This was true crime at it craziest! It felt like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. It’s unbelievable to me how this crazy situation kept getting crazier.
Abuse is really hard to see and understand when you’re right in the middle of it, I know first hand. And these poor kids! GRRRRR.....
I’m not going to give anything away and if you like true crime then you’ll really enjoy this. There was a lot of background story told that I didn’t know anything about.
I thought the whole thing very well done. Thanks to St. Martin Press via Netgalley for this eARC. I’ve voluntarily given my review.

True crime isn't generally what I flock to in my reading, as many who know me know. But when I got an email about this from Netgalley, I knew I had to take a look at this one. The compelling tale of the murder of Shele Covlin, I remember hearing about this case while it was going, and always wondering what exactly happened here. Of course, the details in full are lost to time, this book brought together with the not necessarily sparse, but not necessarily deep, information from her family and those around her. The fact that there was a lack of input from some affected parties makes this difficult to know if there was a proper verdict, but just from an outside perspective, and the beautiful yet precise writing of Rosenberg, it's easy to see what happened here on the surface. An interesting read, and one I'd recommend to any true crime buff, Rosenberg portrays Shele's case with an elegance and class it deserves.

This is by far one of the best true crime books I've read in a while. I didn't have insanely high expectations for this book because I'd already seen a one-hour special about the crime. I figured I pretty much knew what the story would be about. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book delves much deeper into the story of Rod Covlin and the murder of his wife, Shele. There were so many unbelievable moments in this story - so much so that you wouldn't believe it was possible if it was in a fictional story. I won't delve too much into the actual case because I think it's better to go in without a ton of knowledge about the details. But Rosenberg and Algar did a crazy amount of research - and it shows in their highly-detailed and insightful breakdown of the case. I sincerely hope that these two authors go on to write more true crime books - I would definitely read more about twisty, fascinating cases like this one!

Normally I read fiction, but this is a true crime story that is as engrossing as any fictional read.Researched and told in minute detail, I hate to say I enjoyed it and was captivated by it.So much is depicted-spousal abuse,children manipulated by a scheming parent,”red flags” in the couple’s courtship , shoddy police work, and captivating courtroom scenes as the lawyers assert their respective arguments.
It was at times fascinating, at times horrifying, at times so sad that not only the victim, but so many other members of both families involved were destroyed.
A caveat: I tend to be cynical about the law/ legal process , and without spoiling the plot for any future reader, there were countless times over the ten Year process of the legal wranglings I found myself thinking : “how could the courts decide that”. But, you will have to read it for yourself to reach your own conclusions😂😂😂

Not really a who did it or a why it was done but a chronological narrative of events leading to the murder of the wife and mother. Not a lot of suspense builds up except for the lengths the suspect goes to to stage other crimes. A solid trial that hits the right note in detail.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

I was actually directly invited to read this one - and I am so glad that I was because I am not sure that I would have otherwise read it! This true crime novel spans a decade and reveals the details around the murder of Shele Danishefsky Covlin. A NYC mother of two, Shele recently separated from her husband of ten years, Rod Covlin, just prior to her death. What unfolds is a horrifying account of Rod's terribly callous and disturbing behavior - from spying on his wife to extreme psychological and even physical abuse. This is true crime that reads like fiction. Shele's murder took place in 2009, but I don't recall seeing anything about it in the news at the time, so I really didn't know what to expect from this one at all.

Rod's behavior almost defies belief at times with some of his plainly psychopathic attempts to skew facts and plot outlandish ways to support his backgammon addiction. This tragically dark story really doesn't have much happiness at all within, but I honestly could not stop turning the pages. It's a compelling story that takes one unexpected turn after another. It's not a good showing of the NYPD, that's for sure. And it shows plenty of determination from Shele's family - not to mention the greed and depravity from the Covlin. I am not typically a true crime reader, but this one makes me want to investigate more in this genre. It's very well-written!

I am a fan of True Crime and I really enjoyed At Any Cost. This book was very detailed and I was amazed at how terrible Rod was as far as a husband and just a person in general. A very disturbing case but also very interesting. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the authors for my ARC in exchange for my review.

