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A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Murder
by
AN OLD WAY OF LIFE
Thirty-year-old Barbara Weaver was content to live as the Amish have for centuries without modern conveniences but her husband, Eli, wanted a life beyond horses and buggies. Soon he gave in to the temptation of technology, and found ways to go online and meet women. When Barbara was found dead, shot in the chest at close range, all eyes were on Eli and h ...more
Thirty-year-old Barbara Weaver was content to live as the Amish have for centuries without modern conveniences but her husband, Eli, wanted a life beyond horses and buggies. Soon he gave in to the temptation of technology, and found ways to go online and meet women. When Barbara was found dead, shot in the chest at close range, all eyes were on Eli and h ...more
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Paperback, 304 pages
Published
April 4th 2017
by St. Martin's True Crime
(first published July 5th 2016)
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Start your review of A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Murder
I don't want to say to much about this book. It was a lot of the times the information was repetitive. It also was missing some info at the end. People will never change. The writer can contact me if he wants to know what I mean.
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This has a lot of repeated interrogations but that actually drove home the sense of the motives, implications in emotion and dependency for this terrible crime. A murder of a mother with 6 children in the house under 9 years of age at the time of the crime.
The fact that the principals were all Amish or former Amish (Mennonite switched) makes the entire cognition, emotion, underpinnings for how this could have occurred in the way it occurred- doubly compelling for the way it was "told".
Because w ...more
The fact that the principals were all Amish or former Amish (Mennonite switched) makes the entire cognition, emotion, underpinnings for how this could have occurred in the way it occurred- doubly compelling for the way it was "told".
Because w ...more
The Amish people are known as "plain." Their simple lifestyle bans the use of electricity, cell phones, automobiles, and all the things that non-Amish consider necessary. This is a fascinating book written by two very competent and excellent writers. When Barbara Weaver was found in her bed with a bullet in her chest, many knew immediately that it was her husband who killed her.
Time and time again, she let him back in her life after he blatantly cheated and broke not only his marriage vows, but ...more
Time and time again, she let him back in her life after he blatantly cheated and broke not only his marriage vows, but ...more
Too tired (Just got back from a few days Newcastle and I read this book while on the boat. Not his best.I did not mind the repetition but the story was quickly finished. enough proof. Two killers we hardly got to now and one victim whom I also do not feel like I know any better. There are too many questions left.
This is a compelling story in desperate need of better writers. yikes.
Another great read from Mr. Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris. It is interesting as I have read many fiction Amish books. I like many are fascinated by this lifestyle. Yet, even when I have read a few fiction Amish murder mystery stories, I was still shocked by the thought that murder happens in this community. I mean it does but the murder rate is very low.
As I read this story of Barbara and Eli Weaver, I felt conflicted by the people in their community. On one had I understood their reason for f ...more
As I read this story of Barbara and Eli Weaver, I felt conflicted by the people in their community. On one had I understood their reason for f ...more
About twenty-five years ago, Gregg Olsen wrote about misdeeds among the Amish, the tightly-knit, very religious, mostly closed community regarded as an example of the best practitioners of a Godly life. In Abandoned Prayers, he followed the acts of Eli Stutzman, an Amish man who "jumped the fence" (left the Amish) with tragic results.
Unfortunately, now he has another story to tell, about the murder of Barbara Weaver, a pretty, blond, 30-year-old Amish wife who was very happy in her life followin ...more
Unfortunately, now he has another story to tell, about the murder of Barbara Weaver, a pretty, blond, 30-year-old Amish wife who was very happy in her life followin ...more
I was very excited to read this true crime book. Two of the subjects that interest me, true crime and Amish.
