Sins of the Father by Eamonn Duff

The story of Schapelle Corby, tried, convicted and incarcerated in a Bali Jail has long fascinate mainly because those surrounding her have been vigilant and vocal in using the media to proclaim her innocence and her jail house suffering both which may be true. Found with Marijuana in her boogie bag in  October 2004 while passing through customs on the way to a sun filled holiday Schapelle has never left Bali.
Duff has done a very good job of writing this book, he has obviously spent a huge amount of time researching, following leads, tracking down those who would wish to be left alone and writing a very readable book indeed.The vividness of his characters brings them to life on the page and good, bad or indifferent, you won`t have any problem in forming your own opinion about them, their possible agendas, motives and reasons for co-operating with Duff all give you pause for thought. Most people in Australia and New Zealand do have a view on this case and it has been debated endlessly, Schapelle has her own book out there but in cases like this it is often hard to sort the chaff from the wheat when self interest and preservation is likely to be a writers guiding principle in the case of Corby`s own book.
There is know doubt whatsoever that Duff believes Corby was a drug runner who for what ever reason got caught that fateful day, a mule for others, either willingly or unwittingly doing what others needed her to do.Duff believes her late father Mick was behind the run and paints a history of a man with many unanswered questions and a family whose stories don`t always add up. The book has caused huge controversy and many Corby supporters don`t like the book or Duff at all, that is their right but it is also Duff`s right to write the book, make his assertions and face the music. This case needed a good book written about it and Duff has done the job, while maintaining his intractable viewpoint he has been fair and even handed to all as much as is possible and like most of us he agrees that Corby has well and truly served her sentence and should have been freed long ago.

The Fatal Gift of Beauty, The Trials of Amanda Knox by Nina Burleigh

Many people won`t have heard of Amanda Knox until this week when she and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were freed from the Italian jail in which they had been incarcerated since 2007 for the murder of fellow student, Meredith Kercher. They and a person named Rudy Guede had been tried and convicted in 2009 of the brutal murder and sexual assault of Kercher in what the Italians dubbed a sex game gone wrong, despite all the DNA evidence pointing to Guede and Guede alone.
Staying in the town of Perugia, a magnet for overseas students wanting to spend time in Italy, Knox and Kercher shared an apartment with two other girls and nothing out of the ordinary for young people away from home, experiencing freedom with all its ups and downs happened until November 1st 2007, when Kercher was found dead in horrible circumstances in the apartment and Knox and Sollecito`s journey through hell began. The Italian Judicial system finding itself with a simple who done it on their hands turned it into a jigsaw puzzle without the interlocking pieces, and all sense of real justice was shoved to one side while  the many members of the Police and their subsidiary branches beavered away to put whom ever may have been there in jail and for a very long time. Not taking advice to the contrary both Knox and Sollecito co-operated with a guileness that could only be real, no lawyering up for them, finding themselves in a vortex of emotions, with a surreal and unknowable pressure on them, both said things that would harm them and give the Prosecutors gist for their machinations and Guede, well he with a history of burglary and petty crime, a horrendous childhood and DNA all over the scene, took of and had to be brought back to Italy from Germany.
A spellbinding tale in the hands of a very good writer, this book shows quite clearly how in Foreign Lands, with few resources and a simplistic attitude you can very easily find yourself railroaded into a jail cell and in Amanda and Raffaele`s case without tremendous family support you are very likely to stay there, it is a cautionary tale, drink and drugs can certaintly distort the mind, especially when you are in foreign lands.To say that Amanda Knox`s family fought the good fight is putting it very simply, it has cost them everything. Amanda Knox may very well make good money from selling her story, she is entitled to it and so is Raffaele.
The Kercher family also deserve to know exactly how and why their daughter died, it is more than probable that only one person can give them the answers and they will never have peace until that person speaks up. Amanda Knox herself may very well write her own book, it will have to be very good indeed to better Burleigh`s effort.