Murder on Birchleaf Drive

The True Story of the Michelle Young Murder Case

De: Steven B. Epstein

Narrado por: Eddie Frierson

Was Jason the monster who bludgeoned his beautiful wife to death, leaving his toddler alone for hours to walk through her blood? If so - would he get away with it?

To the outside world, Jason and Michelle Young lived a storybook life - an attractive couple with great jobs, a beautiful home, a precocious two-year-old daughter, and a baby boy on the way.

Soon after the 29-year-old pregnant mother’s brutally beaten body was discovered on their bedroom floor, a very different picture emerged. Of a marriage crumbling at its foundation. Of a meddlesome New York mother-in-law whose running critique left Jason frustrated and angry. Of a 32-year-old man who behaved like a frat boy rebelling against adult responsibilities.

Murder on Birchleaf Drive documents the gripping tale of a family’s marathon quest for justice, confounding crime scene evidence, the persistence of law enforcement officers, and riveting courtroom combat.

“One of the best true crime books I have read.” (David S. Rudolf, featured attorney, The Staircase [Netflix])

©2019 Steven B. Epstein (P)2019 Steven B. Epstein

Good Read...but didn’t like the Narrator

I enjoyed this book however, there was a lot of repetition. Another review did NOT like the narrator and his corny voices. I have to agree completely. I think a woman’s voice is better when having to spake like a man, woman and child. When a man does this with this narrators type of voice I get irritated when he is trying to sound like a woman or child.

Very good book it kept me interested all the way through

My only suggestion would be that in the portion of the book that describes the second trial or it was basically identical to the first trial that portion be left out I learned to just skip through parts of it
The narrator went in a very slow pace so I learned from a part prior review that I put the speed at about 1.3 or four in that work much better

Very entertaining

It’s interesting to go into the mind of a husband who chooses murder over a simple divorce. I was curious as to his I.Q. score.

Great first book!

I must say that the narration is not at all as bad as I’ve read in review. I listened to this author’s second book first because I read so many bad reviews about this narrator. While the accents in the beginning are over the top and comical, the narrator actually turned out to be quiet good and was not a hindrance to the story at all.
Both of Steven Epstein’s true crime books were quite good! (He is also an exceptional narrator for his second book) I hope to read more of his work in the future!

Narrator is HORRIBLE

I get that audiobook narrators are required to read “spoken” lines while reading the book, and that changing their voices to enhance these lines is part of their hr job. But this guy takes it way too far. His impressions of the women speaking with NY accents are over the top and extremely annoying, but that’s nothing compared to his imitation of the two-year-old girl speaking. It’s super creepy. I really don’t see why this kind of embellishment is necessary at all. It’s just weird and annoying and takes away from the seriousness of the story IMO.

the narrator..

the story was okay, definitely better crime books out there. but the narrator and the horrible impressions of Southern accents, actually make you not take the book seriously. when he does the voice of the 2 year old daughter, smh, pointless. he makes it seem like a fiction book rather then real life events.

Interesting story. Didn’t mind the narrator

Contrary to other reviews, I didn’t mind the narrator as much. I felt the New York accent was actually more of the issue than the southern accent but maybe it’s just me.

The case is interesting from a legal perspective and the author did a good job of breaking down the weaknesses between the two cases.

Interesting true murder story

good details; got long in a couple parts, but still would recommend! my first audio book ever, so cannot compare to other narrators.

Narrator does really well with character voices and dialects

I think the narrator’s problem is he feels he has to be more serious — more Siri sounding — and like a news reporter when not imitating someone in the story.

Very annoying narration

The story was fine. Traditional true crime story. Not bad, but wasn’t a standout. The narration, however, was really hard to listen to. Somehow the narrator convinced himself that he was a great impressionist. Every person had a different voice, most of them hyperboles of one tone or another. Even when the narrator was just saying one word or a short phrase that was a direct quote, he’d use the assigned accent or tone. I found this disruptive to listen to, and almost belittling to the people involved. His narration of quotes was so exaggerated that it seemed he was nearly poking fun at their voices. Not sure if that was his decision, or the author’s or publisher’s direction, but in my opinion it was a very poor choice.