Fifty-fifty
Review by Kim Cantrell
For twenty-five years, Brian Edmond Legg and his wife, Palma Jean “Jeannie” Legg, worked hard to make their way in the world. In June 1996, both of them managed home businesses as a supplement to Brian’s Air Force retirement pension.
Although Jeannie’s three children from a previous marriage would go on to have productive lives, Jeannie and Brian’s son together, David Brian Legg, would not. But that’s not to say he wouldn’t leave behind a legacy in his own style.
Soon after his first wife, Alicia LaFlesh, had left him from their home in Hawaii to return to California, David met and soon (illegally) married 15-year-old Kimberly “Kimmie” Pierce-Taylor of Juarez, Mexico. A sappy romantic during the honeymoon phase of his affairs, David wanted to whoo Kimmie with a honeymoon cruise from Hawaii.
But it takes money to ride a train…or in this case boat. And David had none; his net worth being in the red, helped along by his penchant for writing worthless checks for automobiles purchased from fellow soldiers.
Yet David wasn’t one to take no for an answer.
Stealing the identity of a fellow soldier sharing his barricks, David obtained a birth certificate, military papers, credit cards, and bank accounts in the name of Darren Malloy. He then visited his parents with Kimmie by his side, murdered them, and the two skipped off to Hawaii for a week long cruise.
While reading true crime author Don Lasseter’s book, Deadly Deceit, readers will be disgusted at all the things Davd and Kimmie did while his parents lay decomposing in their Arizona home, and how a teenage bride turns on a little girl voice and walks away scot-free back to her homeland.
The first 200 or so pages of this book are intersting, even if spotted with some techanical mundanities and filler. But after the first half, it because nothing but fluff on subjects such as infamous Eagle Scouts and the Menendez brothers topped off with the trial that is taken almost verbatim from the transcripts.
Sooo boring.
I think Don Lasseter is a talented writer, but I really wish he would stick to short stories. When it comes to writing entire books, they read like reruns by the second half.
So with only half the book being interesting, would I recommend Deadly Deceit? Not unless you can pick up at hefty discount or get it somewhere like Paperback Swap.
Want to read Deadly Deceit by Don Lasseter? Here’s where you can get it:
