of guests at the Belvedere, when it was still a historic hotel, taking their own lives on the premises. Finally, she fearlessly takes us to the edge of her own morbid curiosity and asks us to consider our own darker impulses and obsessions.

©2018 Mikita Brottman (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Dull and many tangents

I will be honest, I only listened to the first chapter. Not only did I find the narration dull, but the author went off on multiple tangents during this chapter alone. I was looking for the story of Rey Rivera, not multiple tangents.

Fascinating story and superb writing.

Enthralling story. I love the way the writer weaves in and out of the Rivera story with personal observations and other morbid curiosities in general. Fascinating storytelling of a number of mysterious deaths at the Belvedere Hotel. Not a big fan of the narrator's voice or sound quality of the recording, but the story and writing was engaging enough to get past it.

Unusual Style and very well written

Very interesting book but not what I expected at all. Makita is a very fine author. She keeps the reader interested in the topic without a problem. She isn’t shy discussing her vulnerabilities. And she shares an in depth knowledge of a topic that I had never considered and I found that fact strangely enlightening.

Suicide

I think the author did a fantastic job with this book, covering all possible aspects to Ray Rivera’s death along with interweaving other stories. I partially agree with the author’s determination, but I believe Rivera committed suicide. I’ve investigated many suicides and not having any apparent motive is not only common, but very normal. There’s also no way it was murder. No one could chuck an over six foot, 220 pound man off of a roof. Also no one could make him jump. He either felt regret, guilt, job dissatisfaction, or great or potential failure. While I won’t discount mental issues like the author suggests, I think Rivera wanted to create a mystery with his death; to make people question his suicide and create doubt.

Really good info!

I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t agree that Rey jump voluntarily. I thought the writer told an interesting story. A lot of people might not like the extra stories but I think she filled in an 8 hr book quite nicely:)

Hard to follow!!

This book is a hard listen. It didn’t really stay on topic. One minute they were talking about the topic of Rey Rivera the next minute they’re talking about their obsession with vintage trunks.

don't waste your money

this is a rambling, often off-topic and self embellishing pile of garbage with little factual insight into the death of Rey Rivera.

The self pity tangents and lack of new facts.

A whole lot of speculation and tangents that clearly push the authors agenda (which, again, is built from speculation). Nothing new or groundbreaking in terms of information surrounding the death of Rey Rivera. Author went on self-pity tangents detailing her belief that she is “invisible” and easy to forget. This turned out to be less a book of facts about the case and more the author’s stream of consciousness. In the 11+ years it took her to “investigate” this case, she got nowhere and filled all the gaps with loosely related or completely unrelated information.

For example, in one part of the book, the author asked guests at a dinner party (not experts in the case as far as I know), whether they heard the rumor that Rey Rivera was secretly gay and meeting men at the Belvedere Hotel. Supposedly the police had alluded to this because the Belvedere had sometimes been a covert meet up spot for gay men. One of the guests had told her to look up someone’s name. When she did, it was a completely unrelated case where in two men who both were married to women, but who may or may not have also been in a relationship, checked into a hotel. The next morning at check out, the one man was not able to enter the other man’s room so he waited for him in the lobby, and as it turns out, his friend had supposedly either fallen or jumped out his window and was found outside sometime that morning.

The point of that anecdote was to show that a man who was married to a woman, but who may or may not have been with another man, probably killed himself either accidentally or on purpose by jumping out the window of a hotel. How this possibly constitutes proof that Rey Rivera’s death was a suicide is beyond me. I don’t know if anyone doubts that men sometimes carry on affairs with other men at hotels, but it seems to have been a significant piece of the authors puzzle. It’s a whole lot of that.

She discusses how she spent money on a private investigator who ghosts her half the time, then gives her no useful leads or information, and then finally hits on her, hoping for a hookup after he’d gotten divorced and how it made her feel like he didn’t take her seriously. Why we needed to know that, I have no idea. I was here to read about Rey Rivera, not Mikita Brottman’s daily musings.

Check. Onto the next book.

Too much about the author that doesn't relate

I struggled to finish. 1/3 could be cut to make this more concise. I'm fine with info about the author that relates to the subject, but personal information about saving birds, love of rats, etc, is not needed.

Reinforces mental illness theory

The author basically ends up siding with the FBI theory of him jumping off the building due to schizophrenia and other unsubstantial diagnosis. Waste of a credit.