Blood Games
A True Account of Family Murder
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times–bestselling author of Bitter Blood weaves "a powerful account" of greed that led to an unspeakable crime (The New York Times Book Review).
As they slept in their North Carolina home, wealthy Lieth Von Stein and his wife Bonnie suffered a vicious assault with a knife and a baseball bat. Bonnie barely survived. Lieth did not. The crime seemed totally baffling until police followed a trail that led to the charming stepson, Chris Pritchard, and his brilliant, drug-using, Dungeons and Dragons–playing friends at North Carolina State University.
"Haunting . . . Addictive, chilling and a masterpiece of reportage," Blood Games is the true story of depraved young minds and a son's gruesome greed turned to horrifyingly tragedy (Patricia Cornwell). Jerry Bledsoe masterfully reconstructs the bloody crime and its aftermath as he takes us into the secret twisted hearts of three young murderers.
"Mr. Bledsoe goes straight to the bigger issues." —The New York Times Book Review
"In Mr. Bledsoe's hands, a mega-load of inert facts becomes a human story of hurricane force." —The News & Observer
"Devastating . . . A brilliant account." —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On the surface this is an account of the plot conceived by Chris Pritchard to murder his mother and stepfather, Bonnie and Lieth Von Stein, to inherit a large sum of money; the crime involved two of his friends, James Upchurch, the actual killer of the stepfather and wounder of the mother, and Neal Henderson, the driver of the car which took them to the Von Stein home in Washington, N.C., on July 25, 1988. All three, from middle-class families, were college students of exceptionally high intelligence. They were also players of Dungeons and Dragons, a game which, according to Bledsoe, teaches the philosophy of selfishness. The book is far more than a true-crime study: it is a devastating and profounly disturbing portrait of a certain kind of family life. Here people marry casually, have children, move on to another incompatible marriage. The children of these broken homes are adversely affected, often find school no challenge and squander their youth on addiction, whether to alcohol, drugs, sex or fantasy games, until the groundwork is laid for tragedy. Bledsoe ( Bitter Blood ) brilliantly points up the terrible waste of human potential. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC selection.
