Shattered

The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder

By: Kathryn Casey

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron-star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the local high school who was so warm and popular her colleagues called her "The Sunshine Girl".

The fairy tale ended savagely on January 11, 1999, when Belinda's lifeless body was discovered in a closet. Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range. She was eight months pregnant.

There was no damning evidence directly linking the brutal murder to husband David, who stood by emotionless and dry-eyed as police searched the crime scene. But a dogged eight-year investigation would expose a shocking history of cruelty and domination, infidelity and rage - ultimately resulting in an epic courtroom battle for the ages - as the scandalous truth was revealed about love betrayed and innocent lives shattered.

©2010 Kathryn Casey (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Kathryn Casey is one of the best true crime writers today." (Ann Rule)

Good listen, but a little shallow

Author did a good job of describing all of those involved, but the husband needed to be made more of a villain than he was. He definitely wasn’t made out to be a good guy, but he needed to be hated more.

Annoying narration

The worst narrator! Between the ridiculous, growling voice imitations, the articulation quirks (“fom-lee for family, Tommy” for Tammy”, etc) & mispronunciations of common words (er-RRANT), this was the most distracting, annoying presenter ever. Who edits these things???

Great book

Loved it! I had a hard time putting it down much of the time. But only if you enjoy this kind of book.

Definitely a cut above

The story is very well told the facts are marshaled in in a coherent and logical way. The way the story was told gave a lot of dignity to everyone involved, I would definitely read other things by this author

One of Best True Crime

This book was well-researched and the story was riveting. The characters were brought to life and family dynamics (sometimes extreme) were exposed. I was familiar with the case and am so glad I listened to the book. It gave me a clearer understanding of the people involved and what really happened. I highly recommend this book.

Recommend!

This is an unfortunate story, but is very well told. LOVED the narration. I was captivated the whole time and would recommend to anyone that is interested in True Crime stories.

Excellent!

Tried this as it was part of Audible’s library and will look for other titles by the author. Has an Anne Rule quality to it as the narrative is strong and compelling.

good true crime book

the beginning truly dragged on and the ending was too speedy so the only thing there was a balance in the book was toward the middle. the sad part was it took law enforcement 9 years to convict the husband. midwhile he thought he got away with murder. and what kind of man thought he could kill his wife and unborn child and getting away with it. it's so sad for everyone involved except the husband.

Heartbreaking

Detailed true crime story that makes you feel you would have wanted to have known the victim and she and her unborn baby girl should never be forgotten.

Good story

I like true crime stories so I enjoyed this book. It dragged a little in a few spots but overall very good.