The Dysfunctional Conspiracy

This book was quite an astonishing read to me by the time I finished it. Just so many bizarre things perpetrated upon this family. It certainly was far too much to be coincidental. A very good story. I felt so badly for all that they went through and needed to get themselves out of. I applaud the "true grit" of their success in getting exonerated. I was provided a digital ARC by NetGalley, Curiosity Quill Press, and the authors for review, my thanks goes to them.

You don't tend to get many true crime stories as told by the accused. Unsurprisingly, they typically all claim their innocence, to varying degrees of plausibility. The blurb of this one tells you that there's a happy ending though, or at least as close as you could realistically expect. So what do we have?

Down in Florida, there's a fire. A fire that tragically results in the death of Elizabeth Veltmann. The ensuing investigation results in her son and husband being prosecuted for arson and fraud.

The book has an interesting and effective structure. Some chapters deal with the time around the fire, other chapters chart their initial imprisonment and subsequent work towards their eventual exoneration and release. That back and forth is well balanced. It's not a literal alternating structure; when one timeline needs to continue it just does. The combination helps keep you engaged. For me, the prison chapters are the ones that hold the most interest. The early descriptions of flying Con Air have an impact and the details of prison life are interesting. The fire timeline filled in the background in a timely manner, but it never quite felt as natural as the prison writing.

The big reason is you're watching a cover-up take place. Chris is recounting the somewhat surreal series of events he was caught up in and it's, therefore, no surprise that they end up feeling somewhat bizarre to the reader too. It's just a little unsettling, but it feels right. However, there's something else which added to my sense of unease.

However, it's not helped by something that affects the whole book but feels more uncomfortable in the earlier timeline - too much verbose conversation. At least for my taste. Most of us would struggle to repeat a conversation verbatim a few hours later, but this has fairly precise dialogue from events almost 30 years ago. It's an artistic choice, but it's also something that tells me there's some artistic license in the book. Given how we're told the author is under such stress he basically tunes out at times, and how various events are hard to recall, it goes against the detailed thoughts and conversations he recalls. I have no doubt that he's captured the general gist of these events well, and some of the details seem like the kind of things that would stick, but I just wanted it toned back. It made me wonder how much of the dialogue in court came from the court records and how much was just memories. It just seems too important a topic to allow so many facts to be presented in that manner. But, while it did add a slight unease about various details, it probably made for an easier read - reciting pure facts and case notes would probably be a tad dry. I would've liked a slightly better balance though.

Something that helps offset that is the fact that so many of the prison details match up with other factual accounts of prisons. There were quite a few new insights which I found fascinating and the corroboration with other sources was very reassuring.

The story itself almost reads like some "friend of a friend" urban legend at times. We've all heard stories about police cover-ups but this could easily come straight out of some of the most far fetched of those. In fact, if this was a fiction book you would probably assume it was either a parody or a really unimaginative thriller. The early chapters hint at a few points, and despite knowing their innocence I found myself almost wanting to defend the police. We all know how you're more likely to be killed by someone you know and all those figures that everyone pulls out so I wouldn't be shocked for any police investigation to look a the family. I found some of the actions of the family a little unusual (and while I would say there are many varied reactions to deaths like this I felt Patricia's reaction would've been curious to anyone investigating this case) so I could see why they may not dismiss them as suspects instantly. And some of the mistakes and evidence presented early on... well, you can allow for a certain degree of human error even amongst the police force, right?

Where this book shines is the clever way with which the author reveals the findings of his investigation. Rather than dumping everything on us early to prove his innocence beyond doubt, he lets it play out and that creates a nice sense of tension and discovery.

The other great quality of this is something that the author left out - bitterness. Now you're never going to mistake that for the idea that he's no hard feelings and has forgiven everyone involved so much they all socialise together or anything, he's upset and the more you know the more you can see why. But also, the more you know the more you realise how restrained he's being. This could have easily just been a bitter rant about how his family was treated. It would have been fairly valid, but a much less interesting read. A long time has passed and that no doubt helps, but it's a significant factor of what makes this book work.

If you're a hardcore true crime aficionado who just wants the crime then this may not captivate you - it focuses more on trials than investigations and is more or a memoir than case notes. But it's good. And if you're here for a memoir rather than true crime? It's probably an easier choice, and it's a nice introduction to true crime.