Murder in the Family

By: Burl Barer

Narrated by: James Edward Thomas

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

On March 15th, 1987 police in Anchorage, Alaska arrived at a horrific scene of carnage. In a modest downtown apartment, they found Nancy Newman's brutally beaten corpse sprawled across her bed. In other rooms were the bodies of her eight-year-old daughter, Melissa, and her three-year-old, Angie, whose throat was slit from ear to ear. Both Nancy and Melissa had been sexually assaulted.

After an intense investigation, the police narrowed the principal suspect down to 23-year-old Kirby Anthoney, a troubled drifter who had turned to his uncle, Nancy's husband John, for help and a place to stay. Little did John know that the nephew he took in was a murderous sociopath capable of slaughtering his beloved family.

This true story, shocking and tragic, stunned Anchorage's residents and motivated the Major Crimes Unit of the Anchorage Police Department to do everything right in their investigation. Feeling the heat as the police built their case, Kirby bolted for the Canadian border. But the cops were on to him. First they hunted him down; then the cops and a tenacious prosecutor began their long, bitter battle to convict him against an equally tough defense lawyer, as well as the egomaniacal defendant himself. This shocking tale reached its climax in a controversial trial where for the first time an FBI profiler was allowed to testify and the controversial, pre-DNA science of allotyping was presented to a jury. But justice would not be served until after the psychopathic Kirby Anthoney took the stand in his own defense - and showed the world the monster he truly was.

©2000 Burl Barer (P)2016 ListenUp Production, LLC

great!

What a great book this was! Very well written all the way around. Narration was outstanding. Burl should have been a lawyer!

A Monotonous Read

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes and no...yes because this story was a look into the mind of a very sick man. No because it was a long drawn out monotonous read of mostly lawyers arguing in court.

What other book might you compare Murder in the Family to and why?

I haven't read another listened to another book quite like this one. Long drawn out unnecessary details and arguing.

What three words best describe James Edward Thomas’s voice?

Voice was fine

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Any additional comments?

No

Could Have Been An Article Rather Than Book

Kept my interest. However, feel it could have been an article rather than a whole book. I could have done with a little less of the courtroom story. The crime was horrendous and tough to hear, but there are evil people at there.

Amazing

The amount of detail and compassion put forth in the research and writing of this book is second to none. I originally discovered this book while listening to the True Murder podcast and just had to purchase the book afterwards. It is simultaneously phenomenal and heartbreaking. If you are a fan of the True Crime genre this is an absolute must read.

Narration very good

I could picture everyone individually with this narrator. One of the best I've heard. Really good story but the crime was so horrific I think way way more back story was needed on the perpetrator and his relationship with the victims. The victims only ever are portrayed as just that. You know them dead and that's it. So good story but I wasn't really invested and this crime should shake a person to their core and I just kept hearing the writer say how bad it was. Still good and would definitely recommend.

Chilling True Crime Tale

What made the experience of listening to Murder in the Family the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed all the details about and around the trial. The lawyers went to battle. The way the author presented the information really had me thinking the verdict could have gone either way. The graphic details about the murders was a bit much, and they seemed to have been repeated several times.

interesting and involved

some of the trial information dragged and got bogged down. why are many narrators so hard to listen to? anyway, overall, pretty good, very graphic, interesting.

Chilling!

This book has kept me listening the entire time. The story is unbelievable and throughout you have to remind yourself that this really happened.

Didn't follow the advice given him by Jack Olsen

This is largely a full transcript of the trial. He states that Jack Olsen advises writers to look into the mind of the criminal and Jack is the MASTER of that. This is just a transcript trial. Nicely written but not what I enjoy in true crime. The narrator mispronounces many words and sounds like a bored computer.

Great story! Will choose this author again.

What did you love best about Murder in the Family?

I loved the backstory and the character development.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

I enjoyed the scientific evidence and its descriptions.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The pace was good. The narrator had a strange, lilting cadence where he emphasized words in a sentence that should not have been emphasized.

Any additional comments?

This book was long which made it worth the price. I loved the court room scenes and I felt like it was a story that deserved to be written about.