ZAHAU: Into the Belly of the Whale

SHE SAVED HIM CAN YOU SAVE HER? It was a crime that shocked the community in Coronado to its core. In the days following Rebecca Zahau's death in the summer of 2011, an unfathomable horror closed in around her. By early September the same year, law enforcement announced the case closed, and Zahau's billionaire boyfriend Jonah Shacknai, thanked them for their trouble. Years passed and nothing happened. But it wasn't over. Far from it. Crowdsleuthers rallied to the cause of the Zahau family. Funds were raised to lay charges and re-open the case. The case that seemed mired in red tape, welded shut, was finally unearthed and the incident examined again. Just as everyone expected, the evidence showed foul play. But what had actually happened to 32-year-old Rebecca Zahau? Why had someone gone to so much trouble to make her murder look like a suicide? Who murdered her? Now, at last, on the heels of the April 2018 verdict in the civil trial, this definitive narrative of Rebecca Zahau’s murder blows the lid off a case that has been suppressed by sinister forces for several years. What was buried for seven years has now been excavated, and held up to the light of day. In his 72nd book, investigative photojournalist and true crime maestro Nick van der Leek once again trawls through an exhaustive series of sparkling insights. He comprehensively debunks the suicide narrative, and for the first time, provides a compelling case for how and why Max Shacknai fell and died from the mansion's second-floor staircase. Uniquely, this narrative shows the intricate forces that lay behind the tycoon's son's death, and how these played directly into Rebecca Zahau's brutal murder. Before the end of this book, the final mystery of all is laid bare: What was the meaning of the message on the white bedroom door inside the Spreckels Mansion, dabbed in deft strokes of lurid black paint?