Death of an Angel

by Don Davis

Recounts the true story of a couple and their young daughter whose brutal murder by Christopher Hightower, an investment counselor, Sunday school teacher, and pillar of the community they took to be their friend, shocked their tight-knit Rhode Island community. Reissue.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Leigh Podgorski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating story but dully written. Davis constantly repeats circumstances we already have been informed about. Though the character of Christopher Hightower is intriguing, Davis's presentation of Hightower lacks power. We see him performing vile acts, but any psychological insight doesn't come until far into the trial at the end of the book.
It is a long story with many twists and turns that, in the manner presented, can become overwhelming and confusing.
There are many great true crime books. This one was merely adequate.

[Doreen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Massive disclaimer: I only read this book because my best friend was one of the kids on that APL field trip with Emily Brendel, and her disappearance and murder affected him deeply. So, for that, this book was important for me to read.

Dispassionately, though, the book was alright. I don't particularly care for the true crime genre, mostly because it seems to attract the worst sort of sensationalist hack writers. Sometimes, of course, you get writers who are happy to let the facts speak for themselves, such as in the exemplary book I reviewed here. Unfortunately, Death Of An Angel was not written by one of those authors. My best friend and I agreed that the writing could be heinously pulpy, but it didn't actually bother me till later in the book. Don Davis (as he's credited on the cover) considers abusing an exclamation point a necessary part of any description involving anger, which works when used in regard to Hightower's murderous rage, but is an astonishingly poor choice when then used to describe the assistant district attorney's unhappiness with the courtroom atmosphere. The bit where he writes "Cookies! Barks and bites! Mr McDonald!" had me rolling my eyes with the unnecessary over-wroughtness of the prose. Worse, treating the two with the same sort of language makes it seem as if the two situations are similar, and downplays the horror of the crime.

I also really hated that Mr Davis was using innuendo to make it seem that Hightower was even more sinister than the facts would show. From the testimony and evidence alone, it was obvious that Hightower was a Grade A psychopath. The unsupported insinuations just made Mr Davis' credibility as a case-builder weaker.

So, not a book I would read again, except for how it chronicled an influential period in my best friend's life, one I dearly wish he'd never had to undergo.

[Patricia Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

christopher hightower was a man who wanted to succeed in life married twice and always had a get rich schem both his wifes helped him to suceed in school to be a doctor but he never finished it. when ernest brendel found he was cheating people and making false records to get more money from his investers he reported him and christopher hightower found out his wife was divorcing him and his life was falling apart so he killed earest when he refused to drop the charges than killed earnests wife alice and 8 year old daughter emily than tried to black mail earenest sister for money saying that the family had been kidnapped and he needed the money for ransom..they called the fbi things went from bad to worst for him as he tried to say he was only doing what he was told to do by the kidnappers...

[Philip Eil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I had read most of the Rhode Island True Crime Canon, and then I learned about this book.

Davis does an excellent job of relaying the facts of this mind-blowing story (which occurred when I was growing up in Rhode Island, but too young to be aware of it), while mostly avoiding the narrative pitfalls of pulp-paperback-era true crime. I especially enjoyed his outsider's perspective on Barrington, the picture-perfect "Town" of the book's title.

I'd recommend this to both true crime fans and anyone interested in the recent-ish history of Rhode Island. Since I fit squarely in both categories, I flew through it.

[Pauline Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page turner

The author was able to write about a very complex murder in an interesting, detailed j & explainable story. The murderer was an unusually flawed, heartless & unbelievable individual. The trial reminded me of how much our court system favors the defendant (if white) & leaves prosecutors with the disadvantage of denying evidence. I would highly recommend this book to true crime lovers.

[Joe Stafura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrible tragedy, well written

The story of Chris Hightower is hard to stomach, another sociopath who didn’t reach success like so many of his fellow sociopaths.

The reason seemed to be an endless line of enablers who allowed him his pretentious of success to go on until disaster struck.

[SheMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad especially given that the trial takes up a fourth of the book. The writing is not spectacular and is plagued by too much passive voice. But the story itself is fascinating enough to hook the reader.

[Edward T. McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humanity revealed

Appreciated the exploration of a.most evil human being. Each chapter drew me into the next, well written, hard to put down.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

great read!

I loved this book. The author did an amazing job in holding my interest. This man was a classic sociopath in my opinion.

[Anne Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a decent true crime novel - the author had an excellent way of developing the characters and making them relatable except for the murderer since I couldn't relate to him at all.

[A.r. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pretty impressed by this book as I seem to be continually impressed by Don Davis' true crime books. It was not only an amazing case but also a very well paced narrative that kept me going until the very last page. An engrossing narrative is certainly Don Davis' forte as he portrays the case from when the crime first unfolds, to the following police investigation and finally the courtroom drama. A major contributor to the story is the perpetrator himself, Christopher Hightower, who is possibly one of the most unlikable characters to grace a courtroom. This guy doesn't just lie, he tells whopping monster fibs that are almost too peposterous to be unreal. This man has made a life and a career out of lying himself into hopeless knots. But his ego is so large that he cannot allow himself to admit defeat, and so he weaves more lies to pile on top. The highlight of the book is when he decides to take the stand to defend his incredible story of mob kidnappings, drug smugglers, extortion and bizare hitmen. It would be farcical if he had not murdered in cold blood one whole family (including an eight year old girl whom he picked up from her after school care, pretending to be a family friend). This is a great example of solid true crime. It is especially worth it to find out whether this awful man gets the justice thats coming to him.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story really got to me, found myself crying about half way through. The investigators on this case got so close to the victims and the author made the reader know and love them too. A really really good true crime read!

[Larain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting true story read.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hightower may be a psychopath but he was also completely moronic. I could not get over how stupid he was..