Fans of true crime stories will love “Guilty Creatures” – eagletimes.com

“Guilty Creatures: Sex, God and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida” by Mikita Brottman

ca. 2024 / One Signal Publishers / 28 $ / 280 pages

That's all in the past.

Whether it was yesterday or two decades ago, what happened is what happened. You can't jump in a time machine and change it. It's over – but that doesn't stop you from thinking about it, turning the event over and over in your head. What happened is in the past, but as the new book “Guilty Creatures” by Mikita Brottman, it will never be forgotten.

Graduating from high school is always bittersweet: everyone goes their own way and nothing is the same as before – but for Mike Williams, Denise Merrell, Brian Winchester and Kathy Aldredge, little changed. All four were raised in the Baptist faith, learned to love the Lord and lived close to their family in Tallahassee, Florida.

Brottman says they were a “tight quartet.”

But there were cracks in their lives that began almost immediately with Denise and Mike, a real estate appraiser. After the birth of their daughter, he became obsessed with work and money. He and Denise began having relationship problems, and Denise began spending more and more time with Brian and Kathy – and then only with Brian.

Brian and Denise discussed divorce, but Denise held on to her faith – but ending her affair was also impossible. People talked, but what? They were discreet and started talking about something else and dangerous: If Mike, who loved nature, just happened To fall out of his boat and drown, was that not God's will?

On December 16, 2000, Mike Williams left his house to spend a day at a nearby lake and never came home. With the help of friends, Denise quickly had him declared dead so she could pay her bills. She received more than a million dollars in insurance money.

Brian divorced Kathy shortly after, paving the way for him and Denise to get married, settle down and move on with their lives. However, nearly two decades later, problems arose, but although they hated it, they stayed together forever.

Brottman says: “Their prenuptial agreement was murder.”

Here's what you need to know about Guilty Creatures: You know who did what, starting almost on page five. And there's something else you need to know: You don't find out how or why until the book comes to a spectacular end.

As in most true crime stories, author Mikita Brottman keeps things tight, which must have been a challenge: What happened in Tallahassee during those two decades was very much like the tabloids, with serial bed-hopping, affairs, secrets, lies, an undercover cop – and, of course, a sordid murder whose discovery is told in an appropriately gruesome way. Yes, it's complicated at times, but Brottman helps readers by keeping their attention on the story. A nice critique of the justice system also makes sense.

This is a good book for readers new to the genre and one that all true crime fans will love. Find Guilty Creatures and settle in; this is a book you won't want to miss.