-
Mystery on the Isle of Shoals
- Closing the Case on the Smuttynose Ax Murders of 1873
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
For the first time, the full story of a crime that has haunted New England since 1873. The cold-blooded ax murder of two innocent Norwegian women at their island home off the coast of New Hampshire has gripped the region since 1873, beguiling tourists, inspiring artists, and fueling conspiracy theorists. The killer, a handsome Prussian fisherman down on his luck, was quickly captured, convicted in a widely publicized trial, and hanged in an unforgettable gallows spectacle. But he never confessed and, while in prison, gained a circle of admirers whose blind faith in his innocence still casts a shadow of doubt. A fictionalized best-selling novel and a Hollywood film have further clouded the truth.
Finally a definitive "whydunnit" account of the Smuttynose Island ax murders has arrived. Popular historian J. Dennis Robinson fleshes out the facts surrounding this tragic robbery gone wrong in a captivating true crime pause-register. Robinson delves into the backstory at the rocky Isles of Shoals as an isolated centuries-old fishing village was being destroyed by a modern luxury hotel. He explores the neighboring island of Appledore where Victorian poet Celia Thaxter entertained the elite artists and writers of Boston. It was Thaxter's powerful essay about the murders in the Atlantic Monthly that shocked the American public. Robinson goes beyond the headlines of the burgeoning yellow press to explore the deeper lessons about American crime, justice, economics, and hero worship. Ten years before the Lizzie Borden ax murder trial and the fictional Sherlock Holmes, Americans met a sociopath named Louis Wagner - and many came to love him.
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- By: Barry Siegel
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him - only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal Midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.
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Really, really good book.
- By Danette on 12-23-20
By: Barry Siegel
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Erased
- Missing Women, Murdered Wives
- By: Marilee Strong
- Narrated by: Deb Thomas
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on five years of investigative reporting and research into forensic psychology and criminology, Erased presents an original profile of a widespread and previously unrecognized type of murder: not a hot-blooded, spur-of-the-moment crime of passion, as domestic homicide is commonly viewed, but a cold-blooded, carefully planned, and methodically executed form of erasure. These crimes are often committed by men with no criminal record, men leading functional and often successful lives until the moment they kill the women, and sometimes children, they claimed to love.
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Interesting Book
- By Jami on 01-25-21
By: Marilee Strong
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Death in Texas
- A True Story of Marriage, Money, and Murder
- By: Carlton Smith
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert and Doris Angleton seemed to have the perfect life. Until she was coldly murdered in her own home, shot 13 times in the head, chest, and abdomen.... Suddenly, the ideal husband seemed anything but perfect: He was jailed, accused of hiring his older brother, Roger, to kill his wife for money - possibly as much as $2 million. However, without the crucial eyewitness testimony of Roger - who soon committed suicide in a Houston jail cell - the case against Robert rested entirely on circumstantial evidence. But the facts raise more questions than answers....
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Fascinating!!
- By BVerité on 11-12-20
By: Carlton Smith
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The Lost Colony Murder on the Outer Banks
- Seeking Justice for Brenda Joyce Holland
- By: John Railey
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1967, 19-year-old Brenda Joyce Holland disappeared. She was a mountain girl who had come to Manteo to work in the outdoor drama The Lost Colony. Her body was found five days later, floating in the sound. This riveting narrative, built on unique access to the state investigative file and multiple interviews with insiders, searches for the truth of her unsolved murder. This island odyssey of discovery includes seances, a suicide, and a supposed shallow grave. Journalist John Railey cuts through the myths and mistakes to finally arrive at the long-hidden truth.
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A reporter's tenacity finally reveals a murderer
- By Susan Clark Smith on 07-28-21
By: John Railey
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Betrayal in Blood
- The Murder of Tabatha Bryant
- By: Michael Benson
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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That's what attorney Kevin C. Bryant, 45, told his two young sons in the spring of 2003. At the time, blond, pretty, 26-year-old Tabatha Bryant was alive and well in an upscale suburb of Rochester, New York. But that was about to change - because Bryant knew his wife was cheating, and he intended to end the affair by ending her life. On June 14, 2003, he called 9-1-1 to report Tabatha slain by an unknown intruder who'd shot her in the eye with a .22 and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and upper body.
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This book really tells the entire story of the vic
- By Jen Roy on 07-31-19
By: Michael Benson
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Twisted
- The Story of Larry Nassar and the Women Who Took Him Down
- By: Mary Pilon, Carla Correa
- Narrated by: Mary Pilon, Carla Correa
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Original Recording
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In early 2018, Larry Nassar, the former doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, was sentenced to serve out the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of sex crimes. New York Times best-selling author Mary Pilon and Carla Correa chronicle the scandal from its inception, tracking the institutions that Nassar hid behind, the athletic culture that he benefited from, and the women who eventually brought him to justice.
