On August 13th, 2018, 15-weeks pregnant Shanann Watts and her two daughters - Bella, 4 and Celeste 3 - went missing. Concerns were raised by friends and family and a search party was held. However, the search led to no new discovery. Later on, Christ Watts, was asked to do a polygraph test in which he failed, and he eventually confessed to the murders of his family. Chris was arrested, convicted and is now serving five life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 84 years.

To be honest, I heard about this case but did not follow it. So, this book provides a lot of information that is new to me. I liked how it covers background information of the family and all the events that led to the confession and incarceration of Chris Watts. It certainly has the width of the case but I feel it lacks the depth. Compared to other true crime books I've read, this book is considered on the lighter side. Chapters are short, with short paragraphs and a lot of dialogues. I wish that there were a lot more information on the psychology or investigations part of the case.

Nonetheless, this is one tragic case of family annihilation which should not be forgotten or ignored. It reminds me of the Scott Peterson and John List cases which were crimes of the same type. This is my first book from John Glatt and I honestly did not know that he has written many other true crime books. Overall, it is still a good true crime book to read if you are new to this case or want a lighter true crime book.


Pub. Date: 21 July, 2020

***Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this gifted e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

Wow. Heartbreaking, disturbing, unforgivable read. I didn't know what to expect going into this one. I related to it all to well.

This is the second John Glatt book I've read, and one of the things I really like about his writing is that he does an excellent job of taking all the information and presenting it in a very linear, factual way. He doesn't necessarily bring a lot of new, undisclosed information to the table, so if you are looking for sensationalism you won't find it here. . Whether you know a little or a lot about the horrific deaths of Shanann Watts and her children, you will be moved and horrified by the details in this book.

Beautifully written

True story of a husband who killed his pregnant wife and two little girls

A guy who seems so perfect, a family who looked perfect on social media...

If true crime makes you flip those pages and can’t sleep at night, read this.

One of the best true crime books I have recently read. This case received a lot of publicity at the time and this book by John Glatt gives you a detailed in-depth look at exactly what happened as far as the police investigation is concerned. As to whether the confession is a true portrayal by Watts is open to dispute. He has changed his story a few times, and only he knows the truth. A truly terrifying, and tragic story, well told. I enjoyed reading the folding drama, even though I already knew the outcome.

A chilling read about the Chris watts case. I remember following this case at the time and was horrified. This detailed book outlines the case in a clear and concise way.

I have been waiting and waiting for this book to come out, so I flew through it, and boy, did it deliver! I did know some about this case before going in, but this book puts it straight forward from the beginning of the Watt's relationship to the horrifying end. You do not need to know anything going in, as the author spells it all out without the use of non-essential information. I really enjoyed "fluff-free" the writing and the way he has the chapters broken up. There is a whole list of other books by this author in the back that I will be working my way through!!

Make sure you catch this one in July 2020!

Thank you to #NetGalley, St. Martin's and the author for an eARC (that I so desperately wanted) in exchange for an honest review.

I remember hearing about this case as it unfolded and it was absolutely devestating when it came out that Chris Watts was responsible for the death of his entire family. I was already familiar with the case and was hoping to get more insight into it, which I did get at the beginning with the early years of both Chris and Shannan. At the beginning the book almost felt sympthetic towards Chris, but as the book went on it was evident that it was just giving all of the information that we may not have had before. After reading the book, I don't feel like I understand the case any better, but I don't know that it will ever be possible without Chris Watts telling someone exactly what happened and not changing his story. I felt terrible reading the story and thinking about his own parents trying to process what this person they raised, who was a "good guy" buy all accounts, did. The book was difficult to read in places and isn't for the faint of heart, but if you find true crime interesting I definitely recommend this book to you.

This book is a good overall look at this case. It does a good job of covering everything from their lives to after sentencing. Unfortunately it also seems to do a bit of victim blaming when describing Shanann.

I do wish it could have had more insight into Chris but that isn't the authors fault as you can only work with what information is available and Chris isn't telling the truth.

As I didn't follow this case in the news I was happy to read this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy for my honest review.

The family annihilator. A crime which is so inconceivable to the population at large, and yet occurs with an alarming regularity in households across the US. The Perfect Father chronicles the events that led to Chris Watts murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters in 2018. The book is split into three parts: the story of the Watts’ marriage and the birth of the two girls; the summer leading up to the murders; and the murders and their aftermath.

