A Taste for Murder

By: Burl Barer, Frank C Girardot JR.

Narrated by: Eddie Frierson

Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Frank Rodriguez, a much-loved counselor of troubled teens, lies dead on the bedroom floor. His wife and step-daughter are in shock, and so is the medical examiner when he performs the autopsy. Aside from being dead, Frank is in perfect health.

Demanding to know the cause of her husband's death, Angie Rodriguez badgers the police, insisting that Frank was murdered. The cops attribute her assertions to overwhelming grief, but soon they too believe that Frank didn't die of natural causes.

When the police enlist their number one suspect to help in the investigation, things spiral out of control until police are dealing with a daring plot to murder Angie's best friend, and allegations of another homicide so evil and perverse that even seasoned LA County detectives are shocked beyond belief...and so are listeners!

©2016 Burl Barer and Frank C. Girardot (P)2016 WildBlue Press

Interesting Tale

This book offered some intriguing insights and information about the subject. The story itself was well-written and engaging but the narration was very difficult to listen to. The reader used off-putting accents that were distracting. Unwound have preferred a straight telling of the story without phony accents. It took me out of the tale and let me to wonder if he had heard the people speak or if he was making it up. It sounded unnatural and I enjoyed his normal voice so much that it didn't seem needed.

9 people found this helpful

Glibness and one-liners around incest. Ick.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This woman is a monster. No doubt. For me, however, she wasn't the most disturbing element of the book. That fell to the occasional moments of "bros elbowing each other" banter between the writers, you can almost feel them high-fiving at their cleverness. These moments generally emerge in scenes of rape and incest. Not exclusively there, not by a long shot, but persistently in that context. Consider this line in author's notes re: disassociative personality disorder resulting from years of incest. The victim turned murdering heartless protagonist is Angie, Victoria is a personality she developed to endure being raped repeatedly for years by her grandfather: Emphasis mine. "Victoria took over...victoria knew all the right moves...it was Victoria who, MORE OUT OF EAGERNESS TO ENGAGE IN THE ACTS THAN ANY DESIRE TO PROTECT ANGIE, shoved Angie out of the way... And soft little Angie never minded letting Victoria fill her shoes...or her panties."Thanks, authors/rape experts. You creep me out.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Moderate nausea. Shock at the depth of the authors' misunderstanding of victim guilt around pleasure experienced in abuse. Kind of also made me take a jog to exorcise the anger. And I don't jog! And I'm not even a survivor! These guys are turkeys. The actual case is colorfully depicted. Who cares.

9 people found this helpful

Not a Thriller, but Real Life Rarely Is

Interesting, factual story told from the point of view of a reporter. Performance was well done. For true crime fans.

4 people found this helpful

A tortured soul

So this book is your typical cut and dry true crime. But I couldn’t help note that there’s a distinct misogynistic tone. There are slurs thrown about freely, that I didn’t care for. Yes, the woman was a calculated murderess. But when you hear her story you couldn’t help ,but feel like she needed psychiatric help and not our criticism. She had been raped and abused most of her childhood,and any protection she thought she vanished tragically. The author of book has no sympathy for her, despite any financial gains this was a disturbed woman.

Hilarious and interesting

I purchased this as i love true crime. it was a good true story. Though the case somewhat predictable . I never predicted it to be very very humorous at different parts.
FLORENCE, "scary bitch, evil bitch, Shit..." was one of the funniest statements ever heard in my entire history of listening to audio.. I would have never purchased it, if know it had humor. I don't like my humor mixed w suspense. But this book turned out to be refreshingly different than any I listen too. I recommend it to true crime lovers who want alitte spice in there suspense. yes I didn't think so either.,, But just listen...

Riveting

The narrator seemed to be fully invested in this very well written book. Definitely worth a listen and please listen to the authors notes at the end, quite insightful.