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"Stunning for its depth, its persistence, and its
compassion. Are You There Alone? comes remarkably
close to explaining the forces that resulted in an all-but-inexplicable
crime. It's a spellbinding read." "This book is being compared to Truman Capote's In
Cold Blood and to Norman Mailer's
Pulitzer Prize-winning The Executioner's Song." "This riveting book puts a human face on a larger social
issue. What happens when the violent actions of an improperly medicated
mentally ill person intersect with the legal system? Who bears the
responsibility?" "Are You There Alone? spotlights
one adverse circumstance after the next…. Add to this mix a preposterous
series of medical misdiagnoses and wrong medications, and the Yates family
was just plain doomed." "Suzanne O'Malley has begun
the talk-show circuit. Yesterday on the Early Show
and this morning on the Today Show with Katie Couric." "Are You There Alone?"
demonstrates the paucity of our medical knowledge on childbirth associated
mental illness. Accordingly, it is an
uncommon but excellent teaching tool." "Andrea Yates owes her life to
a writer from Law & Order.” |
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In the tradition of In Cold Blood, The
Executioner's Song, and A Civil Action, Suzanne O'Malley exposes
the human mystery of the most horrifying crime in recent history and the
legal drama surrounding it. As a journalist, Suzanne O'Malley began
covering the murders of Noah, John, Paul, Luke, and Mary Yates hours after
their mother, Andrea Yates, drowned them in their suburban O'Malley argues persuasively that under less
extraordinary circumstances, a mentally ill woman would have been quietly
offered a plea bargain and sent to an institution under court supervision.
But on March 12, 2002, Andrea Yates was found guilty of the murders of three
of her five children. She is currently serving a life sentence and will not
be eligible for parole until 2041. O'Malley's exclusive personal communications
with Andrea Yates and her interviews with Rusty Yates allow her to offer
fully realized portrayals of people at the center of this horrifying case. In Are You There Alone? O'Malley makes a
critical contribution to our understanding of mental health issues within the
criminal justice system. |
Suzanne O'Malley - Author |
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Would you like to order a copy of the book? Would
you like to order autographed copies of the book? |
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Contact Information |
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Would
you like to interview Suzanne O'Malley or schedule her to speak at your group
meeting or event? Publicist: Melissa.Gramstad@simonandschuster.com
or 212-698-2812 Agents: Mort Janklow, Tina Bennett / Janklow & Nesbit 212-421-1700 Screen Agent: Paul Haas, Endeavor Agency / 310-248-2020
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Retailers' Information |
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Are You There Alone? [ ISBN 0-7434-6629-2 ] is now in stock at Ingram for immediate shipment to your store. To order, phone: 1-800-937-0995. |
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Kirkus Review A blow-by-blow-and many times the
blows feel physical-account of Andrea Yates's murder of her five children and
the trial that followed. O'Malley, who reported on the case for several
magazines and for NBC's Dateline, starts with the murders and
includes a long interview between Yates and a homicide detective that
describes the crime in detail. It is stunning and very difficult to get
beyond, as she details the drowning one after another of five children, who
did not go gently. But then O'Malley prods the reader onward to consider the
fundamentalist religious beliefs of Yates and her husband and how they were
processed in Yates's deeply disturbed brain. She was a suicidal depressive
who had previously taken an overdose of pills and tried to slit her throat,
who had been hospitalized four times before the murders, who believed she was
possessed by Satan, and who was operating on unmonitored, on-again, off-again
doses of Effexor, Wellbutrin, Cogentin,
Haldol, and Restoril. Through interviews with
doctors and Yates' husband Rusty, O'Malley tries to assemble a portrait of her
subject's mental makeup. Whether Yates suffered from postpartum psychosis or
schizophrenia or bipolar illness, "she fit the definition of legal
insanity-even in Agent: Mort Janklow/Janklow & Nesbit |
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