Everybody's Best Friend

Rating:
Summary: Quick and Dirty
Review: Because I live almost in the Rabinowitz's backyard, and because I am of the same religious persuasion as the murderer and his wife, I was obsessed with this horrible crime when it occurred, and read just about everything I could get my hands on, including the newspaper articles cited in this book. Many of us who live in the area experienced this crime on a visceral level--it became personal.

Therefore, I welcomed the slant of this book, which is the heretofore untold story of the inner workings of the case--how police, prosecutors, and the media overturned the slimy rock under which Craig Rabinowitz lived his sorry life. I found it absolutely fascinating, and read the entire book in one quick sitting, barely able to turn the pages fast enough, even though I know quite well what happened in the end.

There are, however, many problems with this book, several of which have been pounced upon by other reviewers. Yes, it's an obvious rush-to-the-publisher mishmash of facts and suppositions. It looked to me as if the author gave himself a quick (and inaccurate, in many cases) lesson on Philadelphia and environs, an equally quick introduction to Judaism, and a day on the Net downloading newspaper articles about the case. There are some ridiculous errors about Philadelphia, one being the name of the suburban railroad, which the author refers to as the Pennsylvania Railroad. That name hasn't been in use for almost 30 years; the local railroad in question is run by a much-maligned but still beloved company that is known to everybody within a 25-mile radius of Center City. The author further states that Merion, where the murder took place, is so terribly exclusive that it doesn't even have a train stop. Wrong...the train stops in Merion, and not all of Merion is wealthy or exclusive, although it is predominantly upscale. The author's description of the Delaware River as viewed from Penn's Landing made me wonder if there is another river somewhere that I might have missed?

The same obtains for the quick, presumptive statements on Judaism; there is a yiddish word for mothers-in-law cited in the text, but it's misspelled and misrepresented. Had I written the book, I would have cut way down on the ethnic information. Yes, Jewish people bury their dead as soon as possible, not because they aren't embalmed, but because of respect for the dead and the desire to return dust to dust. For that reason, yes, autopsies are frowned upon, but of course they are conducted if needed. And so forth.

AND...I agree that the "haunting photos" are a joke. Not only are just about all of them shots of the legal teams and police, but they are stock photos, not even candids from the trial or its aftermath. Sheesh, people, do not lie to me! That did make me furious. On the other hand, I have to say that the desire by some reviewers to get comments and aftermath from the close friends of the Rabinowitz family belies these people's very real, and so stated in the book, intense desire for privacy. These people have never granted any interviews of which I am aware, and I don't blame them. It's not easy to live with the fact that your best friend murdered his wife and bilked your family out of a small fortune. As for Rabinowitz's childhood, who cares? I get so sick of books that claim that because so-and-so's puppy died, he grew up to be a mass murderer.

The simple fact was--and is--that Craig Rabinowitz was the worst kind of sleaze, and that he got caught. Thank God. Had the author only waited a bit to complete his research, I think he might have written a truly good book. This one isn't bad if you want a quick and dirty read. But don't expect Ann Rule.

Rating:
Summary: Failed to dig under the surface
Review: I am an avid true crime reader. I was somewhat dissappointed in this book.The crime itself was a tragic case of a man who appeared to be "Mr Nice Guy" who strangles his young wife. We never get to really know Stefanie in any way, she is potrayed almost as a faceless victim. The book is predominatley about the police investigation and although that is intresting ,it never potrays all dimensions of this case. I feel as though I was simply reading a newspaper article in it's potrayal.The author needed to dig deeper.

Rating:
Summary: Portrait of the ultimate sociopath
Review: I had to laugh when Craig Rabinowitz was described on the cover of this book as a "devoted" husband. As the book will reveal, the only thing this loser ever showed "devotion" to was himself. I find it a mystery that a successful young attorney could be attracted to a fat, lazy, sex-obsessed leech who threw tantrums whenever things didn't go his way.

This guy used everybody: his family, his friends, his wife (who he murdered cold-bloodedly and tried to make the crime look like an accident)...even the stripper he was fooling around with (and who has, thankfully, faded into obscurity). To him, both marriage and life are a matter of "what's in it for me?"

I enjoyed the book, and don't understand why some readers gave it such low marks.

Rating:
Summary: pass on this book
Review: If you love true crime, then this book will bore you.
The writer couldn't generate any interest in the character or the story. This book was completely focused on the investigation not the story behind the crime...which gets old real fast. The endless back and forth chatter of the lawyers and the investigators was hard to read. I actually stopped reading this book, which I never do.
Terrible!

Rating:
Summary: A Dull Let Down
Review: The Rabinowitz murder was a featured case on the Discovery Channel's show The New Detectives. It was a fascinating forensic study but this book fails to show that. Instead, it offers long (HUGE) passages of dialouge. Dialouge that the author can not really know happened word for word. We don't need to read 3 pages of conversation when one paragraph of describing the convesation would have done the job.
The character of Craig Rabinowitz is completely unexamined. We know nothing of his childhood. His father's name is mentioned only twice and his mother does not make an appearance in the book until it halfway over. This man was obsessed with hookers and strippers. He was an accomplished con man who stole from his wife, his mother, his friends and acquaintances and was getting away with it. The book never tries to explain Craig it just wacks the reader with more boring diaglouge.
The character of Stephanie is also barely written about. What made such a bright, hardworking young woman love a fat, lazy lout?
The book reads like a slapdash-get-it-to-the-market-and-make-a-fast-buck job and left me feeling cheated.

Rating:
Summary: HIS WIFE'S WORST ENEMY...
Review: This book tells the story about a murder that shocked Philadelphia and its environs several years ago. When a man called 911 and reported that his wife was in the bath tub and did not appear to be breathing, police and paramedics rushed to the home. There, they found Craig Rabinowitz waiting for them, and in the bathtub, apparently dead, was his twenty nine year old wife, Stefanie.

Although there were virtually no visible signs of foul play on the body and hospital doctors later categorized the death as accidental, a wily and astute county coroner and forensic pathologist ordered a post-mortem on the body. That resulted in a finding of death by homicide. From the very beginning, the only real murder suspect was the husband, Craig Rabinowitz, whom the police discovered had a very dark side, much to the surprise and dismay of family and friends. The Craig Rabinowitz whom the police investigation uncovered was nothing like the Craig Rabinowitz family and friends had described.

The book reveals some of the tawdry details of the secret life that Craig Rabinowitz had led for some time. There is, however, no reconciliation of the Craig that friends and family knew with the secret Craig . The reader also comes away knowing very little about the murder victim. The treatment of those involved in this criminal scenario is quite superficial and repetitive. . Moreover, while there are photographs included in the book, none are of the crime scene. Most of the eight pages of photographs are of those affiliated with the investigation and prosecution of the case.

This tepid book is a quick and easy read, but only moderately interesting, at best, and will probably appeal only to avid fans of the true crime genre.

Rating:
Summary: Very easy read and good story
Review: This is a relatively short book, good true crime story, and a very quick read. It is a story about a man who had been living a lie and, instead of coming clean and embarassing himself in front of friends and family, decided to kill his wife in order to collect her substantial life insurance and "solve" all his problems. The book does not go into in-depth detail on much of anything -- the characters' lives, the investigation, or a trial (in fact, there was no trial in this case). The investigation part was very interesting, but this was not a tough investigative case, so things move on at a really good speed. There is just enough about the family members and close friends to add some emotion to the story. I recommend this book highly to any true-crime fan and to anyone wanting to check out true crime books for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: Very easy read and good story
Review: This is a relatively short book, good true crime story, and a very quick read. It is a story about a man who had been living a lie and, instead of coming clean and embarassing himself in front of friends and family, decided to kill his wife in order to collect her substantial life insurance and "solve" all his problems. The book does not go into in-depth detail on much of anything -- the characters' lives, the investigation, or a trial (in fact, there was no trial in this case). The investigation part was very interesting, but this was not a tough investigative case, so things move on at a really good speed. There is just enough about the family members and close friends to add some emotion to the story. I recommend this book highly to any true-crime fan and to anyone wanting to check out true crime books for the first time.