The Perfect Father

The Perfect Father is one of those true-crime books that quietly gets under your skin. There’s no big dramatic hook at the start—just an unsettling sense that something is very wrong beneath what looks like a typical, happy family.

John Glatt tells the story of Chris Watts in a straightforward, almost calm way, which somehow makes it even more disturbing. Watts comes across as ordinary, mild-mannered, and devoted—precisely the kind of person no one would suspect. Watching that carefully constructed image fall apart piece by piece is chilling, especially knowing how the story ends.

The book really sticks to the facts: the timeline, the investigation, the interviews, and the lies that slowly unravel. Glatt doesn’t try to overanalyze or dramatize what happened, and that restraint works in the book’s favor. The horror comes from how methodical and emotionless everything feels, especially as Watts continues to pretend nothing is wrong.

If there’s a downside, it’s that readers hoping for deep psychological insight might want more exploration into why Watts did what he did. This book focuses more on what happened and how it unfolded. Still, that distance makes the story feel colder—and in some ways, more haunting.