Dying for Daddy: The True Story of a Family's Worst Nightmare by
Carlton Smith
My rating:
3 of 5 stars
The real events of Dying for Daddy took place in Sacramento County, California in the 1990's. Jack Barron's 34 year old wife Irene died suddenly, and no cause could be found. Perhaps it was a rare genetic disorder because in the next few years, both Jack's son and daughter died, both age four at their deaths. But officials began to have suspicions when Jack's mother died not long after his daughter. A genetic disorder was quickly ruled out.
Jack was the grieving widower, father, son... until he wasn't. Friends and family members began to question how four seemingly healthy people could die, all in the same family and all within years of each other. It seems to me that the first death was under very mysterious circumstances, but to wait until four are dead to investigate? That is unreal.
While I hate that this event occurred, I believe the writing could have been much better. Far too much description was wasted on the backgrounds of Jack's parents and grandparents. Much of the story was repetitive. The part where Jack is being questioned by police also went into far too much detail since basically Jack's only words (over and over) were, "I didn't do it." The reader doesn't need the word-for-word retelling of questioning that elicited the same response the entire time.
And worst of all, the book had no ending. It just stopped. We as readers did not find out if he was held over for trial, what that trial was like, or whether or not there even was a trial, and surely not the results. It literally just stopped. There is nothing worse. For these reasons, I can only say that the book was okay.
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