Frankly, although interesting, this was a pretty disappointing read, for a number of reasons. To start with, the writing style was very staccato and disjointed. The information was given in short bursts, usually with about 4-5 paragraphs at a time before a paragraph break, which led the chapters to be organized without a lot of deliberation or meaning. Furthermore, there simply wasn’t a lot of the author’s voice coming through the narrative, because everything was told in quotes. Glatt certainly did his homework, collecting a wide array of first-hand evidence through Shannann’s Facebook posts, texts to friends, emails, and interviews with friends and family members, and The Perfect Father is more a collection and summary of that evidence rather than a true narrative. Probably at least 50% of the book is simply, “On this date, Shannann posted a Facebook Live video that depicted Chris interacting with the girls in this way. She captioned it, ‘Chris is such a wonderful father, I’m so lucky to have him!’” or, “Shannnann texted so-and-so, ‘I am having this problem with Chris,’ and the friend texted back, ‘Wow, you are so right! He is not doing good enough for you.’” Another 30% is just quotes from other sources.

To expand on this a little more, I was disappointed that Glatt didn’t bring in any outside information. It seemed that throughout the book he was attempting to use these disjointed quotations to give us some idea of why Chris Watts killed his family, but he never gave any information about what psychologists say about family annihilators, the rate of occurrence of family annihilators, or how Watts compares to other criminals. Beyond just the things that would enhance the story of the crime, there were also key elements of the story that could have used a more thorough explanation but were never given it—primarily, Thrive, the multi-level marketing scheme that Shannann was part of. It featured prominently throughout the book, but Glatt never bothered to take a paragraph or two to explain exactly what it was. In addition, there was a point at which Watts’ affair partner mentioned that he always wore two Thrive patches, although he admitted you were only supposed to wear one at a time; Glatt didn’t bother presenting any research to see if the Thrive products could have had a negative influence on Watts’ psyche, or what the double patches could have done to the chemicals in his body and brain. I’m not trying to imply that I think this is what caused him to commit his crimes, but that I think Glatt did his readership a serious disservice by sticking strictly to quotations and details related directly to the case, rather than exploring the crime a little further.

Another huge, glaring issue for the entire first half of the book is the amount of victim-blaming. As I said previously, it seems as though Glatt is trying to explain what would cause “the perfect father” to commit such a crime, but this unfortunately becomes 150+ pages of victim-blaming. Glatt goes on and on about how Chris resented the marriage, how Shannann was domineering and controlling, and how she overreacted to things and pushed his family away and how she made him feel like he was walking on eggshells around her, as well as how he resented how active Shannann was on social media. Newsflash! There are plenty of people who are unhappy in their marriage, and they don’t murder their spouses and children. When you go into the book, you know that he murders his two young children, and there is simply no marriage that is so unhappy that would cause a person to do such a thing—that requires something fundamentally broken in your psyche. It also rang very hollow because many of the friends and family quoted said that they thought Chris and Shannann were a perfect couple. The quotes almost always say completely positive things about Shannann, but the little narrative that Glatt inserts implies that she was horrible and that is was only natural that Chris eventually turned against her.

In the same vein, I think there was a lot of slut-shaming towards Chris Watts’ affair partner, and just shaming in general. Somehow, Glatt got ahold of the affair partner’s Google search history, and uses it at several points to paint her character in a very poor light. At one point, he says that the partner spent time before a date looking up information about anal sex and that she watches pornography. There is absolutely zero justification for this. It is not relevant to the murders, it is not relevant to Watts’ actions, it does not shed any sort of light on Watts’ mindset at this time. There is no reason to publish this except to shame Watts’ partner. After Watts is charged with the murders, Glatt portrays the partner as completely self-serving and says that her Google searches show that she looked up information about an affair partner of another family annihilator writing a book about the experience and the public perception of that woman. Again, this does nothing but shame Watts’ partner. Glatt’s treatment of this woman was absolutely disgusting.

Glatt also does not explain how he came about his information. I am not sure if this will be included or not in the final edition, since it seems a very glaring oversight for such a book, but in the advanced readers’ copy I read, it was not included at all. Primarily, I would like to know how Glatt obtained phone records and the search history of Watts’ affair partner, especially since it seems that he continued to have access to these even after the sentencing or when the information would have been relevant to the crime (as I said, he detailed a Google search that the affair partner made after Watts’ arrest, which tells me that this information was not part of the case against Watts and was obtained elsewhere).

