Murder in the Heartland
Written by M. William Phelps
Narrated by J. Charles
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
“The most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since In Cold Blood.” —Gregg Olsen
On a December night in 2004, a 911 operator in Nodaway County, Missouri, received a frantic call from a woman who’d found her pregnant 23-year-old daughter in a pool of blood on the living room floor. Most shocking of all, the dying woman’s unborn baby had been viciously ripped from her womb.
“Get ready for some sleepless nights.” —Carlton Stowers
Across the border in Melvern, Kansas, Lisa Montgomery showed off a beautiful newborn she proudly claimed as her own. While some shared her excitement, others harbored suspicions. Meanwhile televisions across the nation broadcast the first Amber Alert for an unborn child.
“Phelps is a first-rate investigator.” —Dr. Michael M. Baden
Newly updated with the latest surprising developments, Murder in the Heartland goes behind the scenes of two picture-perfect American towns forever changed by one horrifying act of violence. With exclusive access to key witnesses, family members, and potential victims who narrowly escaped a similar gruesome fate, M. William Phelps tells a classic American tale of unthinkable murder and the quest for justice.
M. William Phelps
Crime writer and investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the author of twenty-four nonfiction books and the novel The Dead Soul. He consulted on the first season of the Showtime series Dexter, has been profiled in Writer’s Digest, Connecticut Magazine, NY Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Suspense Magazine, and the Hartford Courant, and has written for Connecticut Magazine. Winner of the New England Book Festival Award for I’ll Be Watching You and the Editor’s Choice Award from True Crime Book Reviews for Death Trap, Phelps has appeared on nearly 100 television shows, including CBS’s Early Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, The View, TLC, BIO Channel, and History Channel. Phelps created, produces and stars in the hit Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, now in its third season; and is one of the stars of ID’s Deadly Women. Radio America called him “the nation’s leading authority on the mind of the female murderer.” Touched by tragedy himself, due to the unsolved murder of his pregnant sister-in-law, Phelps is able to enter the hearts and minds of his subjects like no one else. He lives in a small Connecticut farming community and can be reached at his website, www.mwilliamphelps.com.
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Reviews for Murder in the Heartland
87 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The only thing I did not like was the popping around in time. It could be confusing at times. Otherwise, I found this interesting, intriguing, and held my attention which is often difficult.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very well written and narrated! So much to learn in this book- not only about Lisa Montgomery but about every person involved!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was disappointed that there wasn’t a update at the very end. I understand that you can’t hurry history but I felt I wAs hanging in the air. Again you can’t change history but I felt sad that that family got into an dispute over the little girl in the end.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Okay. I finished this book last night. As someone who did not know anything of this case I really wish true crimes would change the way they build up a story.
Nothing wrong with the writing. As always Matt Phelps is doing a phenomenal job. No my problem is with the way the story is build.
Lately when you read a true crime book, after you read the first few pages you will already know, who was murdered, how, and by who. Why not build this story from the beginning. build a little suspence?
I wanted to know more about Lisa, but only at the end of the book her youth and her marriage comes in to play. But when that happens, you read a little bit about her past, but then he does not continue but after each chapter we were brought back to the now. Very annoying.
Still ended up with a lot of questions but I do think M Phelps did a great job what he was dealt with.Great author. Now I am off to search internet to find out what happened with Lisa.
3.5 out of 5 . 7.5 out of 10 - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5There's a bookshelf at work full of random crap people have donated for us to keep ourselves occupied during our vast downtime (I work in a call center), and I have a weakness for true crime, and...yeah. Not the most heinous example of the genre I've ever read, but definitely not the greatest; while the story -- a woman who'd been deluding herself and everyone she knew into believing she was pregnant attacked and killed another woman, this one actually pregnant, cutting the baby out of her and taking it as her own -- begs for some psychological and perhaps even cultural analysis, all you get is the usual "Aren't women crazy?" narrative.