Considering this is my first Epinion in over 5 months, please bear with me as I have gotten a little rusty…
A couple of weeks ago, I was under the weather and decided to read a book in the hopes it would make me feel better. After searching my bookshelf for a book I had not read yet, I came across In A Child’s Name: The Legacy of a Mother’s Murder by the late Peter Maas and decided that this would be the next true crime book I would read. The book is about the murder of a young wife and mother from New Jersey named Teresa Taylor, and the person convicted of the gruesome crime—her husband, Kenneth Taylor.
Since I had already seen the movie, In A Child’s Name, starring Valerie Bertinelli and thought it was one of the best TV movies I had ever seen, I figured the book would be good too. Well, the book was not good—it was GREAT!
Much like the movie, the book was divided into two parts. The first part of the book dealt with the events that led to the murder of Teresa Taylor. The second part dealt with the highly publicized custody case that took place between Teresa’s family and Kenneth’s family in regards to who would care for Teresa and Kenneth’s son, Philip, who was an infant at the time of the murder and conviction.
In A Child’s Name (the book) went more in depth into the past of Kenneth Taylor as well as his state of mind. While the movie did a great job at portraying how manipulative this man was, the book goes even further by discussing how this man was at one point deemed a murderous psychopath, while his family had him on a pedestal.
On the other hand, other things stood out in the book, which is why I now preferred the book to the movie. In the movie, a great deal of information about Teresa was kind of left out in the movie (in my epinion to give it a more Hollywood feel). The movie made her seem like an angel who could do no wrong, and like Ken Taylor’s family did, put her on a pedestal. The book showed otherwise. To put it bluntly—the book showed she was human and wasn’t perfect. While none of the “new” information I read deemed her to be murdered in such a hideous way—or to be murdered at all for that matter, I still found it interesting to read the couple of eye opening things I read.
Peter Maas did an excellent job by telling the whole story and not once taking sides. He stayed neutral and stuck with the facts. Even though I had seen the movie numerous times, Peter Maas’ writing style and story had me wanting to continue to turn the page to see what happened next. His descriptions were accurate and not “sugar coated” and you could visualize the “characters” without actually needing to see the pictures in the book. I tell you now, very few books leave me with the feeling of not wanting to put it down—In A Child’s Name is one of them.
If you have ever seen the movie or you are just into true crime stories, check out In A Child’s Name: The Legacy of a Mother’s Murder by Peter Maas. While some of the descriptions are gruesome, it is an excellent book that was very well written. It may not be available in many stores because it is out of print, but I know that it can be purchased used from many online stores including Amazon.com and Half.com and can probably be checked out of the library. So, if I have peaked your curiosity, see about obtaining a copy of this book. Believe me true crime fans, a book like this is worth the money you spend on it or the time it takes to check it out—of course this is just my Epinion…
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