How often have you read a book and said to yourself, that's exactly the way I have always felt about that, or thought about that? Have you ever wondered if you were the only person in the world who considered an act, an idea, a dream to be impossible?
Davis is (if you will pardon the cliche) "every woman" when she discusses her friends, her children, her fears, her humiliations, her triumphs, her hopes. You will weep with her, and laugh with her. One night, reading in bed, I had to literally cover my mouth so that my laughter would not ring through the house, and wake everyone up. The description of her "big interview" with a local radio station is hilarious. I recommend this book as a gift to friends who appreciate a good sense of humor and who have the gift of being able to laugh at themselves, because that is exactly what you are doing when you read Davis. She is without a doubt the Erma Bombeck of our generation. She picks up where Erma left off....and oh how we needed that!

I found this book to be very clumsily written. The author's diction is too informal, and he rambles from one subject to another with little or no transition between topics. I was annoyed by the vast amount of irrelevant information that he included. For example, he interrupts his account of Olivia's first days in the Fischers' home to give a seemingly pointless account of the celebration of St. Nicholas's Day in Europe. Mr. Davis is also obviously biased in favor of Olivia Riner. I had the impression that he had made up his mind about Olivia's innocence before he even started his research for this book. He repeats outrageous charges and wild rumors about the Fischer family which were proven false in Joyce Egginton's book, "Circle of Fire." I believe that Ms. Egginton's account of the Olivia Riner case is far superior to Mr. Davis's.

I am not 100% convinced that Olivia Riner committed this murder despite what Joyce Egginton says. Maybe "Circle of Fire" was more in-depth than this book but at least Don Davis pointed out that the police screwed up major time. He pointed out that John Gallagher lied about being expelled from high school and that the half sister conspired with him to lie about his driving record to get him insurance. That is just as bad if not worse than Olivia stealing a bag of baby clothes. How do you justify the police not securing the crime scene? That is the first thing you always do in the case of a crime no matter what. I still do not buy Ms. Egginton's psychological theories. Things are vastly different today than they were 100 years ago when the dissertation was written. You are entitled to your opinion just as I'm entitled to to mine.

Another great book, very well written by Don Davis. It's pretty obvious she was innocent.

Tony Thomas died in July 1997,just a few days after Olivia deHavilland's 81st.birthday. His work here is,for the most part,the most accurate,and least opinionated,of all the deHavilland Film/Bio-Graphies to date,and his writing on this subject is quoted liberally (Mistakes and all!),in at least one multi-volumed film guide. The introduction by the late Bette Davis is a sincerely kind,and profoundly positive tribute,that can be considered more insightful about Miss deHavilland's personal character,than much else that's written in the book. This book served for me as a starting point for my own research into Olivia deHavilland's work,and on more than one occasion I have found myself being confused,and amused,by viewing one of her films for the first time,and discovering that it didn't quite go the way I had read about it! I discovered (Also from my own research),that he was sometimes short on facts,and slighly over romantic on some points of the deHavilland family history,especially the family of Sir Geoffrey deHavilland (Find out more on him in his autobiography "Sky Fever",and hopefully in Olivia's new autobiography to be released... someday),who was Olivia's uncle ,and who was famous for founding his own British aircraft company. Overall,a good book for it's time,but hopefully,better is yet to come!