I thought the overall foundation was good. But the story was just okay for me. The Amish husband, Eli, was truly an evil man. Right from the beginning to the end it was the same that the Amish husband, Eli Weaver, was very unhappy with his life. A lot of the information was repetitive. So throughout the story it became very slow and tedious. There wasn't much information about his family ...more
I thought the overall foundation was good. But the story was just okay for me. The Amish husband, Eli, was truly an evil man. Right from the beginning to the end it was the same that the Amish husband, Eli Weaver, was very unhappy with his life. A lot of the information was repetitive. So throughout the story it became very slow and tedious. There wasn't much information about his family ...more
I like books that pull you in from the start. While the story of Eli Weaver enlisting his married lover's help to kill his wife, and the mother of his five children was interesting enough, the book moved at a slow pace. Eli was not very happy at being Amish or married yet, he wasn't willing to give either of them up at least not in the conventional way.
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This is a true crime story of a murder in Amish country of Ohio. It read like a paper written by an unmotivated high school student who was working on his paper that’s due tomorrow. The story is full of facts and quotes that are just there. There is no coherent flow to the book at all. The authors should be ashamed.
“Amish Stud”, I’d call that an oxymoron! What a creep Eli Weaver is, once he left for the English way of life they should not have let him back in their Amish Community. One does not have to agree with their restricted way of life, but certainly it deserves respect. Eli just never got the message.
The book gets a bit repetitious, but then books that entail a trial often do. The authors presented the case fair and square, I guess we’ll never know what really happened. True crime beats fiction!
The book gets a bit repetitious, but then books that entail a trial often do. The authors presented the case fair and square, I guess we’ll never know what really happened. True crime beats fiction!
I found this book to be very unsettling.
I picked it up on account of another book chat I was recently at where we were doing some wondering about how law is enforced within the Amish community.
If you can't trust your husband, much less your AMISH husband - then who can you trust?
I wish this womanizing, adulterous, uncaring husband would have stayed gone on one of his galavants and left his wife and kids to try to be happy on their own.
So many people were involved in conversations with this narci ...more
I picked it up on account of another book chat I was recently at where we were doing some wondering about how law is enforced within the Amish community.
If you can't trust your husband, much less your AMISH husband - then who can you trust?
I wish this womanizing, adulterous, uncaring husband would have stayed gone on one of his galavants and left his wife and kids to try to be happy on their own.
So many people were involved in conversations with this narci ...more
This is a very upsetting and unsettling murder case. Barbara Weaver was murdered on June 2, 2009. Her Husband Eli is the prime suspect as well as one of his Girlfriends. The Authors did a wonderful job of not going overboard with nasty details but give a clear picture of the crime scene. Eli is clearly a man who wanted it all, the life style he grew up in and the life style he discovered via internet and having a cell phone. The Amish are a fascinating subject and this book does touch on the det
...more
This was a fascinating look at the Amish lifestyle and one black sheep in the flock. I liked how the author put quotes from the murdered woman's diary at the beginning of each chapter. It gave us a better feel for who she was. I was sad that there were no pictures of her. Her religion forbade taking pictures so none exist. However, I did feel that half way through the book it got to be repetitive and there was quite a bit of word for word testimony at the trial, which was a yawn-er for me. So I
...more
I was left completely disappointed upon finishing the final pages. Most of this book was repetitive. Poorly written. Barbara Weaver deserved better than everything she endured and the poor children were left without both parents because of the selfishness their disgrace of a father displayed.
Fascinating case but I ultimately became bored by the end.
Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris again together, always worth the read. A sad, interesting tale about Amish life, which certainly does not appear to be as chaste and pure as portrayed in movies. But Barbara Weaver was a truly good person who didn’t deserve the awful things that happened to her. Her husband Eli was shallow, selfish, self- centered, and concerned with noones needs but his. A wife, five children, multiple girlfriends, close friends: many had been asked to help him kill his wife becau
...more
Wow! This book was almost breathless in pace! I love books that move quickly! This was a dramatic recounting of a murder story. There was no extra fluff and no slow moving pieces. The book was arranged wonderfully in it's arc from start to finish of the story and allowing time for details to emerge. Can't wait to read more of Gregg's work!
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I was interested in the subject matter, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I wanted more about what led up to the murder.
Sad story of a young wife and mother who was not only betrayed by her husband but then brutally murdered. When I read these stories I am always amazed at how the murderer believes they can get away with what they have done when they leave so much evidence behind.
