Avery: The Case Against Steven Avery and What Making a Murderer Gets Wrong was a good read by Ken Kratz with Peter Wilkinson. The Netflix series Making a Murderer left many people thinking Steven Avery had been framed by a corrupt police force and district attorney’s office for the murder of a young photographer. Ken Kratz, the special prosecutor, is the villain of the series. He headed the investigation and trial, and later dealt with prescription drug abuse and sexual harassment. This book tell about the things that the series didnt from Ken Kratz perspective. I enjoyed reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.

I;m sorry but Ken Kratz is a disgusting human being! he is slimy and creepy and this book is very one sided and the story he leads you to believe that is true on the tv series!!

A decent 'devil's advocate' book to offer a different side to Avery's story.

This was a really interesting read. I had watched the Netflix series over a year ago now and was fully taken in by their side of events. This was a completely different take and although it may sound like I’m jumping ship I feel like this is the more correct version of events.

What Ken Kratz went through and what it sounds like a lot of professionals in his postition do sounds really hard going. His account of the case is really detailed and from watching the series I can remember each part and how it was portrayed.

having watch the Netflix series, I believed that Avery was guilty. This book was not well written but brought up some interest
ing scenarios. that might make you think twice about the your opinion of the case and how it was investigated.

i am thoroughly disappointed because i thought i downloaded this and i guess i didn't.

3.5 stars

I think I am the rare person who did not watch Making a Murderer. I tend not to read other reviews after I receive a book, but I did read then with this book. I read that a lot of people have made mention of Making of a Murderer and that they did not like how it was mentioned so much in this book. The televisions show was mentioned a lot in this book. I believe that Author did so for many reasons. He was a prosecutor on this case and did not like that not all the evidence was provided on the show and that what was provided was skewed and did not give the viewer the full story.Is this book guilty of being a tell all? Isn't that what this book is? The Author telling the story from his viewpoint as a prosecutor?

Was this writers bias skewed because he was the Prosecutor and felt a need to not only give the full story but also to paint himself into a more positive light after he tarnished his own professional career and ended his marriage after being reported for inappropriate texts he sent? I believe both. I believe he felt the need to tell the entire story and to give the reader (and perhaps viewer of the TV show) a picture of the victim, how she was lured and how she was murdered and her body burnt. I also feel this was his attempt to tell his story and explain why he choose the inappropriate actions he took. The Author makes no bones about having an issue with the the show. As I mentioned, I never watched the show, but Kratz does make a point to show excerpts of full testimony vs. condensed testimony that was shown on the TV program. I can't speak about the validity of the television program, but this man was the prosecutor on the case and I do believe he is giving the prosecutors point of view.

I mention quite often in my reviews that I have a forensic background and that is what speaks to me in this book. I like reading about all things related to forensics. While some people may find blood spatter analysis or autopsy results boring, forensics gets my juices flowing. I do wish there was more about the forensics in this case - I think most readers would be able to follow and be able to draw their own conclusions. I would have liked to see actual testimony transcripts.

Was Avery guilty of murder? He seemed definitely capable of it. Women in his life paint an ugly picture of him - specifically his abuse, there are letters he wrote in prison, recorded phone conversations. This man was not a nice person. In fact, he comes off as a misogynist. Plus, his story changed multiple times. I do agree with the prosecution, specifically when it comes to Avery's accounts of the day in question. If you are innocent, why do you need to keep changing your story and would so much forensic evidence and bones be on your property? If he was framed as his defense claims he was, someone went to a lot of detail to hide her vehicle, have the license plate, DNA and her body burned on his property. I do not believe he was an innocent man.

I enjoyed the book. I have no desire to watch the Netflix series. I do feel the Netflix program was mentioned quite a bit but if information was skewed or given in a misleading way, then I can understand this writer's attempt to set the record straight. I understand that the Author tarnished his reputation following this case - I'm sure he included that to show that he is being honest and upfront in this book. Crime buffs and perhaps those who watched the show may find this book interesting.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the last weeks of 2015, and the first months of 2016, almost everyone you talked to asked the same question: "Have you seen Making a Murderer?" This would lead to the follow up question, "Do you think he did it?" Like many people who binge watched this series, I came out not exactly sure how I felt about Steven Avery.

Ken Kratz, who you may remember from the series, as the humpty dumpty looking prosecutor, has written this book telling his version of the events that happened from the time Teresa Halback went missing until Steven Avery was put back into jail. His writing style is quite good, he tells it like it is and doesn't get carried away with any flowery words, or too many legal terms that not everyone would follow. He goes through the events fluidly, leaving the reader with a great sense of almost being there.

