Cold-Blooded

A True Story of Love, Lies, Greed, and Murder

By: Carlton Smith

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

From a New York Times - bestselling journalist: The story of the murder of a California attorney at the hands of the lethally cunning wife he never doubted.

A wealthy and well-connected legal ace and the proud owner of a champion show horse, Larry McNabney had every reason to love his life. But when he disappeared in September 2001, his wife, Elisa, claimed he joined a cult.

When Larry's body was found in a shallow grave three months later, Elisa was already gone. In a red convertible Jaguar, her brown hair dyed blond, Mrs. McNabney was speeding toward a new life in Florida - and a brand new identity.

Who was Elisa McNabney? Beautiful, seductive, and ruthless, she had thirty-eight aliases and a rap sheet a mile long. Carlton Smith, coauthor of the true crime classic The Search for the Green River Killer, reveals one shocking surprise after another in this harrowing tale of broken vows and deadly betrayal.

©2004 Carlton Smith (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

Was okay!

This was not written as a story but rather police report on all the events that took place around the life and death of Larry McNabney.
Although it was very interesting and I couldn't stop listening.
It was not a true story written in fiction format.
Did not enjoy the narration.

Slow start, but fascinating story

I struggled through the beginning of the book, which consists largely of the history of the city of Reno, Nevada. Once the story really got going, though, I found it fascinating.

a decent audiobook for middle of the road

A little long in the tooth I feel it could shorten to an extent very middle of the road in my opinion on some of the points made by the Author The story clearly outlines a tale of stupid people with too much money and too many chemical substances in their body to make sound judgments

Wow! Great listen!

Really was emotionally moved by the author’s ending. This was better than I expected. I don’t know enough about the case to make judgments, but I felt really sorry for Sarah. I was shocked at the ending. Excellent True Crime book.

Destruction of Innocence

How sad that in the end Sara was the one sent to prison. She had no previous trouble with the law but was preyed upon by beautiful, greedy, unstable woman who stopped at literally nothing to satisfy herself at the expense of dozens of people. As many cowards do, she took the easy way out! I think that Sara should have received 10 years probation not hard prison time. Lauren had been given numerous opportunities in her youth to correct herself and make things right but never did so. Ultimately she stole the innocence and life of a young woman who had no idea what she was getting into, then having no idea how to get out of the situation.

Exceptional Detail & Narrator

Although I've heard this psychotic and maniacal saga, this is the best. Narrator excellent.

Too much background

The book had far too much in the way of background. I do appreciate knowing some about the lives and how they got to that point, but the reason I wanted the book was to hear about the murder and the repercussions. I listened to hours about drinking, aspects of law, horses, and vague money shuffling which in my opinion could have been cut down in order to get to the confusing, circle racing murder, etc., The lead up to what happened went on for several hours and the murder, locating, ending was cut short.

Ok

This is an ok story. Seems a bit repetitive . It is interesting but I could not finish it

too much repetition

The whole story could have been told in an hour. But every scenario was told from 5 or 6 people's pt of view, and they are all the same!!!

Twice as long as need be

This story could have been told in half the time. Ended up skipping parts because of repetition