How far would you be willing to go for love? 

 

Denise Williams and Brian Winchester were willing to go to the end for it, in a pact that had the potential to destroy them both if they were ever found out, by planning and then carrying out the murder of Denise’s husband (and Brian’s best friend), Mike Williams. They would’ve gotten away with all of it if Brian and Denise’s personal demons hadn’t gotten between them eventually. 

 

Turns out keeping a guilty secret this big for over a decade turns you paranoid and depressed. Maybe you can even delude yourself into believing you had nothing to do with it. Either way, the truth has to come out sometime. 

 

True-crime author Mikita Brottman did an impeccable job with the research, writing, and pacing of Guilty Creatures (which is a fabulous title). Everything about this book, from the cover to the last page, is bathed in soapy, lurid, southern venality. Bottman takes advantage of the schadenfreude humor the public loves to read in regards to anything Florida and combines it with the everlasting love of seeing the pious revealed as depraved. There’s almost nothing that sells better than sex combined with religion. You would think all of this would make Guilty Creatures read as shallow, but it reads as compassionate to the victim, his friends, and especially his family. 

 

Where this book tends to fall short is in examination of how the Southern Baptist Church, the Protestant work ethic, the myth of the American Dream, and the notion of Keeping Up with the Jones’ all likely informed not only the life and marriage of Mike Williams, but also the psyche and crimes of Denise Williams and Brian Winchester. Bottman is a psychoanalyst and missed a golden opportunity to really dig into how being very white and very American had a great deal to do with the why of these crimes. I would’ve loved to hear more about that. Otherwise it’s a great true crime read. 

 

I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

 

File Under: Nonfiction/True Crime