Better Off Dead: A Sordid True Story of Sex, Sin, and Murder

By: Michael Fleeman

Narrated by: Michael Kinzie

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

A frustrated, unhappy wife. Her much younger, attentive lover. A husband who degrades and ignores her. The stage is set for a love-triangle murder that shatters family illusions and lays bare a quiet family community's seedy secret world of sex, sin, and swinging.

Better Off Dead, the latest true crime book from New York Times best-selling author Michael Fleeman, strips away the pleasant veneer of the Silver Lakes neighborhood in California's high desert to tell a shocking story about a headline-grabbing crime.

©2018 WildBlue Press (P)2018 WildBlue Press

A gripping true crime story

True crime writer Michael Fleeman presents the love triangle involving a California couple, involving the wife's younger lover, Jonathan Hearn. Sabrina Limon met her future lover while working at Costco, and it escalated into a torrid lover affair. The author shares the transcripts of many secret conversations between the lovers using a wiretapped burner phone. The ultimate question is, did the couple plot to kill Robert Limon, a hard working father of two, so they could be together? In the end, Limon and Hearn would testify against each other. "Better Off Dead" exposes the truth behind this shocking homicide, and takes you inside the court room for the drama surrounding this scandalous crime.

Dirtbags galore!!!

Good grief, there's a plethora of low-character people in this story who clearly think very highly of themselves, it truly made for a fascinating listen! Obviously, the wife (Sabrina) and the supposedly Christian boyfriend (Jonathan) are murderous dirtbags - they killed the husband. But once you start hearing about the husband and the other players involved, this just sounds like it could've been scripted from a Sodom and Gomorrah storyline. Listen, just because the victim was murdered does NOT give him a free pass from being a dirtbag in life - he was passing his wife around like a bag of popcorn, and fooling around on her constantly - all the while being furious with her for finding a boyfriend. The friend who turned them in - another dirtbag who was the feminine half of a swinger couple that loved to strip naked at parties made the murder victim sound like a blameless saint! I realize this is a true story and my frank honesty might be too "sensitive or hurtful" to some... but there is no hero or heroine here to like and root for. Except for possibly the jury, the Prosecutor and the Judge. lol I definitely recommend it - it's very well written, entertaining and the narrator's breathy reading of Sabrina had me in knots! Seriously, 5 stars all around. (PS. I don't find the murder funny at all, Sabrina and Jonathan are exactly where they deserve to be, being a dirtbag does not justify being murdered.)

Narrator never saw the book before...

I don't think this narrator read this book before he began recording. I'll find the verdict on-line. I lasted QUITE a while. The pronunciation of Gullian-Barre as "Gee-lon Berry" syndrome was the end of me.

Just ok

This was an ok book, but it seemed to be lacking. There was no real character development, and the story itself was vague. Kinda bland.
The narration was good, with one exception....the tone used for the detective made him sound like a game show host. It was weird. However, that would not keep me from trying another audible narrated by Michael Kinzie.

Evil wins when you let your emotions go unchecked.

A cautionary tale of what can happen when you let your emotions run your life. Such a sad case that should not have happened and could have been avoided with a little bit of self control.

good

not one of those books that you can't put down but definitely a good read

OK, But Don't Let The Title Fool You

Story 3.5/5
Narration 5/5

If the title had been "Better Off Dead: A Sordid True Story Of <b>Religion</b>, Sin and Murder" I would have rounded this up to 4 stars. 🤣

Interesting story about a couple of religious loonys in a murder conspiracy.

Despite the title, don't expect any racy language.

Recommended, but only because it's weird.

Deceived

Another wife gone wild. I think she just wanted to have fun. The husband got in the way.

A FANTASTIC TRUE CRIME STORY

So far BETTER OFF DEAD is my favorite true crime story published in 2018. I felt as if I knew all the key players personally. Yes, there is such a thing as pure evil. Mix religion into the mix along with sex, this book was impossible for me to stop listening to. I did not want it to end. I felt Jon wanted to protect Sabrina, his lover, from facing charges of murdering her husband...AND HE DID FOR CLOSE TO THREE YEARS! It’s worth more than one credit. I’m convinced you will find this listen as intriguing as I did. Human nature is so strange. Evil is found everywhere, especially if you listen to this book about the human factor that is surrounded by the evil that people are capable of. Loved it. Steve

Narrator was ridiculous

The story is SO WILD, I watched all the trial footage on YouTube and it was riveting. The book had so much potential. But the NARRATOR was like a cartoon character and his voice inflections were over the top and almost offensive (all the women are made to sound like stupid little girls). It was distracting. He also mispronounced words A LOT. Kind of a big deal if your whole job is providing an accurate reading of the material...like a closed captioning transcriber who can’t spell.

Otherwise the story was fascinating. My heart goes out to robert’s family and children. Sabrina Limon is right where she belongs: in prison.