From Family Man to Family Killer: Exploring the Tragic Story of Chris Watts, the 'Hero Dad'

Rosie Coleman: Great book, written with empathy and fascinating without being gratuitous regarding the horrors of the crimes like many true crime books. The author comes as close as anyone has to answering the tough questions, the personality/ psychological and environmental factors that can converge to cause a person to commit such a horrible crime with no prior red flags or warnings. The author goes to great lengths to understand and dignify Shannan Watts, she is a full fledged person with strengths and weaknesses like all of us, not just a victim who will be remembered for her unthinkable death. Especially important since many people who read about this case actually assigned some of the blame to her.

United States on Nov 24, 2023

Molly M.: I think she did a very good job at her thoughtful "diagnose" but I was very disappointed she didn't thank Cheryln Cadle, because without that book, she wouldn't have had so many insights into Chris.

United States on Nov 24, 2023

Amazon Customer: Great read. Author gives very interesting insight into the psychological aspect of Chris Watts. Highly recommend this book, fast read too.

United States on Oct 19, 2023

Cindy Black: I have seen the Netflix documentary about baby-killer Chris Watts, and I have read the other prosaic yet thorough and very good biography. I bought this book because it seemed to suggest that it contained unusual and unknown insights as to why this seemingly spineless, boring doofus reared his head one day and became an _almost_-impressively vile, cunning and evilly rakish devil. Unfortunately the book is nothing but a rehash of the, better, biography, and cribs heavily from the repulsive text, _Letters from Christopher_, a collection of the imbecilic inmate’s letters from prison, collected and collated by an avaricious « Christian » fraud. As with the comparably far better biography of the family annihilator Jeffrey McDonald, _Fatal Vision_, this book devotes a large chunk of itself, approximately a third of the book, to an absurd, unreadable, swath of outdated pseudoscience about, you guessed it, narcissists, in addition to psychopaths, family destroyers and so on (not to be morbid, but this is juicy stuff. The author is to be commended for making even these discussions as boring as death. If you’re interested in a good analogy, look at John List and the many...

Canada on Aug 21, 2023

In_full_bloom 🌷🌼🌺💐🌸🌹In_full_bloom 🌷🌼🌺💐🌸🌹: Un mari. Un père. Un tueur. Chris Watts était un père de famille. Tout le monde, y compris sa famille, croyait cela. Pourtant, le 13 août 2018, il a assassiné Shanann, sa femme enceinte et ses deux jeunes filles, enterré Shanann et leur futur fils dans une tombe peu profonde et jeté les corps de leurs filles dans des réservoirs d’huile séparés. A ce jour, vivant derrière les barreaux, Watts incarne encore les traits de caractère qui l’ont fait tuer en premier lieu. Dans cette première et unique exploration psychologique des meurtres de la famille Watts, la psychothérapeute Lena Derhally a reconstitué le crime, les événements qui y ont mené et, surtout, ses croyances au sujet du « pourquoi », y compris le fait que Chris Watts — qui se décrit maintenant comme un « homme de Dieu » — n’a pas le moindre remords d'avoir tué sa famille. En utilisant la découverte de la police et d’autres sources, Derhally recrée la nuit des meurtres et l’enquête qui a suivi. Elle explore l’enfance, les familles d’origine, la rencontre et les premières relations de Shanann et Chris Watts. Elle examine également la double vie et la duplicité de Watts...

France on Oct 18, 2021

Lynda Kelly: This case has fascinated me since I first saw "that" lovely family photo and thought, "He looks too happy and loved-up to have done that, surely ?" A lovely-looking, happy little family......we just never know, do we ? I even thought he wasn't as shifty as people kept saying when I saw THAT interview with him, either.......probably because I was being shallow and just got taken in by how good-looking and quietly spoken he was. I always suspect most people straightaway of the worst transgressions but I just couldn't see it.......however, I do feel somewhat vindicated after reading this book and learning that nobody, nobody who knew him had a clue.......nobody saw it coming, let alone poor Shannan. It was such a godawful tragedy and such a needless one. The title of the book is heartbreaking in itself and speaks volumes......
It was shocking to read that those close to them would've had Shannan down as being unfaithful before the thought of Chris playing away.....I was highly irritated to read it was Tammy Lee, the polygraph expert, that first suggested to Chris that Shannan might've killed the babies so he killed her, because he went right from an interview with HER into the...