What do you look for when you read true crime? I seldom read it because I read some that went into too much graphic detail as to the crime itself. If I read true crime, I guess I want it to be like Law & Order, the investigation followed by the trial. Authors Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris do not go into graphic detail in A Killing in Amish Country. In fact, the book is almost a treatise on the Amish lifestyle, or at least on the sect called the Andy Weaver Amish. One man couldn't stand the rule
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Olsen examines the murder of Barbara Weaver, a young Amish mother from the Holmes/Wayne County area of Ohio. Since the Amish community chose to not talk with Olsen, much of the book relies on public records from the trial and some of the non-Amish persons involved in the case. Olsen portrays the two suspects in the case, Eli, Barbara's husband and Eli's older girlfriend and their possible motives for killing Barbara. Since both Eli and his girlfriend Barb Raber deny killing Barbara, Olsen tells
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Jul 12, 2016
Criminal Element
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
true-crime
I recently spent Memorial Day weekend visiting family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—one of the largest enclaves of the Amish population in America. It’s a charming and bucolic place, filled with rolling farmland, cattle, picturesque farmhouses and barns, and laundry lines filled with the traditional black attire of the Amish swaying in the breeze. It’s not out of place to see black horse-drawn buggies share space in traffic with soccer-mom SUVs and farm trucks.
The largest population of Amish ...more
The largest population of Amish ...more
Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris have done it again. An amazing and knowledgeable account of a heartbreaking murder.
As someone who knows very little about the way the Amish community runs, this book broke down the confines of the Amish life and marriages. The story of this senseless murder was easily devoured, leaving me to constantly want more. I felt so much emotion while reading this, which is exactly what I want from a book.
As someone who knows very little about the way the Amish community runs, this book broke down the confines of the Amish life and marriages. The story of this senseless murder was easily devoured, leaving me to constantly want more. I felt so much emotion while reading this, which is exactly what I want from a book.
An interesting book on many levels. The crime.. a young amish mother is shot and killed in her home. while her children are sleeping. The narrative describes the investigation and many of the people in the community. The murder took place in 2009 and though not unknown in the Amish is very rare.
A very chilling story of the murder of an Amish woman married to a man who was very uncomfortable in the Amish faith, being married and just a man who did not know what to do with himself. He is a selfish and confused guy. No, not sympathetic.
Who did the murder? Who helped with the murder? What was the motivation?
Very well written and fast moving.
Who did the murder? Who helped with the murder? What was the motivation?
Very well written and fast moving.
A killing in Amish country
Wow Gregg this book was amazing. This is book 17 in the number if your books I've read since pandemic lockdown and my favorite by far. I have been to Millersburg Ohio and Berlin last year staying at the most pleasant Millersburg Inn downtown. How exciting to read a book with places I have actually been. This is a great read. Thank you 😊 ...more
Wow Gregg this book was amazing. This is book 17 in the number if your books I've read since pandemic lockdown and my favorite by far. I have been to Millersburg Ohio and Berlin last year staying at the most pleasant Millersburg Inn downtown. How exciting to read a book with places I have actually been. This is a great read. Thank you 😊 ...more
Selfishness at its finest
The book seems to be well researched and has a lot of background on the characters. I am not certain who actually did the killing but the facts are there.and I can decide I would recommend this book to anyone who likes true crime books. I look forward to reading more from Gregg Olsen .
The book seems to be well researched and has a lot of background on the characters. I am not certain who actually did the killing but the facts are there.and I can decide I would recommend this book to anyone who likes true crime books. I look forward to reading more from Gregg Olsen .
I like true crime books and I am fascinated by the Amish, so this book was a win win for me. It was easy to read without a lot of extra trial information. I found the inside information on the different Amish sects very interesting.
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Readers also enjoyed
Throughout his career, Gregg Olsen has demonstrated an ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances.
A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Olsen has written ten nonfiction books, ten novels, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
The award-winning author has been a guest on ...more
A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Olsen has written ten nonfiction books, ten novels, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
The award-winning author has been a guest on ...more
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