Holy *insert naughty words here* #truecrimecommunity #truecrimeaddicts let me tell you #atanycost #rebeccarosenberg #selimalgar is a freaking sad terrible but phenomenal read. You feel like you are there in the moment #flyonthewall #sheledanishefsky and #rodcolvin I am sitting here currently obsessed. My heart aches for the Danishefsky family. And the children. Who aren’t children anymore. But. Ugh. Get it. Read it. Become obsessed with me. Thank you #netgalley for the arc thank you #stmartinspress #bookstagram #readersofig #truecrimebooks #bookrecommendations

Mystery and thrillers are usually my cups of tea. Sometimes I need to sink my teeth into some true crime. This was given to me for an honest review by NetGalley. I am so glad that it hit my radar. This is a sad story about a woman who continued to make excuses for the man she loves and was constantly hoping will change. At the end of the day, it costs her a life and destroyed the lives of the two people she loved the most her children. Shele Danisheefsky who was the breadwinner in the family, who put aside her pride and funded the lifestyle of the man she married without knowing what kind of monster he was and would become.
He was the type of person who is good at conniving and convincing those around him what a good father and great guy he was. Truth be told, he was a narcissistic scam artist, all show with no substance.
His life revolved around backgammon and women he met online. He thought of nothing and no one but himself. I do not understand how money could be more important than the health and wellness of his kids. When he saw that bad-mouthing Shele didn’t get the result he wanted he changed tactics to get what he wanted he turned her beautiful kids against her. She was willing to do anything to keep her kids' lives stable. When things failed to work in his favor, he brainwashed both the kids but especially Anna to think that her father was the best and that her mother was nothing.

In the end he decided to eliminate her to try and get his hands on her money and the kids. I paced myself with this one because a large portion of this book is heavy and it requires time to process. I am so happy that after so many years that justice was served and Rod is in jail. This book should be read by anyone who is in an abusive relationship. Not so they can cry but so they can see themselves in Shele and get help before it’s too late to get help and all that is left is for their families to grieve them. This story has such a sad and satisfying ending. It is sad because these kids were shown that their father was the only one who loved them and it is so far from the truth. Satisfying because after ten long years justice was served.

Even the most tragically familiar stories can devolve into shocking and unbelievable true crime cases. Part true crime narrative and part courtroom drama, At Any Cost: A Father’s Betrayal, A Wife’s Murder, and a Ten-Year War for Justice by Rebecca Rosenberg and Selim Algar (2021 St. Martin’s Press), recounts the worst results of domestic violence and the horrible ripple-effect of one family’s tragedy.

The book recounts the life of Shele Danishefsky, a successful and brilliant woman from a tight-knit and supportive Jewish family working on Wall Street. Eager to start a family, Shele meets and marries Rod Covlin, a Jewish Ivy League graduate with a promising future. However, the familiar hallmarks of systematic domestic violence soon emerged. After their marriage, Rod’s kind and caring nature dissolved into a taste for unemployment, online gaming tournaments, and internet dating—all reliant on Shele’s income. After a ten-year marriage, Shele filed for divorce and chaos over the custody of the former couple’s two children and Shele’s money ensued. Although Shele finally resolved to legally bar Rod from her will in December 2009, she would ultimately be dead before she could meet with her lawyer.

Both prominent journalists, Rosenberg and Algar bring a admirably clear writing style to the many complicated aspects of this book. In recounting the life and actions of a man who worked to confuse, tangle, misdirect, and lie his way to a fortune that he was not entitled to, Rosenberg and Algar carefully reconstruct and recount the events surrounding Shele’s murder with remarkable clarity. Many of their findings are accurately supported with witness testimony, court transcripts, and other evidentiary material. This text truly is a true crime novel in the digital age. With the case concluding in 2019, the authors seemingly had an overwhelming amount of evidence to work with over the course of more than a decade. Their status as journalists comes through in their punchy, to-the-point writing as well as in their ability to integrate hard evidence and fact-based reporting into their text.

The text pulls together a number of different threads that worked to make this case difficult to untangle. Shele’s Jewish background, police procedure, courtroom procedure, and custody rules, all contribute to the intense twists and turns of this case, Rosenberg and Algar include the right amount of context in order for the reader to understand the judicial system in the United States and New York City. Coupled with their technical skill, however, both authors are supremely interested in painting a portrait of Shele, her life, her family, and the gravity of her loss. While this story, in many ways, reads as sickeningly familiar and Rod’s abuse and manipulation is harrowing, Rosenberg and Algar paint a picture of Shele’s life in all of its complexity and vivacity. The authors also, in addressing the minute details of Shele’s story, make a wider statement about the complexities of domestic violence and the systems that can help or hinder victims in their ambition to protect themselves and their children.

Suspensefully written and expertly told, I read over half of this book in one sitting. I was hardly able to put it down. I was so desperate to see Shele and her family get justice. The twists and turns of this case are absolutely appalling and seemingly endless. In addition to recounting a timely and recent case that everyone should read about, I could not recommend this book more as a prime example of excellent, journalism-based true crime with a thoughtful and focused writing style.