Katz paints a great portrait of Teresa Halbach, and gives more insight into who she was, and what was going on in her life at the time of her murder - something that Making a Murderer didn't seem to pay as much attention to as one would think.

There was some evidence included in the book that was left out of Making a Murderer, which was really interesting. I have no idea why it would have been left out, other than to confuse the audience as to what really happened.

This book definitely had some thought provoking moments. All in all, a great companion to the Making a Murderer series - a definite must read.

Making A Murderer made Steven Avery a worldwide name. Was he framed? Did he do it? So many questions have been asked about the case against both him and Brendan Dassey. Making A Murderer shows you the Avery/Dassey side and Ken Katz has tried to show you the prosecution and polices side of things in this book.
And he's done quite a good job.
Each chapter focuses on a different part of the crime, the victim Teresa Halbach, the blood, the bullet and so on. He clearly puts all the evidence out there and explains how things happened in a timeline.
Katz gets sidetracked many times with his obsession with MAM, there is clearly a bitterness there, and how they changed things or didn't show things but all in all he does his job like any prosecution lawyer should.
If you can put your personal feelings aside this is good read and good perspective from the other side.

Having followed Making a Murderer, I was very interested to read this book and see the other side of the story (prosecutor). The case is so high profile and for the most part supports the exoneration of Avery and Dassey. I kept hearing hints that there was supposedly evidence withheld from the documentary that was presented at trial; this book has it all.

Ken's book is gripping from start to finish, I couldn't put it down. It's split into simple chapters that sets out the case, from the prosecutors point of view, from start to finish. It also details the personal attack that he went through because of the public perception that he was corrupt. This isn't by any means a sob story on his part though, and keeps to the case at hand throughout. It is particularly interesting to see direct comparisons against the actual transcripts and what Making a Murderer edited out.

If you followed Making a Murderer, this is a MUST READ. If you didn't, it doesn't matter, this book is a fascinating insight into the US justice system and easy to pick up, even if you don't know the case. Highly recommended!

It's rather amusing that in the blurb for this book the word "indignation" is tossed out, considering what you find when you open the cover and read the contents.

When I first saw this book, I was intrigued by the idea that this might contain crucial details about the Steven Avery case that the Netflix show did not offer to viewers. Perhaps it does just that, but it is so buried in the mire of Ken Kratz trying to systematically take down "Making a Murderer" and defend his position (no pun intended) that one nearly forgets at times that this book is about Mr. Avery at all.

Whether you like him or don't, believe him or not, this book, for me, seemed to be more about why the author should not be viewed as a criminal than the man at the heart of it all. I really can't keep track of the number of eye rolls that came with the reading of this book.

I understand that there are various addictions out there that do not get the proper respect and attention, and I am certainly not trying to discount those, but, according to the blurb, this book was supposed to be about Stephen Avery and the evidence against him. I thought, after finishing it, that it was more about the author than anyone else.

Needless to say, I found it disappointing.

My opinion of this case has not been swayed either way by reading this, but my opinion of Ken Kratz has gone down another few points, for all the good it does.

This review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Man.... I really really wanted to like this book more. I'll admit to getting caught up in the hype of the Making a Murderer series when it was first released and was outraged at the "conspiracy" and "evidence tampering" that had occurred. Of course, there's always two sides to every story and when I received this ARC from NetGalley, I was excited to get a glimpse of the prosecution's side. Unfortunately, I feel the author's own troubled history takes away from the validity of this book and most of the background described can be found from a simple Google search. Maybe I just built this up in my head too much and was disappointed that there were not the same fireworks that Making a Murderer gave me back in 2015. I do feel fans of the Netflix series should give this a chance though as it's a quick read and does touch upon the latest developments with the Brendan Dassey case.

I do admire the fact that Mr. Kratz worked to overcome his addictions and move on with his life but I can't help but feel that this book was some kind of "stick it to 'em" of the creators of the Netflix series and Mr Kratz seemed oblivious of who his true audience was. His obvious disdain of the series, while understandable, caused him to miss the mark and while this book could have a been a huge opportunity for him to truly show his side, I feel the chapters were just a reflection of his own jumbled thoughts. I wish more effort had been put into organizing the book better and the facts were looked at more in-depth rather than just touched upon and then off it was to the next detail. And while Mr. Kratz talks about Teresa Halbach being overlooked throughout the book, he himself is guilty of this as well, offering only 7 pages of the book entitled "The Victim" that offers no new insight to who the victim was but merely describes the events leading up to her murder. It's hard to believe that a book is "dedicated to her memory" when the author himself seems to have put little effort into remembering her. I think Mr. Kratz would have gotten a better response to his novel if he had taken some more time to focus on this.

