Over the Edge

by Michael Fleeman

Book Overview

Examines the case of Peter Bergna, a wealthy Lake Tahoe art dealer accused of murdering his wife Rinette in an apparent motor vehicle accident, discussing the crime, the first trial that ended in a hung jury, and the second trial that brought to light dark and chilling secrets. Original.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031298703X
• ISBN13: 9780312987039
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

It's one of the better true crime books out there!

This is probably the first Michael Fleeman book that I have read. While the story is kind of redundant, a spouse knocking the other off. He does get you into the nitty gritty police work and all the questions about the murder disguised as an accident. First, Peter Bergna comes across as an arrogant, despicable human being who completely contradicts himself. He thought that he done the perfect murder by making it look like a car going over the cliff with his lovely wife, Rinette inside. Sadly, Rinette was truly a genius but vulnerable as a wife. She wanted a different life and I think the idea of divorce was something that she dreaded. Peter wanted children, his wife did not. He wanted a wife at home, Rinette wanted to travel the world as a tour guide rather than be stuck in a pharmacy. Divorce would have been the answer but Peter had another agenda because his wife was worth more dead than alive. Anyway, the murder of a beloved woman like Rinette by her own husband is even more tragic because she trusted, loved him, and was faithful. If Peter could not handle her new career, he should have just left her rather than kill her senselessly and needlessly.

Tragic

I hoped that this book would end my search for answers. I can't say whether he was guilty or not. Only, Peter knows for sure. The evidence was cirucustantial. He was pronounced by the Press as guilty before the trial even started. The gossip around town was that the he was guilty and then they put these people on the jury. I felt it was an unfair trial, with inadmissible evidence, errors and faulty proceedings. There was the jailhouse snitch who lied and never even met Peter. A big deal was made about the gas can which he always carried with him, if he found cheap gas he would fill them up and carry them around in the back of his pickup. They were bought at a garage sale and I beleive at that time they were already missing the safety cap. I too lost the little safety cap on my gas can. I still carried it around in the back of my truck. I know not to smart. I think that the most tragic thing is that supposedly Peter was driving about 32 miles an hour, if hang gliders had not removed the bolts then the guardrail should have stopped the truck from going over the cliff and he would not be in jail today.

Pretty accurate!

I bought and read the book because I knew the Bergna's. Mr. Fleeman did a fairly thorough job researching this book and reporting on the trials. He also wrote it with an interesting and compelling style and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys true crime. My heart will always ache for Rinette, murdered by the man she loved, trusted and married. And I hope Peter rots in prison forever because he is a stone cold killer who does not belong in society.

Excellent "did he or didn't he do it?"

A well written book is one where you forget that someone is writing the book and you just get caught up in the story. This book is a very well written book. The story is one where you (or at least I) just can't decide whether this husband deliberately sent his truck with his wife inside 'over the edge'