Seventeen Blows - by Mikita Brottman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

With sharp psychological insight, the acclaimed author of Guilty Creatures digs into the sensational murder of Florida physician Teresa Sievers in this engrossing and unconventional true crime tale of holistic health, childhood doppelgangers, dark obsessions, and an open marriage.

Teresa and Mark Sievers led a glittering life in Bonita Springs, Florida. Teresa ran a thriving medical practice specializing in anti-aging and holistic care. Mark, a former nurse, managed the business while home-schooling their two daughters. Then, in June 2015, the unimaginable happened: Teresa was found bludgeoned to death in their kitchen.

Mark's alibi was airtight. He and the girls were in New York on a family vacation. Initial signs pointed to a burglary gone wrong, but it soon became clear that the attack was targeted. The Sievers' friends and relatives were shocked. Teresa was a respected, charismatic physician, nicknamed a "modern-day Mother Teresa." Yet someone hated her enough to beat out her brains with a hammer.

Cracks appeared beneath the glossy surface of the Sievers' lives. Teresa's quest for fame had led her to make some questionable decisions. The couple's marriage was passionate but volatile. Then there was Mark's childhood best friend, who looked so much like him that the two were often mistaken for twins. Though Wayne Wright lived in an Ozarks trailer park, far from Bonita Springs in every way, his bond with Mark was intense and intimate.

In an intriguing narrative that goes beyond conventional true crime tropes, acclaimed author and psychoanalyst Mikita Brottman delves into a case that encompasses both obsessive love and deep hatred, probing the corrosive, often deadly nature of both.

Review Quotes

Praise for Mikita Brottman

"Brottman is one of today's finest practitioners of nonfiction that explores the uncertain truths revealed when violence crashes into human life. . . . Offers a precise and rarely seen accounting of American hospitals for the criminally insane." ―The New York Times Book Review on Couple Found Slain

"This is a learned, lucid, and finally heartbreaking account of urban obsession. It's David Fincher's film Zodiac crossed with Ms. Brottman's wild take on the unknowability of life and the necessity of staying obsessed. Ms. Brottman is a groove―and so is her book." ―James Ellroy on An Unexplained Death

"An excavation of the luridness and venality underneath a smiling, all-American façade." --Kirkus Reviews on Guilty Creatures

"Brottman meticulously follows any and all threads she can . . . but Brottman's book is, sneakily, more than just a true crime narrative." --NPR on An Unexplained Death

"Engrossing... [written] with freshness and verve." --Shelf Awareness on Guilty Creatures

"[A] compelling... deep dive into human nature." --Booklist on Guilty Creatures

"So much more than another true crime story,  Guilty Creatures is a psychological thriller as intricately organized as a Hitchcock movie. And, with its high literary values, it stands with classics of the genre like Mailer's The Executioner's Song and Capote's In Cold Blood." --Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls' Rising

"This story has it all--adultery, obsession, murder, revenge, betrayal--but Brottman doesn't settle for the superficial. Rather than a whodunit,  Guilty Creatures is a compelling psychological double portrait of what happens when two people are forever bound by a life-altering secret." --Becky Cooper, bestselling author of We Keep the Dead Close

"Guilty Creatures could have slinked out of fiction by Flannery O'Connor or Donna Tartt--not to mention James M. Cain--and they come alive in this richly atmospheric, deeply researched, and terrifying true crime book." --Betsy Bonner, author of Round Lake and The Book of Atlantis Black

"Propulsive, harrowing, and ironic, Mikita Brottman's impeccably researched story investigates how, under pressure, morals can twist to justify even the worst actions." --Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation on Guilty Creatures

"Brottman has established herself as a leading voice in modern true crime. She finds empathy in the criminal and shows compassion for those whom society wishes to simply forget. This is not just a well-written book, it's an important book. A must read." ―James Renner, author of True Crime Addict on Couple Found Slain

About the Author

MIKITA BROTTMAN is a nonfiction author and psychoanalyst whose acclaimed books include Seventeen Blows, Guilty Creatures, Couple Found Slain, and the Gold Dagger Award finalist, An Unexplained Death. A professor in the Department of Humanistic Studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she previously worked in forensic psychiatric facilities and the Maryland prison system. She lives in Baltimore and can be found online at mikitabrottman.com.