The story of the death of Rebecca Zahau is so freaking bizarre! I first heard about it on a podcast and it was so off the wall, I was so curious…so I sought out other podcasts, resulting in total confusion. So I was happy when I read that Caitlin Rother, well-known author of true crime stories,  had written Death On Ocean Boulevard. I thought surely I would at least come away from it with less confusion than I felt after the podcasts…

During the several years that I lived in San Diego, I spent more than my fair share of time bodysurfing near the Hotel Del in Coronado and hanging around on the island (actually a peninsula, but whatever), so I was familiar with the location. Reading that Rebecca Zahau and her very rich boyfriend Jonah Shaknai were staying in his “vacation home” (the Spreckels mansion, located across the street from the water, right on Ocean Blvd) with his young son and Rebecca’s visiting sister Xena when the crimes occurred, I had a clear picture in my mind of the location. That was just about the last clear picture I had about this crime. Or should I say crimes?

The first “crime” (?) is the death of Jonah’s young son Max, who was staying in the mansion in July 2011, entertaining himself as a young boy would (apparently riding his scooter around the second floor balcony), when he somehow went over the railing and ended up on the floor downstairs, along with the chandelier and his scooter. He was rushed to the hospital and died a few days later, with the death being ruled an accident. Jonah’s ex wasn’t a fan of the new woman in his and Max’s lives, and she seemed to blame Rebecca for the death of her son.

While Max was in the hospital, Jonah’s brother Adam came to stay, and early one morning he called 911 when he discovered  the second “crime” — Rebecca, hanging over the outside balcony, with her hands and feet securely bound and a gag in her mouth. The first responders ruled it a suicide, despite the fact that she had gone over the railing with her hands securely tied behind her back. 

Rebecca’s family won a civil suit for wrongful death against Jonah’s brother Adam (who seemed a likely suspect as he had found the body which had been tied with some intricate knots, and as a riverboat captain, he was familiar with such knots). There have been lots of investigations and attempts to explain how the bleep Rebecca killed herself, particularly since those close to her strongly objected to it even being a suicide. 

Ms. Rother has done her usual fully detailed research, perhaps even more than usual as she admits to a strong personal feeling of connection to cases involving suicide after her husband took his own life. I’m fascinated by this particular story, and was hooked on the book right away, although my personal opinion is that it would have been improved by edits that took the author’s personal experiences etc. out of it. While interesting,  Ms. Rother’s story is not what I was interested in, and I don’t think the book would have been diminished if it were limited to Ms. Zahau’s story. I also recall that the law enforcement and public officials in San Diego have long had a reputation for less than squeaky clean operations, and my takeaway from the book was that Mr. Shaknai’s money likely had an impact on the investigation that ruled Rebecca’s death a suicide. (In actuality, I think my reaction was along the lines of “suicide? Yeah, right…”)

Thanks to Kensington Books/Citadel and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Four stars (would have been five if it had just told the story of the crimes and left out the author’s personal story).