Mr. Kratz did do a good job of identifying some of the invisible victims of this crime, including Lieutenant James Lenk and Sergeant Andy Colburn and their families. I do agree with Mr Kratz's opinion that two completely untarnished police officers would not be capable of the amount of corruption, evidence tampering and just pure luck that framing Steven Avery would entail. Teresa Halbach was the true victim of this crime but James Lenk, Andy Colburn, Ken Kratz himself and their respective families are the victims of the relentless media attention this case was given with the release of the Making a Murderer series in 2015.

I think, if I had spent less time after the release of Making a Murderer, researching the facts of the case, I might have liked this book more. Unfortunately, I don't think any new insights were provided by Mr. Kratz.

I received a courtesy copy of the book Avery from Netgalley in exchange for an honest critique. Later on, reading Mr Kratz accounts of what transpired, I watched the Netflix documentary. Even after watching/reading both accounts I'm not certain I can say one way or another in regards to a persons innocence or guilt. I do by ALL accounts think that the nephew's case was a miscarriage of justice without a question. I felt that Avery was very much meant to be a rebuttal to the MAM documentary where Mr Kratz states at the beginning of his book that it's not the case, Mr Kratz did bring to the table some inside information that had been omitted or left out of MAM but nothing earth shattering to sway me one way or the other. lt does feel that this was written trying to save face in light of how he came across in MAM. I suppose in hindsight that this book was a little unprofessional and basically a bitch session on behalf of Mr Kratz. The fact that he can articulate without a doubt he can sleep at night in reference to Brendan Dassey is appalling in my opinion. I would urge anyone to read this along with watching the documentary so that you can make your own informed opinion in regards to the case.

Full disclosure time: I've never had the chance to watch Making a Murderer. I have heard that it exposes the injustices of the justice system, but I don't have Netflix so I never did get around to watching it. And if we're talking about true-crime, I ended Serial thinking that Adnan Syed was guilty, and after looking at the full case files, felt even more certain that he was.

So I thought this book would be interesting, to see how 'the other side' explains itself. And since I've already heard about the injustice of the system, I read with an eye out for that sort of thing.

Avery is a surprisingly gripping and readable account of the Theresa Halbach case. And if even half of what the book says it's true, then the Making a Murderer people are committing an injustice by trying to get a guilty man out.

What makes me doubt Steven Avery's innocence is the fact that his own defence (and the Making a Murderer team) has to bend over backwards to make him seem innocent.

That cat incident? Avery chased down the cat, doused it in oil and threw it into a fire. That is clearly not goofing around.

His ex-wives talks about his abusiveness, and one called him a monster (claims are corroborated by an article in The Rolling Stone)

And the show itself splices courtroom video together in a way that changes the meaning of the conversation entirely. Lines are cut, to the extent that a "yes" becomes a reply to a question that was left out, rather than the question in the video.

That, I think, is very problematic.

As for the justice system part, I am inclined to take Ken Kratz at his word because of how honest about his sexting scandal he is, and the remorse he feels.

Plus, I also agree that framing Avery requires a ridiculous amount of effort and hatred would be needed, and that the cops that were involved (who were only involved because they weren't involved in the previous case and because of a lack of manpower) had no reason to have so personal and deep a grudge.

The writing in this book is enjoyable and engaging, though overly emotional at times. And while most of the book was spent on the claims and evidence against Avery, I appreciate the fact that the book starts with a portrait of Theresa, to remind everyone just who the real victim was in this case.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

I am not one of those that watched the Netflix documentaries so I didn't know what they did in that. I only gave it 2 stars because Kratz had some good points but it was lacking in so many areas. There were 2 examples of court transcripts where Kratz put them up against what the documentaries showed which then proved that the directors of "Making a Murderer" really skewed some things. If you are going to make a book about how the documentary was so horribly wrong then I believe you need to put in word for word from the transcripts show this and I felt that wasn't done. I applaud him for taking steps and being honest about his life and all of the wrongs that he did but it didn't seem like it was real. I did learn some things from this book but all in all I felt it was just a book to vindicate why he did what he did.

