
Sleep In Heavenly Peace by M. William Phelps
Recently there have many books published about mothers who kill there children; but Sleep In Heavenly Peace by M. William Phelps relays the story of Dianne Odell who murdered four of the twelve children to whom she gave birtht and then proceeded to carry their bodies with her around the country.
It wasn’t until she could no longer pay the bill on a self storage unit in Arizona did her murderous acts become public knowledge and finally put her in the criminal spotlight where she so belonged.
Phelps attempts to keep the reader from falling into a rut while reading by jumping between time frames and point of views by chapter is a little annoying, and at times causes the information to become jumbled; it does actually add something unique to the book and many times incites a reader to keep reading to come to a “continued” part from a couple of chapters previous.
Generally, I’m not a fan of mothers who murder, but the story of Dianne Odell is well worth reading if you are a true crime genre fan.
Odell’s explanations, history, and attempts at defense in themselves are interesting case studies into criminology.
Was she simply a killer, or was she a killer because she was a victim?
Read the book and form your own opinion!

