Playing with Fire by John Glatt Genres: True Crime
Source: ARC
Narrator: Shaun Grindell
Also by this author: Love Her To Death: The True Story of a Millionaire Businessman, His Gorgeous Wife, and the Divorce That Ended in Murder, Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders
Goodreads
A beautiful nurse. A lethal injection. A gruesomely charred corpse. Nothing could have shocked the sleepy community of Morgantown, West Virginia, more than the lurid details that surfaced after a house fire claimed the life of Shelly Michael's husband Jimmy. Local authorities suspected possible arson. Then they discovered that Jimmy had been dead before the fire even started—paralyzed by a fatal dose of muscle relaxant…
Did Shelly Michael, a respected nurse and mother, kill her second husband and torch her own home? Were the rumors true that she'd had an affair with her husband's employee only two weeks before the murder? Or did she kill Jimmy simply for the insurance money? Charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson, Shelly would never stop claiming her innocence—even to this day
Interesting story, but I felt that there was a certain fiction aspect in the beginning. The story paints Michelle in a horrible light throughout the first part of the story; yet at the trial, none of that is presented. That makes me feel that the authors personal views and facts not in evidence were used to create a story for how the relationship went and ended. Perhaps that information did come from sources, but it didn’t read as if they did. At one point, the author even speculates as to how Michelle injected her husband and what she might have said if he awoke. All of that was based in no actual facts since Jimmy is dead and Michelle still states her innocence. Don’t get me wrong, I believe she did it; I just prefer true crime stories to present a clearer picture.
Regardless, true crime fans will enjoy this story-it has all the tabloid highlights! Again, Grendell did a good narration!
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