Blood Brother by Anne Bird

Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson Is Guilty by Anne Bird

My rating: ✰✰✰
E-book, Library Book, Finished: 8/30/2012

The title of this book is rather misleading. It is more a recounting of the life of Anne Bird then a discussion of Scott Peterson’s guilt. The 33 Reasons are from a list Anne wrote up at her therapist’s instruction and is brought out at the very end of the book.

Anne was given up for adoption by her mother and adopted by the Grady family. She tells of her childhood which was happy, and her siblings one also adopted and two the biological children of her adoptive parents. By all accounts she had a happy childhood and while curious about her biological family claims to not have a burning desire to reconnect with them, mainly because she had read many accounts of such reunions not ending well. She was introduced to her biological family by her brother who had also been given up for adoption. Her mother had 4 children, two she kept and two she gave up for adoption, Scott was one of the ones she kept and he was referred to as ‘the golden boy’. Anne later reveals that he took this title seriously.

She talks about how she became close to her biological family, how much she and Scott looked alike, how excited Laci was to be pregnant, while Scott seemed to be disinterested. How she refused to believe Scott had anything to do with her disappearance, to the point where she let him stay with her when the press wouldn’t leave him alone.

The book is well-written and interesting, but as mentioned above it is a memoir of Anne’s life, how the actions of Scott affected her and her marriage, how she came to believe that Scott was guilty, the list of “33 reasons” are odd behaviors she observed, not really proof of his guilt.

I gave this book three stars because it was well written and interesting, I didn’t give it more because due to the title I was expecting more of true crime than a memoir.