Have You Ever Heard of Dr. Dale and the Murders of his Two Sons?

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I was not familiar with this story, which is why I wanted to read the book. It sounded interesting - father who is a well-respected doctor in a small town is accused of shooting two of his sons 7 years apart. Even after his conviction (#spoileralert), the town (AKA his patients) was so smitten with Dr. Dale that they rallied around him and supported him.

It sounds crazy. It is. I wasn't a huge fan of this book. The murders were not really huge mysteries and details of the murders are barely touched on in the book. I was half way through the book until I ever got to the first murder, which I thought was a long time to have to read about Dale's backstory, childhood, and psychological issues. I'm sure the author was building this up to show how Dale could have committed these murders - because something was "off" in his head. I appreciated this, but I thought it was too long. After all the backstory and background on Dale, a psychiatrist was never mentioned in the book or a psychiatric evaluation. At least if it was, it was not brought up by the author. I would love to hear what he was diagnosed with, if anything, to give me some finality on why he is the way he is.

The second half of the book gets into the murders, follows the detectives who are investigating the murders, and ultimately covers his trial. This guy was seriously messed up. But I really needed to hear some psychological explanation for his actions, and that was not mentioned.

I think it's a great book if you're studying criminal psychology or forensic psychology. And if you are, and you read it, please enlighten us on what you think his condition was!