OK, guilty pleasure time! For fans of my guilty reading pleasure, True Crime. Not to be confused with "literature" but DEFINITELY entertaining!!!

This story revolves around some truly disgusting people, whose level of hypocrisy is unmatched. Sabrina Limon is a young wife and mother living in Helendale (a town in the high desert of Southern California, the name which (in my opinion) could be shortened to just the first syllable. She has a husband named Rob, cute kids, big house, boat, etc. She works as a "sample girl" at Costco, where she meets a hunky young fireman named Jonathan when he comes to buy food for the station where he works. They hit it off and begin an emotional affair that soon turns physical. Things get so involved that they just HAVE to be together, so they hatch a plot to get rid of Sabrina's husband, who will, they agree be "Better Off Dead."

So far, a straightforward true crime story, right? But this one gets totally weird as we learn that Sabrina and her husband and their group of friends are involved in "the lifestyle," which means swinging. (I found this out by accident some years ago when I was looking to book a vacation at a beach resort and they kept clarifying for me that this place was for people involved in "the lifestyle." I was totally naive and quite surprised and a bit embarrassed when a nice man told me on the phone that we were welcome to book a stay, AND that we needed to be aware of the expectation that we would participate. (We went elsewhere)

OK, so if THAT isn't enough, here comes the hypocrisy: Sabrina and Jonathan are devout Christians, and spend an incredible amount of time quoting Scripture and justifying their actions with Biblical quotes etc. I personally didn't find this surprising but did find it fascinating. As it turned out, Jonathan decided that prison was not where he wanted to spend his life, so he took a plea deal and ratted out Sabrina,  testifying at her trial. Both were convicted (her  appeal was just rejected this past month, so she will be locked up even longer than he will, even though he committed the actual crime). And I really hated Jonathan. First for being an idiot ("it was inevitable that Rob needed to die for Sabrina and I to move forward with our relationship") and even more for testing out the poison by feeding some to the neighbor's dog, who was never seen again. 

Like I said, weird but entertaining for sure. With thanks to Wild Blue Press and NetGalley, this one gets five True Crime Stars.

3.5 Stars

True crime books always interest me. I can’t fathom how anyone can commit such heinous acts, so I’m drawn to figure out how and why these crimes are committed.

This book was well written, some of the dialogue from Jon & Sabrina was a bit confusing at times, but this had nothing to do with the author. These two were just selfish and irrational and a husband/father Is no longer alive because they thought divorce was not a viable option. It was a good and interesting read.

I do like real crime books and television shows. Unfortunately, this book got so bogged down in verbatim conversations between the suspects that I started skimming.

I love reading true crime books, and this one sounded super interesting, so I was thrilled to have the chance to review it. Ever since my beloved Ann Rule passed away, I've been floundering on what true crime authors to read and sampling quite a few. Michael Fleeman is a new author to me so I went into this book with no expectations.

Luckily, Fleeman is a great author. This murder was fascinating to me because it took place very near to where I live, yet I'd never heard of it, which was shocking to me because I follow local news and true crime. It made the book that much more enjoyable being in a locale I'm very familiar with and not already knowing how the story goes - and what a twisted tale it was.

This story had a little bit of everything and it was told with a deft hand. I couldn't stop thinking the pages to see what would happen next. My only complaint is that I wish he'd told a little more about the victim and his life and family. It also would've been nice to have had a few more pictures and at least one picture of the victim included. But overall, it was an easy and very interesting read and I would recommend.

Sabrina Limon said of her husband Robert that 'He would rather be dead than get a divorce.'

I don't believe she gave him those options before both her and her lover Jonathan Hearn conspired to murder him. I'm sure, given the choice, that he would have said 'you know what crazy lady? I'd rather be alive and get custody of my kids than leave them in your mental clutches' or something along those lines.

And another thing, she didn't want to get a divorce because it's a sin in Gods eyes, yet she was perfectly fine with all the other shit she did, cause we all know it doesn't say, anywhere in the bible, anything about murdering people, it's not like it was written anywhere in stone or anything but I could be wrong.

Anywho I enjoyed this as it's true crime and I hadn't actually heard of this story before so it drew me in quite quickly and I read it over 2 days, trying to retain as much information as I possibly could.

I'm now on the hunt for all the other books by Michael Fleeman as I think he writes very well.

*Huge thanks to Michael Fleeman, WildBlue Press and NetGalley for this copy which I chose to read and all opinions are my own*