Please add At Any Cost to your Goodreads shelf and follow Rebecca Rosenberg and Selim Algar on Twitter or visit Rebecca Rosenberg’s Website.

Don’t forget to follow True Crime Index on Twitter and please visit our Goodreads for updates on what we’re reading! You can find Rachel on her personal @RachelMFriars or on Goodreads @Rachel Friars.

About the Writer:

Rachel M. Friars (she/her) is a PhD student in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She holds a BA and an MA in English Literature with a focus on neo-Victorianism and adaptations of Jane Eyre. Her current work centers on neo-Victorianism and nineteenth-century lesbian literature and history, with secondary research interests in life writing, historical fiction, true crime, popular culture, and the Gothic. Her academic writing has been published with Palgrave Macmillan and in The Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies. She is a reviewer for The Lesbrary, the co-creator of True Crime Index, and an Associate Editor and Social Media Coordinator for PopMeC Research Collective. Rachel is co-editor-in-chief of the international literary journal, The Lamp, and regularly publishes her own short fiction and poetry. Find her on Twitter and Goodreads.

A copy of this book was graciously provided by St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I could not, would not, put this book done until I finished it. I read many true crime books but rarely do I come across an author who holds my interest until the last page. The story about Shele Danishefsky and her husband Rod Covlin is told with compassion and exacting detail. My heart hurt while reading about the long road to justice Shele's family had to endure with several family members not seeing the final outcome. Big thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for my free copy. Excellent read.

This is a very well written book. I usually don't do well reading a true account but this is so compelling, I had a hard time to put it down. I knew a little bit from watching one of the television networks true crime coverage but this book certainly makes up my mind that justice is being served. My heart goes out to the families involved. It's absolutely unthinkable what they have been through. My heart breaks for the children.
I received a copy of the book from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion of it. The account of events flows smoothly and I feel it fairly depicts the story of those who participated by interview along with court records, etc. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. Anyone who wants to better understand what took place will find this a magnetic read.

This is the incredibly true story of the case of a wealthy mother of 2 who died on New Year's Eve in 2009. Found in her bathroom by one of her children, questions have circulated - What happened to Shele? In the midst of a contentious divorce, Was her death just an accidental slip and fall in the bathroom or was this a calculated murder by Rod, Shele's husband?

Little bit of background on me: I LOVED Serial. It is a podcast about a gentleman named Adnan Syed who claims to be completely innocent of murder. Being a complete armchair detective, I listened to the series twice, listened to Undisclosed (another podcast), read almost all of the trial transcripts, reviewed every page of the police report (except some of the victim's photos), viewed many of the legal filings, watched documentaries, and scoured even hints and whispers on Reddit. Let's just say I have a pretty good idea of what happened on the night in question.

This book was very interesting especially many of the people in the book were behaving very badly. In the practice of law, lawyers always say that their best clients are the criminals and the worst clients are the family law clients. Everything in this book proved that to be the case.

The story itself was very interesting and clearly very well researched. With that being said, I think that I would have enjoyed this more as an audiobook because it kind of felt like I was reading a script from Dateline - the prose seemed a bit overly analytical, stilted, very straight, and to the point without the storytelling component. In my opinion, this book would have been more compelling if it was relayed in a way more like Serial, perhaps starting the book off with Rod explaining that he is completely innocent and explaining himself. Then starting going into more evidence that might look exonerating and then start slowly introducing evidence that implicates him. One of the things that I find very interesting in any case is the jailhouse snitch. They are notoriously unreliable. The jailhouse snitch is not exactly known for their outstanding behavior and usually will do anything in exchange for any hope of leniency. Sometimes the same jailhouse snitch will testify against dozens of prisoners which is highly unlikely that dozens of accused criminals are going to just chat up this one particular inmate. This type of discussion is really quite interesting and should have been explored further. Why wasn't the jailhouse snitch put on the stand? The particular individual never testified at trial. Why not? I have a lot of questions about this. Why would Rod behave that way with this individual especially on camera? What happened to the drawings that Rod allegedly made?

In the final published version of this book, I hope that there are pictures of Shele. Too often, the story is focused on whether the accused "did it" or not. However, Shele's life was gone too soon. She seemed to have the world at her feet being a rich, beautiful, vibrant, intelligent woman with a deeply caring family. When I read the victim's diary in Serial, I finally got to see the case in a new light and felt the victim's hope for the future and excitement of all of her first's to come - going to college for the first time, getting her first job, and so much more. Shele never got to hold her grandchildren or see her children graduate from high school. In my opinion, it would have been more poignant to end with a picture of Shele and her dates of death.