Ok so before reading this book I only knew about the case in question by watching making a murderer which I binged watched on Netflix in one sitting and to be honest I was really hooked, i would search the Internet for new details etc etc, Ken Kratz has had a lot of bad publicity since this case and when I found that this book was to set the story straight on making a murder i 100% thought that this book would answer all my questions ...unfortunately it didn't and I really hoped it would it didn't tell me anything I didn't know ,it kinda just tried to defend everyone involved in the prosecution of Steven Avery and hasrsh to say it was boring it wasn't a page turner...I'm sorry

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of Avery: The Case Against Steven Avery and What "Making a Murderer" Gets Wrong by Ken Kratz that I read and reviewed.
I can honestly say when I stated this book my mind was made up that Avery was innocent and should be freed from jail because of what I had seen on Making a Murder. I only wanted to read this book to see if Kratz really was the cocky jerk he was in that television series. Boy did this book give me different view of the crime and Kratz as a man.
After reading this book and having more of the case laid out I realize how biased the TV version of the crime was and now I question a lot of my beliefs that were made after I watched that show. I is really sad how if what Kratz laid out in this book is true how him and the officers have been disgraced and threatened again all these years later because of editing and how evidence was shown and spun to help a murder get freed by a Netfix TV show and looking at what Kratz had and the actual parts of the trial he uses in the book that was not in the TV series I am starting to believe that that is what is happening.
The book also change my opinion of Kratz as a man. He is not afraid to admit he made mistakes in his life. He is not going to blame them on others and hide. He is man enough to admit he messes up and that says a lot about his true grit. He may not be the kind of man you what to hang out with but he would be the kind of guy you would want to fight for you in the courtroom because he knows about mistakes and second chances.
Did Steven Avery kill Teresa Halbach? Probably. There really is no one else who could have done it as Kratz points out in this book. Did his nephew get a raw deal? Yes but he took part in the crime so he is not innocent either. There are only three people who know what really took place that day and one of them is dead. We will never know what happened that October day on the Avery Land but I can honestly say that Ken Kratz's book opened my eyes to the problems with the Making a Murder TV Series. I was ready to jump on the Free Steven Avery Bandwagon until I read this book and was reminded that people with a camera can do whatever they want to make you see what they want. All it takes is some great editing editing and some really good cliffhangers and you are eating out of their hands and maybe just maybe you are starting to believe a man really did not rape, murder and burn and woman in a pit to get rid of her body just because he was mad at women because he spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Avery: The Case Against Steven Avery and What "Making a Murderer" Gets Wrong gets five out of five stars from me.

I did enjoy this book that told the Avery story from the other perspective not provided by the popular Netflix documentary. I will say that while some of the findings are hard to dismiss Kratz's tone throughout the book is not one of neutrality which is what I would have preferred. His experience in law seems to make it easy for him to use an authoritative tone which was at times irritating as he clearly brushes over other possibilities because it doesn't fit into his conclusion.

I do find Avery's case fascinating. I think that the system is mishandling all kinds of crimes and getting many things wrong. I almost feel like Avery's time for a crime he didn't commit may have turned him into something worse then he was to begin with. I feel most sorry for Halbach's family who is now caught up in all of this media frenzy and probably will never feel a real sense of justice. Ken Kratz is just not a likable person. There is not much new information here that is not addressed on Making a Murderer.

I received this book from Netgalley and BenBella Books to read and review just yesterday, the first day it was published.

First, let me state that I have NOT watched "Making a Murderer" and have not been influenced by it. I went into this book with an open mind. What I don't care for are all of the people who have left feedback and did not even purchase the book. So how likely is it that they read it, and formed an opinion, to have gone on sites like Amazon the day the book comes out? Hardly. I've seen this before on books that were highly contested. All it does is skew the feedback, which is what they are after.

I'm writing as someone who actually read the book, just finished it. From where I sit, it tells the real story about the facts of what happened to Teresa Halbach, as much as it can be known. It includes the many things that were left out or edited out, of the MAM series, which swayed so many people that Avery was railroaded. Many even took up his cause and signed petitions.

This book by ex special prosecutor Ken Krantz tells the rest of the story, and once you know it, it's impossible to believe that Avery is innocent. It would require removing your brain to buy into such a huge conspiracy that would be beyond miraculous to pull off. It's downright impossible.

Kratz's book is interesting since it goes over the whole case and tells so many things about the entire story. Kratz doesn't hold back from telling about his own personal demons that later took him down after the Avery trial, and tells matter of factly what he did and what the results were of that. A very relevant book and I hope more people get the story straight now. But that would probably require a TV series to be made for them to watch. May I suggest trying the book on audio for those who are too busy or don't like to read?

For those who are so rabidly sure that Steven Avery is innocent...why don't we parole him to your home, to live with your family, and we'll see if he's a killer or not?