| Title | : | Mommy Deadliest |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 078602206X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786022069 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 375 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2010 |
Anti-Freeze For A Husband
It looked like a suicide. A man's corpse on the bathroom floor--next to a half-empty glass of anti-freeze. But fingerprints on the glass belonged to the deceased's wife, Stacey Castor. And a turkey baster in the garbage had police wondering if she force-fed the toxic fluid down her husband's throat.
Pills For A Daughter
In desperation, Stacey concocted a devious plan. She mixed a deadly cocktail of vodka and pills, then served it to her twenty-year-old daughter Ashley. The authorities would find Ashley with a suicide note, confessing to the anti-freeze murder. But Stacey's plan backfired--because Ashley refused to die. . .
A Killer For A Mother
Charged with murdering her second husband--and attempting to kill her oldest daughter--Stacey Castor sparked a media frenzy. But when police dug up her first husband's grave--and found anti-freeze in his body, too--this New York housewife earned a nickname that would follow her all the way to prison. They called her "The Black Widow." And with good reason.
Includes 16 Pages of Shocking Photos
Mommy Deadliest Reviews
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Definitely not the best but I did find the story so interesting and the writing was good. I think the biggest flaw was the repetition. To me it looked like he had no other information and had to sometimes go on interviews by others.
That being said I did enjoy this book a lot. The story was so fascinating, I could not help being absorbed by it.
Wow what a story, what a family. This book is probably best if you do not know much beforehand so I will write the rest of my review and put it in a spoiler tag.
Pictures are taken from
http://murderpedia.org/
3.5 stars -
After reading a memoir about Vietnam, I needed something light and fluffy. Anything that has the potential to be (or already is) a decent Lifetime Movie was perfect.
I tried Ann Rule's Every Breath You Take, but I was too irritated by it. I am guessing since the victim was a woman who was terrorized by her ex-husband. I was not in the mood. So I tossed it and picked this up, since the woman is the victimizer and not the victim (hey it's women's lib in true crime!)
I saw an episode of Snapped that featured this true crime story, so nothing was really that shocking.
It was a quick read. I spent most of the book shaking my head at how sloppy this woman was. Not the brightest criminal I had ever seen on paper.
I do like true crime, it's a guilty pleasure. I've exhausted all the Nook books that are available that look somewhat interesting... so will see what Amazon has to offer. If anyone has any suggestions, I am open. -
There were times the author repeated himself. Times when the story droned on very slowly and painfully. The story itself interested me, but This book was not one that I could not put down. At times the story seemed scattered, like he wasn't sure where to put certain information. Just not one of my favorites.
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Good true crime read
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Ah, the most common type of true crime book: a lurid cover, bad wordplay in the title, and overwrought writing. This is a perfect example of the Pop Tarts of true crime writing: not great, not nourishing for the soul, but so much fun to consume and doesn’t leave you with a terribly bad aftertaste. (It may be very wrong to use a food metaphor in a book about a poisoner. Oh well!)
I’d seen a Dateline on this case, but this gave a lot more information. A woman poisons her husband (with antifreeze, ew!) and is really stupid about it, to be honest. Benson is good at pointing out the errors in the crime scene that she made, as well as the others - like telling police she called home multiple times to check on her husband when her cell phone records show otherwise. I won’t tell you the others, because spoilers, but they will make you groan and shake your head.
But that wasn’t enough for her! No, when she feels the cops closing in, she attempts murder on her oldest daughter. The oldest and the deceased - her stepfather - had a strained relationship, so Mommy decides to kill her daughter and blame the murder of her husband on the teenager. She made a fake suicide note and made her daughter drink alcohol with a lot of drugs in it. Luckily, the younger daughter found her sister in time to save her sister’s life. At this point, police decide they need to exhume the murderer’s first husband’s body - he supposedly had a heart attack, but they suspect that she might have killed him too.
I cannot imagine the coldness needed to murder someone, much less the brutality to try to kill your kid so she’d take the fall for you! And the sensationalism of the crimes is amplified by the breathlessness of Benson’s writing. If you like Ann Rule, this is right up your alley. Four of five stars for comfort food factor, three of five if that’s not your thing. -
Detailed and very interesting.
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This is a true-crime story about the crimes of Stacy Castor. Stacy was married to Michael Wallace, with whom she had two daughters, Bree and Ashley. Michael died of what was deemed a heart attack when his oldest daughter was 12. Stacy eventually remarried to David Castor and apparently they had some disagreements. After one such disagreement, David was found dead in their bed of an apparent suicide, or was it poisoning? Only Stacy knows for certain and she's not telling. In fact, her older daughter also suffered from a similar suicide or poisoning at about the same time.
This was a pretty good book. I had seen the case presented before on a TV special, either Forensic Files or 20/20 so I was familiar with the major aspects of the case. It was interesting getting to know all of the little bits and pieces that go into a successful trial. But all the same, I felt like the author devoted way too much time to the trial; some parts of it were just so repetitious that I just started skimming my way through it. The author went over all of the bits of evidence and what made them worthy evidence. It almost reads as a "how to not commit murder" book because if you are a true-crime aficionado like me, you may end up cringing at all of the errors she made. If you truly want an update you can google Stacy Castor and find out what happened to her. I won't say here so as not to spoil anything. I seem to recall hearing something on the TV special about a "secret" bond between Bree and her mother but there was no mention of that in this book and now I wonder if I am confusing it with another case. Anyway, a good read. -
Well written without the annoying grammatical errors which spoil so many books these days. I did enjoy the book however it could have been a lot shorter.
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Very long winded. Too much stuff we don't want to read.
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i was so excited about this book. It was pretty good. I prefer a book that cuts to the quick, though. This one dragged on through jury selection and the entire trial. I have to admit, I skipped more than a few pages due to the droning on of lawyers and evidence, etc. I would rather it have been less court oriented.
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WOW what a good book! There were so many facts that I read the first half slowly because I didn't want to miss anything.
Once the trial started I didn't want to put the book down!
No doubt that Stacey is guilty and how could she possibly have considered trying to kill her own daughter. -
finished in 2days hard to put down.
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Another one that leaves it open at the end, although I do think that Ashley is innocent.
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A great book about a terrible person. Hard to put down for sure! -
Too straightforward, with zero mystery.
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I've heard of black widows, but can't understand why someone would do such a thing to her own daughter. The woman is too stuck on herself to feel anything for anyone else.
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Interesting
It grabs your attention and seems to pull you in. I can not figure out how a mother and wife could kill people she claims to love. -
Short on character histories and in-depth details. Lots of descriptions, though, of clothes and hairstyles. I didn't feel as if I'd gotten to know the "players" in this tragedy very well
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Bad!!
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The case is interesting, but the painfully mediocre writing made this a hard book to get through.
