From the back of the book- At Any Cost unravels the twisted story of Rod Covlin, whose unrepentant greed drove him to an unspeakable act of murder and betrayal that rocked New York City.
Wealthy, beautiful, and brilliant, Shele Danishefsky had fulfillment at her fingertips. Having conquered Wall Street, she was eager to build a family with her much younger husband, promising Ivy League graduate Rod Covlin. But when his hidden vices surfaced, marital harmony gave way to a merciless divorce. Rod had long depended on Shele's income to fund his tastes for high stakes backgammon and infidelity—and she finally vowed to sever him from her will. In late December 2009, Shele made an appointment with her lawyer to block him from her millions. She would never make it to that meeting.
Two days later, on New Year’s Eve, Shele was found dead in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment. Police ruled it an accident, and Shele’s deeply Orthodox Jewish family quickly buried her without an autopsy on religious grounds. Rod had a clear path to his ex-wife's fortune, but suspicions about her death lingered. As the two families warred over custody of Shele’s children—and their inheritance—Rod concocted a series of increasingly demented schemes, even plotting to kill his own parents, to secure the treasure. And as investigators closed in, Rod committed a final, desperate act to frame his own daughter for her mother’s death.
Journalists Rebecca Rosenberg and Selim Algar reconstruct the ten years that passed between the day Shele was found dead and the day her killer faced justice in this riveting account of how one man’s irrepressible greed devolved into obsession, manipulation, and murder.
Review- This is a very tragic story about a family that is torn apart by greed and murder. Shele Danishefsky was trying to leave her husband when she died under mysterious conditions. For the next ten years her family fights to find answers and get justice for her. Rosenberg and Algar do intense research into this case and do their best to recreate what happened so long ago. I do think that they made up their minds as they were writing the book but I did find the evidence as presented to be convincing. I found this story to be very heartbreaking for many reasons from Shele’s family losing her so young to her children never knowing their mother or her family, as their father kept the children from that half of their family. In the end it is difficult to say whether justice was served but I personally think that it was.
I give this volume a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
No comments:
Post a Comment