Lena Derhally

Let’s start with the title - My daddy is a Hero: How Chris Watts went from Family Man to Family Killer.
The conflicting title is aptly chosen for it perfectly sets the over-arching theme of Lena Derhally’s true-crime masterpiece.
The book is structured in three distinctive parts that are equally well executed. First, it provides the facts about the Watts family murders and the police investigation.
In the second part, the author provides an apt profiling of the perpetrator and his wife, one of the victims.
Leaving it there, it would have been already all nice and well.
To my surprise, adding a third part, this here author manages to surpass standard crime-writing by treating us with an in-depth psychological treatise on emotional deviance that shines with competence and relevance.
The author’s specialist knowledge is put to good use as she explains how people like Watts are made, or not made. The nature versus nurture debate is referenced only a couple of times and plays little role within her scheme of things. So, fittingly, the only nitpick I have is when the author confidently injects the Free Will proposition amidst her professional theories. But that is just me and of no consequence as it takes nothing away from the author’s accomplishment.

Other than specialist books on psychology, this here book of Lena Derhally ranks among the very few that had me actually learn something new in the field. On completion of the book, as I reflected on the author’s statements, I also realized how the title already anticipated how I would feel at the end of the reading, namely, thoroughly jolted. In my humble understanding, Watts is a narcissists with psychopathic traits that manages to completely deceive the people around him as to his real nature. It is said that sustaining a way of life built on deception is like a house of cards that is bound to collapse as ever more lies are needed for consistency. What scares me here is that Watts is not at all affected by this simple rationality. He did not build his life around a lie, instead he is the lie himself. His whole being seems to have been evolved to completely deceive his surroundings in order to gain maximum narcissistic gratification. We do certainly have an inherent knowledge of human nature which we apply to the people around us as we judge, with varying success, their actions and reactions on an emotional basis. At the least, if something is off repeatedly about a person’s behavior, we are forewarned. However, people such as Chris Watts seem to be able fly below that “weirdness” radar. For what it’s worth, the author’s elucidations had me make a double take on people and relationships in general.
Summa summarum, this ranks among the best in
true crime compositions there are.… (mehr)

Everyone knows the story about Chris Watts and how he killed his pregnant wife and daughters. This book not only explores the relationship and the family dynamics between those involved, it also delves into the psychology of Chris Watts. This book, I feel, attempts to explain what he is, why he is the way he is and most importantly, how to spot people like him even when they are are full into the pretending to be what they aren't stage. I do recommend this book because you can never know too much about this personality type.
Also I appreciate the warning at the beginning of the chapter the murders are described in because for those people who don't want to hear about a 2 and 3 year old being murdered, they can skip the chapter. It's explained there and not again or before. That's not common in true crime books.
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