Perfect Poison: A Female Serial Killer's Deadly Medicine

Phelps has obviously done quite a lot of research for this engrossing story of a nurse who methodically murdered patients at a VA hospital in 1995 and 1996. If you enjoy true crime stories, especially medical ones, you'll certainly like Perfect Poison (although it might make you think twice about going to the hospital).

My only quibble is with the narration. While I've certainly heard worse, I honestly don't think it compliments the story. J. Charles sounds like somebody's folksy grandfather, and I really could have done without the melodramatic interpretation of people's voices - was it really necessary to add sound effects to telephone calls? Charles really tries too hard sometimes, and it can get cringeworthy. If the narrator had been different, perhaps someone with a bit more gravitas, I would have given Perfect Poison 4 stars.

Here is another of my "FIVE STAR READ"! My credo is to only review great reads! If I can't review a book with a 5 STAR rating, I will not say anything. That way you can take what I say to the bank. So much has been said about Kristan as the Killer Nurse. The story got front page headlines throughout the world. For Good Reason...This is one of the most interesting and books I have ever listened to. EVERY WORD IS TRUE. Yes, I do my research as well. Usually I am not a fan of true crime (Female Serial Killers) However, this is so unique and strange, I know any person that enjoys listening to true stories about people that do bad things, you won't be sorry with William Phelps' PERFECT POISON! From her lovers to her life sentence or was it the Death Sentence...You will have to read it to find out. Throughout all of my reviews, I try to rate my best reads or audio listens. This is number 2 in my top 10 list of TRUE CRIMES. It was very close to being number 1. The price is right and the story is unbelievable. Look up female serial killers and read only a small portion of the case. DO NOT SPOIL THE STORY BY READING ALL THE INFORMATION about a nurse that probably killed over 400 people during the time she worked at a Veterans's Hospital. Although, she was only found guilty on five or six very sick men, this unlikely looking murderer probably killed many many more. The book is so well written, your imagination will run wild.

GET THIS READ...YOU WON'T BE SORRY!!!

If you like true crime, this is the book for you. You really feel like you are getting the whole story. You will not be bored, but you will be perplexed. How someone could take a life is a sad mystery to all.

This was an intriguing look at a complex person. I very much enjoyed how the author was able to bring in so many elements to paint a picture of a true sociopath.

What a diabolical women. It's hard to conceive of someone so completely evil. I was riveted.

Yes, good book about how we see what we want to see. Psychotic people come in all shapes, genders and sizes.

My favorite character was the poisoned husband because, although he was naive, he loved his family more than his own life. Kind of stupid but who doesn't love a seemingly selfless victim.

No I have not.

Yes. This would be a great movie. You wouldn't believe it was true.

Listen to this book and maybe if you get sick every time you eat a meal at home, you might suspect foul play before you end up half dead. But that might sound paranoid. Bet this victim wishes he had been wiser to the psychopathic mind.

oh yes, i will for sure. it was a well researched book, and well written. the narrator was great!

the story was complete--i don't like books that leave me hanging.

i felt like i knew the victims and the incidents that happened were described well.

yes i have. i liked both (another phelps book). this one better tho. i liked the inflections in his voice that add to the story. he speaks clearly and the conversations over the phone sounded like they were over the phone.

i would have liked to but it was too long. however i read it in two days.

a very good story. i enjoyed it immensely.

Well written, hard to put down, intriguing look at a woman with a dangerous borderline personality disorder.

The reader does just fine when simply narrating and oddly enough does well with the female character's voices. He does seem to go over the top when voicing some of the male characters. Why, for instance, does the DA sound like Ted Baxter from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show?

Still a great read especially if true crime stories fascinate you.

Flawed by the author's rather simplistic analysis and the narrator's overly folksy tone, the story nonetheless unreels like a movie in which the sanctity of compassion and ethics of healing are crushed by the everyday evil of an actual murdering nurse.
In all sociopaths empty artifice substitutes for empathy. But each is also distinct in degree of evil, level of energy, style of expression and boldness of execution. If I saw a movie where the ICU nurse calls multiple condes after injecting her patients with a deadly dose so that she can flirt with the security guard who shows up as part of the response team . . would I accept the premise as realistic? But here it is in real life. And what can be scarier or sadder than reality when it plays out in the ways it does in this story?
I applaud the author's ultimate indictment of the VA hospital for it's apparantly despicable marginalization of the three nurses who had the courage to see and act where others who should have did not. I would like to see the hospital's rebuttal.

I just loved this one. I was in a funk and couldn't get into any of my audiobooks until I got this one. I looked for excuses to listen! It helped that the story took place in my neighborhood, so it was cool being familiar with all of the places, and even some of the people, mentioned.

Incredible, hard to believe story.