Finally, Glatt does not explore the nuance of this case. The scenario he presents as the “truth” is the version that Watts tells investigators when they visit him in prison in 2019, although he later gave a different version. There was a lot of speculation in this case about when the girls were killed—before their mother arrived home, or after their mother was murdered—but Glatt doesn’t go into this at all and presents Watts second version events as truth, while not acknowledging the uncertainty of these events.

Altogether, there were a lot of glaring issues with The Perfect Father. I think it could have benefited a lot from a different narrative style—maybe an alternating chapters style, where one chapter describes the events leading up to the murders, and the next describes after the murders, when police are trying to get to the bottom of it. I think it could have used a lot more narration, and that Glatt could have done a better job painting the picture of life with the Watts. However, I think the story could have benefited the most from having a more sympathetic and kind author, who didn’t blame the women of this story for their own misfortunes, when the story should have been about the monster that is Christopher Watts.

Written by John Glatt, a true crime writer and journalist, this books is a riveting, chilling account of the cold-blooded murders of Shannan Watts and her two beautiful daughters by her own husband, Christopher.

The book is very well-investigated and detailed account of the murders that shook the world.

However, the writing style is not very fascinating and also the slandering of the victim in the initial chapters kind of felt unwarranted.

This book is definitely not for the faint-hearted and the graphic descriptions of the murders will give many people nightmares for quite a long time.

Read at your own risk!

I don’t really want to rate this book because I can’t think of it as a story to give any sort of stars to but since the review needs it here goes..

P.S will post a review on my IG page @Thetravellerofpages in a few days.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Ok, I slept on this book, thought about it awhile, and then came back to write this review. John Glatt’s “The Perfect Father” is well written. It is thoroughly researched and doesn’t have that “ripped from the headlines” feel of other true crime books. The descriptors made the book feel like a work of fiction, easy to read and follow while informing the reader and holding their interest. HOWEVER- and this however was huge-this book has a lot of victim blaming, If you didn’t know anything about the case, you would honestly feel that Shanann Watts was the bad guy. That really turned me off.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy of The Perfect Father in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really loved this book!! It had so many twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!! This was my first book by this Author, and it won’t be the last!! Quick read!! Highly recommended!! You won’t be disappointed!!

5 stars
This is an extremely well-written book regarding the tragic murders of Shannan, Bella, Celeste and Nico Watts committed by their husband and father Chris Watts.
The author John Glatt did not sensationalize the story but relayed it as it really happened. He wrote each individual in this horrific tragedy for who they really were/are. I still have questions though regarding Watt's girlfriend and childhood upbringing.
I remember when this all played out in the media about two years ago, I recall wondering why Chris Watts would annihilate his family. I still wonder, it is all so unfathomable. Watts has given so many explanations for what happened that day and none of them are very believable.
I recommend this book to anyone who sees this kind of thing online or on the news and wonders why and how a seemingly normal family man could murder his whole family.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. The views given are my own.

Wow. This book is a well written book about horrific murders. I’ll just say that I almost was not able to finish it because the details are just too much in certain parts. Certain parts are very hard to read. I did not agree however with the authors way of depicting Shanann and Chris in the first part of the book. It almost seemed that since she was controlling that she somehow deserved it, which I do not agree with. The author should have a non biased way of writing. Chris was depicted to be submissive then just snap. No matter what characteristics these individuals had/have, the author should write facts and not biased opinions. Only recommend if you like true crime and are in the right headspace to read something so heavy.

The book was ok. I didn’t learn too many things about this horrific crime that I didn’t already know. I did not feel it was very detailed and seemed to be a somewhat cursory retelling of the facts that have been out there for some time now. There were a few more details regarding the timeline and the autopsies that I did not know about as well as the sentencing and aftermath.

