Because You Loved Me by M.William Phelps

Jeanne Dominico's fiance found her body on her kitchen floor. More than forty stab wounds and blows to her head with a blunt instrument had cut her life short. What monster had struck in the heart of a peaceful New England town?
Jeanne was a hard-working single mother. Nicole, her fourteen-year-old daughter was on the honor-roll and head over heels in love with an eighteen-year-old man she'd known only through the Internet. Once the lovers met in person, Jeanne's motherly instincts sensed trouble. If only she'd known that the life in danger was her own.
With a history of psychological trouble and family misfortune, Billy Sullivan's obsessive and controlling power over Nicole contributed to the brutal slaying of her mother. But it was Nicole's stunning confession and guilty plea that led to Billy's sensational trial, where a sordid tale of love, loss, betrayal and murder finally took a cold-blooded killer offline,and on line for justice.

I remember being about 11/12 years old and having this massive crush on a boy,the nephew of my aunt's husband.His name was Charles.I wrote all over the walls in the house " Cookie loves Charles" "Charles Loves Cookie"(my family nickname is Cookie).I wrote his name on any fruit I could find and would keep the fruit until it virtually became a goldmine for the fruit flies.My grandparents were under strict instruction to not throw it away.I also did word games where you write out the boy's full name and your own full name.You cross out the letters of the alphabet which appear in both names and then you tick off the remaining ones with "love" "like" "hate" and the last one it falls on is the one which applies.I would then jump up and down with absolute joy shouting "he loves me,he loves me".I would practise my married signature and how I would sign once we got married.And all this about a boy who would cross the road in front of oncoming traffic to avoid speaking to me,bringing truth to the words "I would rather die than speak to that person".

I included the above "relationship" to give you an idea of the relationship that these two youngsters had in this book,the same ridiculous and childish relationship which in order to protect,they both conspired and caused the death of a loving and dedicated mother,Jeanne Dominico.

M Willam Phelps is as usual writing with each and every detail included in his book.That is the only weakness of his.After reading his foreword I am starting to understand that he does this because he is worried to leave out anything which the reader might find important or interesting.I think he just absolutely needs to give you the entire story but I thought describing an expert witness with shiny black hair was a bit much.In this case I think his credentials would have been sufficient.I do however still enjoy reading his books so I just take all the info in stride and glide along.Just takes a bit of getting used to if it is the first book of his you are reading.

I was shocked while reading this story especially when it turned out to be exactly the sort of relationship the mother had warned about.I am left with a few burning questions of my own.How do you bring up a daughter to be secure and know that you truly love her?How do you make sure that a mentally disturbed person does not come around and shake the very foundation that you,as a parent,struggled for years to build in your child? Is it really always the parents fault how their children turn out?This mother,Jeanne Dominico was highly independent and believed in paying her own way,all the way,and was bringing up her children virtually single handledly.You will pick up from the story that she did not think highly of dependent women.And yet her own daughter ended up being a co-dependent.

I found this book to be interesting despite the sometimes slow moving sections and excessive attention to detail.The pace does pick up eventually hence I would recommend this book.I also enjoyed the fact that there was quite a bit of the book dedicated to the background and childhood of the main characters.And what an absolutely appropriate title Because You Loved Me...

For readers from South Africa who would like to find out more on this book please access via Kalahari Books and for readers who would like to access some more reviews then the Amazon link below will provide that
Because You Loved Me (Pinnacle True Crime)

I read this book in May 2009.Here are some more details of the book if you would like to access via another bookstore.

Country: United States of America
Format: Mass market paperback
Publisher: Pinnacle Books,U.S.
ISBN: 9780786017836
Publication date: December 2007
Pages: 429
Illustrations: Illustrated