Circle of Fire: Murder and Betrayal in the "Swiss Nanny" Case - Hardcover

Egginton, Joyce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688105645 ISBN 13: 9780688105648

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1994

Synopsis

Examines the celebrated case of Olivia Riner, a Swiss au pair charged with murdering William and Denise Fischer's baby daughter in their Westchester home, arguing that Riner's defenders exploited the media in winning their case

About this title

Review:

"Some offenses are so askew of humanity, so devoid of rationality, that is it difficult to imagine what could possibly have motivated them." Most people who followed the 1992 murder trial of a Swiss au pair in New York state--an adolescent who used lighter fluid to set a small baby on fire--agreed with these words from the prosecuting attorney. Yet the most remarkable feat of this overall excellent book is that Joyce Egginton does give a compelling argument for a motive. She acquaints us with the bereaved family, the naive young Swiss girl, the layout of the house, and the details of how the fire started and spread. She shows us why so many people wanted desperately to believe in the au pair's innocence. And at the end of the book, she reveals her own research showing that this baby's death was more predictable than anyone could have guessed.

As the Washington Post writes, "Joyce Egginton does a simply wonderful job of weaving all the different life stories into this terrible sad tapestry ... Circle of Fire could serve as the model for the writing of true crime books." --Fiona Webster

From Publishers Weekly:

In December 1991, Kristie Fischer, three months old, died in a fire at her parents' home in Thornwood, N.Y. The only other person known to have been in the house at the time was Olivia Riner, a Swiss au pair who had been with the family just six weeks. Investigation determined that the fire was arson. Riner was arrested; and the agency that had sent her to the Fischers, the Swiss community in New York City and the Swiss government all sprang to her defense, hiring an attorney. They had less influence on the case, however, than TV tabloid journalists, who, according to the author, lied, distorted evidence and even set up an alternate suspect in a friend of the Fischers. Add to this an ineffectual prosecuting attorney and the result was acquittal on charges of arson and murder. But those involved in the case, even people who had no doubt of Riner's guilt, remained troubled by the absence of a motive. Egginton (Day of Frenzy) makes a plausible argument that Riner committed the crimes out of powerful homesickness. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0688105645
• ISBN 13: 9780688105648
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368