Publishers Weekly
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Coverage in the British tabloids was wilder than usual when Michael Henry Maxwell Telling was tried and convicted for the 1983 killing of 26-year-old Monika Zumsteg, his American-born wife of only 15 months. Lindsey ( A Gathering of Saints ) recounts the major details of this doomed relationship, from the lovers' courtship to the discovery of Zumsteg's bullet-ridden, decapitated body. Telling--heir to the fortune of the Vesteys, England's second-wealthiest family--spent time in mental hospitals as a youngster, and as an adult became a chronic liar subject to violent fits of rage. On a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area to buy a Harley-Davidson, while falsely claiming to be a British intelligence agent, he met Zumsteg, a junior executive; within the month he had proposed to her. But his ``dark side'' emerged shortly after the couple moved to England, and Zumsteg fell into alcoholism and despair. Lindsey covers Telling's six-day trial routinely, and does little more investigating into Zumsteg's American and British days than did the attorneys for the defense and the prosecution, both of whom were determined to blame Telling's murderous behavior on the victim herself. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal
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A life of untold riches and splendor awaited Monika Zumstag, a Californian who was about to marry a quiet, handsome Englishman. Through a chance encounter, Michael Telling, an heir to the Vestey fortune, the second wealthiest family in England, had met Monika's father, who in turn introduced Michael to his daughter. What seemed like a fairy tale soon turned into a gothic nightmare. Upon Monika's arrival in England, Michael's quiet demeanor steadily gave way to wildly erratic behavior, culminating in wild tantrums, with Michael ripping their home apart and attacking Monika physically. Soon, Monika learned about Michael's long history of psychiatric hospitalizations. While trying to help him, she soon became an alcoholic. In one night of terror, Michael shot and killed Monika and then beheaded her. He was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. Lindsey has written a fascinating tale of disturbed people and dashed dreams. Recommended for true crime collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/92.-- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

To observers, it seemed 24-year-old Californian Monika Zumsteg was living a fairy tale. After falling in love with enigmatic Englishman Michael Telling and moving to Great Britain, she discovered that her handsome prince was an heir to one of the world's richest families. The couple married in 1981 and bought an eighteenth-century dream home outside of London. Zumsteg's privileged life soon began crumbling when her emotionally erratic husband became increasingly moody and physi~cally abusive. This deliciously detailed page-turner by the author of The Falcon and the Snowman [BKL N 15 79] and A Gathering of Saints [BKL S 15 88] examines one of Great Britain's most celebrated murder cases. For in a fit of rage Michael killed Monika and kept her decaying body at the couple's home for five months before he finally dumped it in a rural area and, in a macabre final outrage, decapitated the corpse. Details of the sensational trial, in which Monika's reputation was repeatedly attacked by Michael's high-powered barristers, round out this sure-to-be-popular, well-written account. ~--Sue-Ellen Beauregard

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An enthralling true-life Cinderella story--that drips blood all over the glass slipper. Lindsey (A Gathering of Saints, 1988, etc.) again shows his mastery of true crime, revealing the horror of his fractured fairy tale bit by tantalizing bit. Cinderella is California-girl Monika Zumsteg, sunny and vivacious despite growing up with an alcoholic dad. Prince Charming is Michael Telling, a mysterious British tourist who sweeps Monika off her feet and into a near-instant betrothal. Traveling with Michael to England, Monika learns that her fiancé is not, as he's claimed, a British secret agent--but, rather, heir to the billionaire Vesteys (whose family history Lindsey recounts at tedious length); moreover, he's married, with a young son. Despite the lies, Monika decides to proceed with the marriage once Michael divorces. But when at last luxuriously settled into a small English town, Monika finds her dream mutating into nightmare as Michael begins to explode into wild rages--rages, she learns, that stem from his abandonment as a child and that once compelled him to set fire to his boarding school. Despairing, Monika takes to drink, extramarital sex, and hounding Michael to change his ways; so he shoots her dead and cuts off her head- -spinning the narrative from sordid melodrama into tight police procedural as Scotland Yard, sifting clues, eventually nabs Michael. The narrative spins again, into riveting courtroom drama, as an indignant Lindsey details how the British justice system- -along with the raving British tabloid press--allows the trial to turn into an indictment of Monika's character, and allows Michael to try to slip through the loophole of an insanity plea. Starts slow but gains tremendous force, winding up--despite Lindsey's customary pedestrian prose--as a tale both dark and deep, haunted by familial and societal curses. And it'll make a great movie. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen.)