Joseph Hosey's just-released book Fatal Vows: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson, is an in-depth look at the ongoing Bolingbrook, Illinois investigation of missing-person Stacy Peterson. Tragic is a word that cannot be understated in this case, beginning with the back story of a pretty young (17 year-old) hotel desk clerk succumbing to the questionable advances of a cop 30 years her senior.
The mother of two young children and stepmother to two others, 23 year-old Stacy Peterson went missing from her suburban Bolingbrook home on Sunday, October 28, 2007. Nearly every shred of evidence pointed to foul play at the hands of her husband, a veteran police Sergeant whose behavior following the disappearance did little to dispel the notion. A year later, the case remains open.
Author Was At Forefront Reporting The Case
Hosey has a uniquely advantageous viewpoint from which to tell this true tale, and he uses that sightline well. As a reporter for the Chicago Herald News, which covers suburban news, he was at the forefront of reporting both the disappearance of Stacy Peterson and the earlier death of her husband Drew Peterson's ex-wife Kathleen Savio.
It is Drew Peterson around which Fatal Vows revolves. Drawing on interviews with friends, relatives, and even several with Drew Peterson himself, Hosey is able to paint the picture of an abusive, womanizing husband whose ego somehow allows him to bathe in the limelight of the investigative cameras. Peterson himself told the author, "I find me fascinating."
It was partly this type of behavior that led to a reinvestigation of his third wife's "accidental" bathtub drowning, and the subsequent ruling that she'd been murdered, while Peterson dated his next wife, Stacy. Among the further evidence Hosey reveals is an account Peterson's own stepbrother gave police regarding the day in question, and helping the secretive cop move a large, sealed plastic barrel that was "warm to the touch."
Author Remains Unbiased In The Face Of Mounting Evidence
To Author Hosey's credit, he has clearly done his homework and presented the story in as unbiased a manner as possible. At no time does this story devolve into the author's opinion, something that wouldn't be hard to do. The problem is that the evidence, even given in a straightforward manner, is so obviously stacked against Drew Peterson, that the story, at times, may appear biased. Most of that evidence, however, is of Peterson's own making, and the attentive reader will note that Hosey's language is carefully chosen.
The very nature of the story behind Joseph Hosey's Fatal Vows, as well as its timeliness, make much of this book feel like the script to a prime time magazine show. For readers interested in true crime of a disturbing nature, one which seems about an eyelash of evidence away from being solved (but may never be) it could be called a "page-turner."
Dale Van Every - Dale Van Every is a freelance and fiction writer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his Masters Degree in English Literature from ...
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