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The Truth as told by the Survivors
- By DKMarkham on 07-27-19
By: Mary Pilon, and others
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Greentown
- Murder and Mystery in Greenwich, America's Wealthiest Communiity
- By: Timothy Dumas
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The first edition of Greentown helped reopen one of America's most shameful unsolved murder cases, the savage slaying of 15-year-old Martha Moxley in an exclusive enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, the night before Halloween 1975. Soon after Martha's body was discovered, attention focused on members of the Skakel family, who lived across the street from the Moxleys. Ethel Skakel and Robert Kennedy had married in Greenwich, and the two families were close.
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Loved By a Local
- By Corrienary on 10-16-20
By: Timothy Dumas
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Shallow Graves
- The Hunt for the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer
- By: Maureen Boyle
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Eleven women went missing over the spring and summer of 1988 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an old fishing port known as the Whaling City, where Moby Dick, Frederick Douglass, textile mills, and heroin-dealing represent just a few of the many threads in the community's diverse fabric. In Shallow Graves, investigative reporter Maureen Boyle tells the story of a case that has haunted New England for 30 years.
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Narration spoiled it. Zzzzzzz
- By Linda on 12-20-18
By: Maureen Boyle
What listeners say about Mystery on the Isle of Shoals
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Adelaide Beeman-White
- 03-24-22
A comfortable, engaging story
I greatly enjoyed this book. It is very well researched and very well written. It is a wonderful counter to the character assassination so often inflicted on Maren Hontvet. The author does a lot of world building, and provides a good deal of background information (like the history of the settlement of New England) and information to put the events of the book into their correct context (like the debate which was taking place in the 1870s surrounding capital punishment). If you are anxious to get the facts of the case quickly, these could feel like pointless tangents, and be quite irritating. But if you are willing to go with the flow, the book will take you on a very enjoyable and informative ride.
My only complaint is the narrator’s voice, which is distractingly nasal at times, but I found I got used to it in not very much time.
One note: I have seen several reviews saying that the author is pompous. I disagree. I think the author is exasperated by the untruths which stubbornly continue to circulate about this case and of having to have the same conversation over and over again to dispel them. This does come through a bit at the very beginning and the very end of the book, but I think he is perfectly justified in being exasperated, and I don’t mind that it comes through a little bit in his writing. It shows he cares about the topic.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Buretto
- 10-05-20
Not much of a whydunit
It doesn't take very long for the listener to recognize that the author doesn't really have enough material to fill out the 14.5 hour running time of the audiobook. Having strenuously asserted there is no whodunit, the author therefore must spend the time elsewhere. There is a good deal of time for pushback against certain media representations of the crime, which are in conflict with the author's beliefs. But mostly, there are numerous tangents that are used make up the time. While some of them do help build atmosphere and describe immigrant experiences in 19th century New England, too often they are just digressions, which don't necessarily serve the author well. I'm not sure the chronicles of ax murders in America did much to bolster the case that the correct man had been found guilty. Nor were the extensive forays into the horrific history of state executions all that persuasive. These are the two biggest items on the author's agenda. I finished the book, but was left none the wiser about whether it had truly closed the case.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Michael L. Seeger
- 07-26-22
Lots of White Space
About half of this is filler. Like a kid
trying to meet the minimum word
requirement for a term paper. The other
half is worth hearing.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael Fronckowiak
- 01-27-21
Unnecessarily Long & Wandering
I learned a lot certainly but I feel like there was way too much time wasted on pointless info. It didnt need all the extra stuff that didnt have much to do with the case. Also, the author puts himself in a box by saying conspiracy theories are believed by people with low self esteem. I used to think that when I was in my teens. but one can believe something different and still be "wise".
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-21
what is this?
I listened to this book and I'm still confused as to what this book is really about.
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- night owl
- 09-14-16
4 Stars for atmosphere
Took me back to the time and place.Although very interesting I found the book overlong. Details on the area and what the press said could be cut in half.However Mr Robinson's incite into the lives of these people make his book well worth reading.Not to mention one feels they have visited those isles
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3 people found this helpful
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- j. brown
- 01-14-23
Difficult to read the horror
I’ve read several books about the horrific murders on the Isle of Shoals and this well written tale is the best. Narration and story are absolutely perfect. Highly recommend.
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- Chelsey
- 06-29-21
mystery on the isle of shoals
it was a very informative book. narrator was great. lots of info and analysis about murders
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- Luke
- 10-20-21
not a bad little piece of true crime
it was included with the membership and not something I would pay for. aomewhat interesting story that is reasonably well told. for 95% of the book I thought it was about a 19th century murder case, but then, in the last few minutes, I realized it is about the author's extremely complex relationship with seagulls.
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- Spider-Ham
- 02-24-22
Great Book!
This is a great example of what a novel should be! Well researched and it did not go off and various tangents like other books tend to do. This is a bit longer too but that's a great thing as well since it was so interesting.
Highly recommended!
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