Rating: 
Summary: Shameless Drivel
Review: I waited a year before I could voice my opinion on this book. Why? The poor and misguided research mixed with the bad writing skills of the author made me laugh so hard, I had to wait! She left out key facts about Mr. Rowe (his childhood? his relationship with co-workers/his brother? His "other" relationships before he met that looney Colleen? Colleens past (obviously messed up)? His manipulative behavior which was obviously the one constant in his miserable life?). The author chose to write the book even though the facts are distorted or are missing entirely. Thank God this book dropped quicker than a stone in water! Don't buy this...!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Something's Missing
Review: This book was a huge disappointment. I felt little knowledge and insight into the killer's mind. Many people have medically involved children and do not commit such horrific acts. The bludgeoning of his family had to some from a source of fierce anger and the cause of that wasn't explained at all . His attitude towards the crime was totally unbelievable.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to swallow...
Review: So a man can kill his family and be mainstreamed in a few years...while Andrea Yates and Susan Smith are seen as monsters - candidates for the death penalty/life imprisonment. Boy, is this ever a lesson in gender inequity.
The author tries to convince us, by showing us how "good" the murderer really is and the difficulties of raising a disabled child, that this is a special case situation. At least, that's how it feels. I don't believe in the death penalty, but I think this guy got off easy, except, of course, for his own conscience...maybe if he'd received truly compensatory justice he wouldn't have had to suffer his own miserable thinking.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth Paying for the Hard Back
Review: I borrowed this book from the library because I didn't want to pay the hard-back price for a book I might not like. This is such an excellent book, I know now that I wouldn't have minded paying for it. I highly recommend it. And, believe me, I'm very hard to please. That's why I usually get books from the library.I'm sorry the author hasn't written other books like this one. After I read it, I got another nonfiction book she's written, and it bored me.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply thought-provoking
Review: Julie Salamon is a fine journalist. The Devil's Candy is one of the best behind-the-scenes books ever written about Hollywood movie-making. She has the rare ability to observe and narrate the details of what is happening without ever intruding upon the facts by pushing her personal opinions at the reader. That is also true of this highly affecting tale, even though Salamon herself is actually involved in the final portion of the book. I found Facing The Wind fascinating but heavy-going. I don't think there was any other possible way for the author to get the story told, and to compel us to consider the horror inherent in knowing a man who, in the depths of emotional anguish and extreme mental turmoil, killed his family. In examining this "life after death," Salamon puts a positively biblical dilemma on the table for us to consider: Does a man who takes the lives of his family while mentally ill have the right to a "second" life upon returning to a sane state? Does he have the right to practise law? And how/why does a young woman not only marry this man but live with the truth of what he's done? The first section, dealing with the parents of blind and/or disabled children is informative, harrowing and inspiring; everyone comes fully to life, which is why the second and third parts of the book work so well: because we've been fully introduced to all the people and their children. We've also had a crash course in the monstrous difficulties encountered as the parent(s) of disabled children. This is a book that will have you debating with yourself for hours, even days after you've finished. It is a very important book, not only because it offers in-depth insight into just how hard it is to be one of those parents, but also because it helps put "normal" parenting into a different perspective--just possibly making us feel that much luckier at having "whole" children. Most highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Some Things We Will Never Understand
Review: I read this book because I have two disabled children, along with three other children. I had read in a review that "parents of disabled children" might just have a different reaction to the book than, say, a "regular" reader might. But none of us are let off the hook that easily. Not me and not you. The author, Julie Salomon, has constructed a book so complex in its levels, so nonjudgemental in its reporting, and so well crafted in its writing, I was just...stunned, at the end. I was stunned to have finished a book that I couldn't just toss into the category of: "Oh, she'll never understand what a monster that man was", or "Oh! mental illness is the explanation...let us have compassion" or " Oh! She wants me to think THIS way, or THAT way..." There is no pat answer provided by this book to this awful set of murders committed by this human being who destroyed his family and his own life, by so doing. It doesn't matter that he is "redeemed" by his devoted second wife, and their child. For it is not, in fact redemption. It is merely existence until his own death that we see unfold before us. This is a very sad book, written very well, absolutely NOT a true crime story, but rather a story of human frailty and the manner in which we deal with it. You want to hate this man for killing his family, but in the end...if you do...you lose a piece of you own soul, in the sense that you have passed judgement where there is no judgement required to be passed. It has been meted out already, his suffering quite clear.
Rating:
Summary: A MANY-LAYERED BOOK ABOUT "ORDINARY" PEOPLE
Review: This is another mesmerizing study of the psychology of human beings and the strange, confounded, surprising things they sometimes do. It is similar to The Adversary in that both men killed their families "out of the blue", but this book is much more of a journalistic study and asks real questions, all revolving around the single word "Why?" The author Julie Salamon is a journalist of the highest order. She tells a shocking story in a straight-forward manner which makes it seem even more shocking. This is about a lawyer, a family man who was loved and respected, raising three young children, one of them severely handicapped. He came unstrung one day and killed all the kids and his wife. He served 2 years, then was released and tried to get his law license back, married and had another child. It is chilling. There are many people involved in this story, not the least of which are a group of mothers brought together by their children's handicaps. The book reads like the best of mysteries, the best of medical/psychological journals, the best of true crime, the best of those shocking articles we read in our newspapers about "ordinary" people . . . I wish there were photos in the book. I am sure all involved looked like "regular people". This story is presented in so many layers, that when I finished the book I felt like plunging ahead in research, hoping against reason to find some answers. The book is a page-turner to say the least! It is a great book. It deserves a larger audience. I read it in two nights because I couldn't put it down. Now, I feel I have nothing to do, nothing to read that will compare with the emotions I felt while reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Touching, Riveting, Well-written
Review: I found this story of how one family in particular, and others in the support group that the author writes about, to be very touching and riveting on many levels. First of all, is there any parent or loved one in existence with a non-handicapped, somewhat "normal" child around who isn't saying to himself or herself, "There for the he grace of God go I". Secondly, it is interesting to hear about how the other families, in addition to the Rowe's, tried to cope with their individual, family situation. Thirdly, who can not be struck by the irony that the Rowe family and in fact Bob Rowe himself, who was deemed by the group as a "model", was the very one/person which in the end could not handle the ongoing trauma of living and dealing with handicapped children in the household? Fourthly, the story of Colleen and her response to Rob Rowe is in itself an interesting one. Enhancing the story was the deliberate, but well-written style the author employs. In her straightforward, but not plodding method, the author manages to magnify the questions raised by all the principals. This is a book that raises alot of interesting questions and emotions and touches the heart. The author does an excellent job, and I recommend this book fully.
Rating:
Summary: Attention True Crime Readers
Review: Fans of Ann Rule should like this book. Although Julie Salamon does not delve into the motivation of Bob Rowe as much as I would have liked, she nonetheless tells a fascinating story of mental illness, murder and the hardships of raising a handicapped child. The unusual twist to this story is the debate between what is guilt, innocence, or "not guilty by reason of mental defect".
Rating:
Summary: Well Written Soap Material
Review: I can see where the hook is with this story. As a avid soap fan, I can see where the author has created a successful merging of real facts and emotional, passionate literary devices employed by the screen writers for the soaps. The villian, who seen as good at the end, dies in a way great soap characters go.... as a little misunderstood person. Classic soap material, friends. That's why it appealed to me.
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