I think there has to be a lot more to this family and what was going on behind closed doors. Shanann was depicted as somewhat shallow and narcissistic and Chris as basically a man who had no backbone, just doing whatever his wife told him to do. Until he decided to just go insane. Something seems wrong with this picture. Not sure we will ever know more though. I did not know Watts was sent to prison in Wisconsin and was next door to the guy who kidnapped Jayme Closs for a while. That was odd. Also odd is how Watts still keeps changing his story about the details of that night. Either way, the book is pretty good and a very fast read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book simultaneously intriguing and frustrating. It's a fascinating and well-researched take on a truly horrific crime, and I appreciate John Glatt's commitment to drawing on a wide variety of sources to tell the story. It's a good book, but I had one problem with it, which is that the first half of the book includes a lot of victim-blaming and what feels like justification. It's all about how Shanann Watts was controlling, how challenging Chris Watts' life was while being married to her, how obsessed she was with her Thrive sales... it's not a flattering portrait, and the way it's written almost seems to suggest that Chris's actions were a result of hers. The second half of the book is a lot better on this front and really makes it clear that Chris is a monster, but the framing on the front end could have been kinder; she could have been portrayed as a successful business woman instead of obsessed with Facebook, as a great mom instead of crazy over her child's allergies, etc. I also felt like the front half of the book was effectively summary after summary of Facebook posts and videos, which got old after a while. Still: it's well-researched, well-constructed, and a fascinating take on a story where there is a tremendous amount of textual evidence and evidence from social media. I'd recommend it if you enjoy true crime.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

This was an absolutely chilling book to read. It’s so much like fiction because it’s really hard to believe that a human could do this to his family. I recommend this read but not at night or if you’re alone. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read and review it.

I was familiar with the Chris and Shanann Watts' murder case prior to reading John Glatt's book "The Perfect Father," and had read another book on the subject. I give Glatt top marks for pulling together all the information into a very readable, cohesive book that does an excellent job of presenting the case without a lot of editorializing.

Some people may have the impression of Shanann as a great mother with a boatload of less-than-desirable traits and qualities, but Glatt gives us a full range of perceptions from family, friends, coworkers and lets us draw our own conclusions. And he gives Chris the same treatment. He also offers up Nichol Kessinger's actions in a similar manner without making any judgment.

Glatt also does a great job of showing the toll this murder case took on various law enforcement officers, some of whom were diagnosed with PTSD. The way they went about solving this case, and coaxing a confession of sorts out of Chris Watts was very detailed. Glatt notes that law enforcement thinks we will never truly get the truth about what happened that awful day, and that Watts can't even be honest with himself.

I really enjoyed this even-handed, balanced look at the Watts case. 5 stars.

My current read is The Perfect Father: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder by John Glatt. Do you know this story?

I am a bit of a true crime junkie, having started reading this genre back in the 80s thanks to Ann Rule, queen of the true-crime book. Honestly, I didn’t know about Chris Watts and I only briefly read the synopsis before digging into this book. I had to stop and look up pictures of Chris and his wife.

The author’s writing style is straightforward and detailed as he takes us back to the beginning of the relationship between Chris and his Shanann.

Chris was a mild-mannered introvert married to the very outgoing and strong-willed Shanann. They were both hard workers and dedicated to their young daughters. In fact, Shanann often posted on social media about how amazing her husband was and how much she loved him.

I definitely get the sense that Shanann was controlling and bossed Chris around but according to friends, he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was described as being “obsessed” with her several times. But did her controlling ways push him over the edge?

In the early morning hours of August 13th, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at her Frederick, Colorado home by a colleague after returning from a business trip. It was the last time anyone would see her alive. By the next day, Shanann and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had been reported missing, and her husband, Chris Watts, was appearing on the local news, pleading for his family’s safe return.

But Chris Watts already knew that he would never see his family again. Less than 24 hours after his desperate plea, Watts made a shocking confession to police: he had strangled his pregnant wife to death and smothered their daughters, dumping their bodies at a nearby oil site. Heartbroken friends and neighbors watched in shock as the movie-star handsome, devoted family man they knew was arrested and charged with first degree murder. The perfect mask Chris had presented to the world in his TV interviews and the family’s Facebook accounts was slipping–and what lay beneath was a horrifying image of instability, infidelity, sexual ambivalence, and boiling rage.

I’m not quite finished with this and am anxious to get back to reading it. This is a book where perhaps the less you know, the better.

If you like true crime, get this book it’s very good and of course disturbing. It will be out on July 21, you can pre-order here.

You can also listen to a Crime Junkie podcast about the case here.

If you want a true crime book to read right now, you can go wrong with Ann Rule books. I really liked If You Tell by Gregg Olsen.