[.ca] Are You There Alone?: The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates (ISBN 0743244850)

Are you there alone? by Suzanne O'Malley:
A true story exceptionally well written. Many kudos for Suzanne O'Malley for her courage of putting Andrea Yates tragic story on paper. The amount of investigative research and just plain leg work that went into this book along with Miss O'Malley's compassion for Andrea gives me hope that there are still some people out there who care. If there were more people of O'Malley's caliber possibly Andrea would be home taking care of her beautiful five babies, taking her medicine and coping with every day life. Gunta Krasts Voutyras

behind the scene:
I liked hearing about the people such as the police dispatcher, the first officer on scene-David Knapp. We hear how News photographer John Treadgold was the first on the scene. Author does a great job of showing the people who were in the background and not just the big lawyers which most crime/court dramas take up all the print.

For the information...:
I gave the book four stars because of the information packed into it, and the fact that it reveals a lot about the trial and how Andrea got screwed over by the prosecution (*a big part of the prosecution's case was based on an Law and Order episode that never existed--they said that Andrea watched this episode, about a mentally ill woman who kills her kids, and got ideas from it). However, it is boring and not a quick read at all. Suzy Spencer's "Breaking Point" is an easier read, but is not as thorough. This one gives more details as to how and why the kids were killed, while the other has a lot more on the previous life of the Yates' family. Both have their strong points. Overall, I would probably recommend Breaking Point. Most of the 'extra' stuff this one provides can be found on CNN. And, unfortunately, there are no pictures in this novel. Mary isn't even shown on the cover, so if you're relying solely on this novel, it's hard to picture her. She, and brothers Noah, John, Luke and Paul were beautiful children. This book could've been better had it included some pictures, simply to give the readers some illustration.

But for the grace of God:
Any psychiatrist reading this book must half hope to come upon evidence of some obvious malpractice, so as to be able to say "such a thing could never happen to one of my patients" rather than "there but for the grace of God go I." Some of the professional errors O'Malley describes are defendable. Experts may reasonably differ, as did some of the experts she talked to, about whether the case was one of bipolar disorder or of schizophrenia. Treating a bipolar patient with anti-depressants alone is often stated to be undesirable because of the danger of precipitating mania, but the practice has its advocates. O'Malley does not make Dr Saeed sound like an empathetic character with good verbal skills but that may be a subjective judgment. She skates over the decision by the Yates's to have a fifth child. Rusty Yates has been much criticized for this. Dr. Starbranch made a written note that a further pregnancy would guarantee another psychotic episode but we do not know what she said to Rusty Yates about it. I cannot imagine tolerating the practices she describes at Devereux. Of course O'Malley's description is based on a a written record that may not have reflected all of what went on. The chart and treatment plan would normally have been reviewed by Magellan. In any inpatient facility I have known there would have been extended and worried discussions, involving social workers and nursing staff, about the fact that there were five small children at risk. On the other hand it is possible that even with such discussions the staff migh have been reassured by the fact that the husband was supportive and a grandmother was arriving who would be in the house while he was at work. (The killings took place between the time Rusty Yates left for work and the time Dora Yates was due to arrive in the morning.) I do not feel qualified to cast the first stone.

Best book written on the Yates case so far:
I stated that this was the best book written on the Yates case so far. It is, but bear in mind that is not saying a lot given the material that has been published so far. While O'Malley makes a strong case that Andrea Yates was suffering from severe mental illness and would have been better served by being sentenced to a mental hospital, I personally felt that Ms. O'Malley had become too personally attached to this case and some of the key players, esp. Rusty Yates. As a result, it is very difficult to wade through the author's bias and get a clear understanding of the events that lead up to this tragedy. For instance, very little is said about the Yateses' decision to have a 5th child even after they had been warned by Andrea's doctor that such a decision would almost certainly "guarantee future psychotic depression." Furthermore, the author fails to point out the contradictions in Rusty (and Andrea's) philosophy to have as many children as "nature intended." (i.e, The couple lived together almost a year before they married and Andrea was on the pill during that time.) Also, Rusty claims that he is not a doctor and thought all psychiatrists were essentially the same, yet he also KNEW that Andrea's last doctor, Dr. Mohammad Saeed (who, IMO, became a scapegoat of sorts for both the Yates and the Kennedy families),should have given her the drug Haldol. O'Malley never bothers to point these out, yet strangely enough, she takes it upon herself to inform the reader that when she met with Dr. Saeed for her first and only appointment, she noticed that his BWM "could have used a wash." It was comments like that which made me wonder just what Ms. O'Mallery was trying to accomplish in this book. Lastly, I would have liked to hear more from the Kennedy family who since the trial, have levelled many criticism against their son-in-law and what they see as his inablity to acknowledge that his wife was as bad off as she was until it was too late.