Coming October 1, 2026 from Citadel Books
“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 an enviable 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 murdered 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 bludgeon her to death.
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. The bond between the two men was intense and intimate.
In a compelling 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, sometimes deadly nature of both.”
“This riveting blow-by-blow account will keep you up all night!”
—John Glatt, New York Times bestselling author on Seventeen Blows
“Brutal and breathtaking . . . Brottman lays out the facts with sensitivity and an unflinching mission to get to the heart of both victim and perpetrator. An absolute triumph.”
—Emily Carpenter, author of Gothictown on Seventeen Blows
“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