SOURCE: Davidon, Ann Morrissett. “Lethal Case.” Progressive (April 1989): 44–46.

In the following review, Davidon argues that Waverly Place provides a vivid, engrossing account of the Steinberg murder case but notes that the work exploits the tragedy of a real family.

As you read this, thousands of men are battering women and children to the point of hospitalization and, in some cases, to death. If the police are called and any action taken, seldom does the case attract media coverage, even when deaths occur. According to New York City statistics, 127 children were killed by abusive adults in 1988. These are only the recorded ones, in only one city.

Yet a single case of lethal battering aroused intensive media and public attention over the past year-and-a-half: the death of six-year-old Lisa Steinberg. Her “parents” were not married; she was not their biological or legally adopted daughter—it was a case like many...