Review: Very informative , non biased
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2013
This book was well researched and written with a clearly non biased approach.The confounding story of the Betty Broderick case has been approached by myriad books and TV segments.  Most,if not all, with a clear biased depending on who was interviewed for the piece.This book, The Twelfth of Never kept me absolutely rivited from the very beginning.Ms. Stumbo really takes us on the long journey from New York, where Daniel T. Broderick lll and Elisabeth (Betty) Besceglia first met. Both from Irish Catholic families and all the inherent dynamics that would be instilled in them to beautiful and tony San Diego, California where Dan was quickly  ensconced in a prestigious law firm. Meanwhile, Betty was a stay at home super mom raising their 4 children. After 15 years and a meteoric rise in the social life of San Diego,  Dan has an affair with his receptionist, falls in love, and asks Betty for a divorce.What followed was a 7 year journey of malice, lies,  punitive legal wrangling and manipulation. After they finally divorced Dan and his lover, Linda Kolkena, married.Still feeling punished and after losing her place in society and also losing her children, Betty felt she had lost everything.The author then takes us into the mind of a desperate woman who only could see one way out of this morass of public humiliations and threats. On a pre dawn mission to rid herself of the people she blamed for the ruination of her perfect life she took a gun and shot Dan and Linda  and killed them as they lie asleep.The rest of the book deals with the murder trials. The first was a hung jury. The second a conviction of two second degree murder charges.I really enjoyed this fascinating book. I highly recommend it to any true crime fan.