Overall, I think that this an interesting story for all of my arm chair detectives and my sincerest condolences to Shele's family - may healing and peace come your way.

While I was familiar with this case via Dateline, this book goes into much more depth about it. A really interesting read into a tragic case.

I have always been fascinated by true-crime books because I want to figure out what leads people to commit such horrific acts. When I was invited to read and review At Any Cost, I had never heard of this particular case. The authors did an excellent job of bringing me up to speed in a clear, straight-forward way. I truly came to know the people involved and was relieved to see justice served despite all the missteps along the way. I would not hesitate to read anything else by these authors. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review At Any Cost.

How can you and your children escape your abusive husband who appears increasingly unhinged? Unfortunately for Shele, the answer was being bludgeoned to death in her own bathtub. Shele had tried everything legally possible to escape At Any Cost. Nothing worked in this harrowing true crime tale.

Shele’s story is heart-breaking! It reads like fiction but, incredibly, is true. At Any Cost will make your spouse, regardless of their faults, look better by comparison. It is one of the best true crime tales I’ve ever read. 5 stars!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a True Crime story with an enormous amount of detail. I would have enjoyed this better on audiobook. It felt like I was reading a textbook. However, the story itself is well-written, it is just heartbreaking and a lessons in desperation & insanity! I can't really say, I enjoyed reading about someone's horrible and tragic death?!? Overall, I just felt complete sadness and empathy for everyone involved.

Shele Danishefsky was, by all accounts, a good person. A loving and doting mother. A powerhouse in her chosen career of finance. A loyal friend. A faithful Jew. A beloved daughter and sister. Her murder was a tragedy that didn't just end her life, but effected the lives of all those people attached to her--none more so than her two young children.

Rosenberg details Shele's life, the lives of her children, and the evolution of her marriage, which ended--by all accounts and evidence--the night her husband took her life.

In exploring this case Rosenberg focuses on the lives. The life of Shele Danishefsky that was lost, and the lives of all those connected to her that changed indelibly. Rather than focus on gruesome details or gratuitous criminality, At Any Cost, explores the questions and events leading up to this story's tragic end and the perseverance of Shele's family.

In addition to witness accounts, court transcripts, news articles, and interviews, Rosenberg makes an effort to reach out to each party involved in this case (some who've chosen not to be involved with this project) and tries to prevent the facts of the case clearly, accurately, and in their appropriate contexts.

Right away, my first thought about this book is how in the world I had never heard of this crime before. There are so many twists and turns, so many egregious actions by both the murderer and the police--if this was the plot of a fiction book, I would have dismissed it as being far too unbelievable. But this is all too true. I won't spoil anything for anyone who like me walked into this knowing nothing about the case, but there are moments after moments that will make your jaw drop.

My second thought is how well-written this book is. The facts are laid out in a narrative format, which really helps the reader get to know the people involved, the crime itself, and the shocking aftermath. Despite how complex and complicated the layers upon layers could get, Rosenberg and Algar make sure that the reader never gets lost.

I have read a lot of true crime over the years, and this is an excellent addition to the genre. It will open your eyes, engage your mind, and tug on every single one of your heartstrings.

Please note that "At Any Cost" does not provide much in the way of an in-depth discussion of Rod Covlin and Shele Danishefsky or their respective backgrounds or personalities but rather focuses primarily on the long years it took to bring this case to trial and the subsequent courtroom drama.

I mention this only because my initial perception of the book was that it was more of a "true crime" work and I had hoped to learn more about the respective personalities in this case. But, what the authors give us is an absolutely heartbreaking story of a woman murdered by her faithless ex-husband, who killed her to get her estate (valued at almost $6M) and the subsequent alienation (and essentially brainwashing) of their two young children.

Because Rod Covlin is simply such a horrible person, I would have liked to learn more about his upbringing, his school friends, his relationship with his incredibly supportive parents, etc. Rod was incredibly lucky in that a seriously incompetent investigation by New York's "finest" compromised evidence, as well as no initial autopsy due to Shele's strong Jewish faith. And finally, the NYC DA wasn't terribly interested at first in bringing the case to trial.

But despite this perfect storm of incompetence, the case was finally brought to trial, almost 10 years after Shele's murder, and where this work really shines is in detailing how the case was presented to the court, how the attorneys presented their case, and how all the circumstantial evidence was woven into a strong net to finally catch Rod Covlin.

The heartbreaking remainder of this case is what has happened to Shele's beloved children, Anna and Myles, who were manipulated and gaslighted by Rod, and continue to believe in his innocence. The crime has been solved, but what lingers is still so sad and unsettled. 3.5 stars for "At Any Cost."