United Kingdom on Aug 07, 2020

Lil Miss from Michigan: Very good analysis of the Watts case. She does give footnotes, but they aren't very good ones. They're articles I've read before just because they were interesting - or when i, myself, was a victim of a sociopath. Almost all of them are online references rather than interviews she did with her colleagues or even with the family. I understand she's not attempting to diagnose this depraved individual, and the information she gives US very good and from reliable sources with reliable sources quoted within the articles (which is important) I'd just like to see more on his childhood which requires speaking with the family. Then again, how do you approach them?

It's repetitive on some info. Anytime an author says, "as mentioned previously" to me, they should just leave the information out completely because it's already been said. I call that "bloat" that increases the number of pages so they can maybe charge more for the book...if that's the plan.

HOWEVER, i personally read true crime specifically for the psychological aspects of it - to figure out (or try to) what the heck they're thinking and why people do what they do. To that end, this book just DID IT for me! It went...

United States on Feb 03, 2020

DMAE: I was drawn into the Watts family murder case immediately. From the very beginning of the media coverage, where Chris Watts was so clearly lying as he falsely and numbly pleaded for the safe return of his family, I was drawn into the case in order to figure out what exactly had happened. How is it possible that a seemingly happy family who looked so perfect on social media could wind up dead with one person in prison for life for their murders? I am not one to read a book cover-to-cover right away, but I did so with this book. I felt as though I knew everything about the case that had been previously supplied to the public, but this author provided articles, texts, and quotes from other individuals involved that I had never read or heard before.

I really appreciated the diagnostic breakdown of what the author felt was so dangerously different and wrong with Chris Watts. I also appreciated how she delved into the lust factor concerning Nicole Kessinger. I think most people are so quick to simply label Chris Watts as a sociopath, psychopath, and/or a narcissist without exploring what preceded the eruption of such dangerous behavior as well as the dynamics in play prior to the...

United States on Jan 06, 2020

Krista: I feel like this gave a good over view and breakdown of the case and Chris's personality. However I can't help but feel like a few avenues were really overlooked: the financial strain in the house (money is always a huge factor when it comes to stress) and the Thrive patches he was on. Chris stated that he was sleeping 3 hours a night and working out constantly. NK stated that he'd fall asleep mid-sentence and then wake up and continue as if nothing happened.

I also feel like if the rolls were reversed and Chris had been controlling the finances and Shannan had murdered him people would be saying "good on her."

I have no doubt that Chris has some kind of personality disorder. I also have no doubt that he chose to stay in a marriage even if he was unhappy and she was "controlling."

If the shoe were on the other foot, though, I think people would be far more sympathetic to any possible abuse he may have suffered.

That being stated I didn't see in the text messages anything weird about how Shannan was trying to engage with her husband.

In some ways I feel as if I've learned a lot but still don't know anything about what happened in the Watts...

Germany on Dec 16, 2019

Mrs. L. Crossley: This book was superbly written. It was accurate, informative, emotional and insightful. I’m from the U.K. and first heard about this case back in March 2019 so a little bit behind the majority of people in the United States. I was horrified but also captivated by all the information that came to light and found myself drawn to Shanann, Bella and CeCe’s story. I can safely say they have played a big part in my life since I found out what happened to them and always will.

Like so many, I could not understand how such a handsome, devoted, loving father and husband could suddenly switch like this. There are so many different theories out there waiting to be explored by armchair detectives online and people on YouTube but it still didn’t make sense to me.

Until this book.

Of course the author makes it known that she is not able to provide a definitive answer. She has not met Chris and so far he’s not underwent any psychological evaluations or examinations so all she had to go on was his actions, behaviour, the decisions he made before and after the murders as well as her significant expertise in psychology, relationships, human behaviour and her own...

United Kingdom on Dec 13, 2019