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baconsaur's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
What a wild story, it’s hard to believe it was true! I love the detail and narrative Gregg Olsen is able to get to with his true crime. Absolutely riveting.
duchessofreadin's review against another edition
5.0
The story of Stella Nickell is one that should chill anyone's blood. The lengths that she was determined to go, just to collect on her husband's life insurance policy was chilling.
In American Mother, the story unfolds, showing the depravity and the desperation of a woman who was trying to build a life, get away from the background she had, but instead, falling deeper into it. Knowing the story of the Tylenol poisonings, her mind began to work, and she decided to use cyanide to poison her husband.
While she wanted only to get him out of the way, she put laced pills back on the shelves of a supermarket, killing another person in the process, and destroying innocent lives along the way. While many thought that the husband of the second victim was to blame, all the evidence eventually pointed back to Stella.
There were so many questions that surrounded the case. She could have said nothing, and would have gotten away with murder. But greed won out, and she pushed the case, trying to get the larger insurance payout, eventually turning her own daughter against her.
This was a truly chilling, yet wonderful read. Gregg Olsen never disappoints in his books. The meticulous research, and the methodical laying out of the book all bring together the drama of Stella, while sharing the hard work put in by law enforcement.
True crime fans will not be disappointed in this book. This book will run you through the emotional gambit, bringing the case closer to home. With each turn of the page, you are reading faster, wanting to know more. When you can't put a book down, even for sleep, you know you have found a winner!
In American Mother, the story unfolds, showing the depravity and the desperation of a woman who was trying to build a life, get away from the background she had, but instead, falling deeper into it. Knowing the story of the Tylenol poisonings, her mind began to work, and she decided to use cyanide to poison her husband.
While she wanted only to get him out of the way, she put laced pills back on the shelves of a supermarket, killing another person in the process, and destroying innocent lives along the way. While many thought that the husband of the second victim was to blame, all the evidence eventually pointed back to Stella.
There were so many questions that surrounded the case. She could have said nothing, and would have gotten away with murder. But greed won out, and she pushed the case, trying to get the larger insurance payout, eventually turning her own daughter against her.
This was a truly chilling, yet wonderful read. Gregg Olsen never disappoints in his books. The meticulous research, and the methodical laying out of the book all bring together the drama of Stella, while sharing the hard work put in by law enforcement.
True crime fans will not be disappointed in this book. This book will run you through the emotional gambit, bringing the case closer to home. With each turn of the page, you are reading faster, wanting to know more. When you can't put a book down, even for sleep, you know you have found a winner!
fincher75's review against another edition
2.0
Stopped reading this book at 29% because the writing was just awful. It was very incongruous and tedious…not at all what I was expecting from an author whose works I’ve read quite a bit. I’m putting it down and may try to come back to it…but I just can’t do it right now!
gabmc's review against another edition
2.0
This was an interesting story, made more shocking by the fact that the 'American Mother' killed a perfectly innocent woman while trying to kill her husband. However, it was far too long and detailed to make a riveting read. There seemed to be whole transcripts of conversations and court hearings - and a whole lot of characters introduced who never added to the story. The title was also over the top - 'the cyanide murders that shook the world'. I'd never heard of this case - I had heard of the Tylenol murders in 1982. Stella McNickell used the idea of the Tylenol murders to kill her husband for his life insurance policy. Her daughter, Cindy, turned her into the FBI. Tragically, Sue Snow was also killed by Stella in an effort to make the poisoning idea more real.
stephaniethereader9's review against another edition
2.0
It’s an interesting story but I feel like this was just all over the place. Way too long, way too much detail, it was a struggle to finish. I have absolutely loved this authors work in other books I’ve read but this on just fell short for me.
amyharman70's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Death, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Medical content
beckimoody29's review against another edition
2.0
First off, I thought this was about the more well-known cyanide tampering and at first was excited to read about a case that I was not familiar with. That quickly faded. By about 50 pages in I was completely confused about the cast of characters — especially because we barely hear anything about the other victim for the rest of the book. I will admit I wasn’t reading closely by then but I’m still not sure if she was targeted (doesn’t seem like it) or just an accident. I got every detail of every affair but it was poorly organized so I got lost on where we were in the evidence. I’ve read other books by Gregg and don’t remember them being as difficult so maybe this was an early title.