I wanted to read a book on this case that really started at the very beginning with the girls moving to Perugia, a small picturesque town in Italy, and their initial acquaintance with each other, right through to the result of the appeal case. There are a number of books on the market documenting the very same story but I wanted to read an unbiased version with as many contemporaneous accounts as possible and a book which provided the facts and not some sensationalized biased patchy story. John Follian's 'definitive account of the Meredith Kercher case from her murder to the acquittal of Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox' is extremely credible and thorough. His sources include both case files including the 10,000 page prosecution file including photographs, autopsy and forensic police reports, transcripts of witness statements, interrogations of suspects and Amanda Knox's taped meetings with her family in prison. He also includes excerpts from Amanda's diary she wrote while in prison, in-depth interviews with police detectives , lawyers for Amanda, Raffaele and Rudy as well as interviews with both Amanda's and Meredith's family and friends. Follain was also granted access to the crime scene, spent the entire first trial in Perugia taking verbatim notes and followed the case right to its very end. Shortly after the appeal result Follain published and released his book "Death in Perugia" which has since its release become a crime best seller.
Without voicing my opinion on what I think actually happened on the night of Meredith Kercher's murder I will say that John Follian's book is very thought-provoking and really guides you through the case carefully taking time to explain every bit of evidence, witness account or anything that became an important part of the case. At the beginning of the book Follain provides a map of Perugia marking all the important landmarks of the case. He also provides a breakdown of the principle characters including all key investigators who later become pivotal to both the first trial and the appeal trials results. He then begins with a Prologue which sets the scene on the 2nd November 2007 the night of Meredith's murder in which Monica Napoleoni the chief of Perugia's homicide squad receives a call explaining a body has been found. The reader and Napoleoni then go straight to the crime scene where it is described at length. The first thing Napoleoni thinks is if this was a break in and then the house was ransacked why are shards of glass on top of the messy belongings of the room? The second thought she had and why this has become one of the most publicised cases in decades is the nature of the murder. Meredith had been stabbed what looked like several times in the neck and had suffered for quite a long time in the final moments of her life.
Follain separates the different sections of the story into non sensationalized factual parts: Part 1 - Path to murder, Part 2 - Investigation and Part 3 - Trials, broken up by 16 pages of pictures at various stages of the investigation including pictures of the crime scene (not for the faint hearted), several pictures of Amanda and Raffaele including the famous image of them kissing while outside the crime scene.
Follain also allows you to understand many other characters in the investigation including Rudy Gede who was the first party to be found guilty after requesting a fast track trial, I presume hoping for less evidence to be collected by the time he went to court. He was eventually found guilty and was sentenced straight away. He is potentially the only person who in the future could divulge more details of the night of Meredith's murder and the evidence was certainly stacked up enough against him to find him unequivocably guilty. His involvement is however very suspicious as the wounds found on Meredith's body were always deemed too severe for one person alone to inflict. Who else then was involved? Will Gede ever speak out?
If you are interested in finding out more about the Meredith Kercher case , or are possibly curious as to how the appeal case turned everything around from Knox and Sollecito being convicted guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison to 4 years later being acquitted then "Death in Perugia" is definitely a great place to start. At no point is the story bogged down by legal jargon or become boring. The book is notably unbiased and allows the reader to make up their own mind,simply providing the details of the case without indulging in subjection or assumptions at any point. Above all the author Follain maintains a level of respect for the Kercher family throughout and never lets the details of the case and its dramatic turnabout lose sight of the most important fact which is on the 2nd November 2007 a 22-year-old English girl was brutally murdered in the comfort of her own home while on what was presumed to be the trip of a lifetime and I'm sure now that the media circus surrounding the case has died down she will be allowed to rest in peace.
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