Murder on Birchleaf Drive

The True Story of the Michelle Young Murder Case

By: Steven B. Epstein

Narrated by: Eddie Frierson

Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Excruciating Narration

The narration was so horrible it was difficult to get through. Before I purchase another audio book, I'll make sure it's not narrated by this person.

Compelling Case

The narration was spot on in this audiobook and this case was compelling from start to finish. The accents were actually perfect and the characterizations were very similar to the real people in real life (if you watch any of the archived video of the trials). I disagree with some of these reviews criticizing the narration. I found it made it easier to follow the narrative and differentiate who was testifying or lawyering. But, like most things, audiobook narration is subjective to the ear of the beholder. I found this book compelling. It is a tough case for me because there was pretty much zero physical evidence to convict. Circumstantial and common logic. But is that enough for reasonable doubt? Then again, did OJ do it? Fascinating and sad that a vibrant life was taken too soon.

too much verbatim

need editing and more insight into crime and circumstances by author. never heard if anything was stolen during crime or not

Narration takes away from the story

The narrators attempts to use his voice to speak in feminine tongues talk like a child and changes voices depending on the speaker was so irritating I almost turned off the story many times and took away from my enjoyment of what might otherwise have been a very interesting and engaging tale.

Very Pleased

This author did a great job telling us about this true story. I lost sleep because I didn’t want to stop listening.