Poisoned Blood

A True Story of Murder, Passion, and an Astonishing Hoax

By: Philip E. Ginsburg

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

Pretty, smart, and pampered, Audrey Marie Hilley grew up in a small Alabama town believing she was entitled to the best of everything. But marriage to her high school sweetheart, a cushy secretarial job, and motherhood were not enough to satisfy Marie, and she soon began to act out in troubling ways. Only when her husband, Frank, became sick with a mysterious illness, did it seem that she was ready to put someone else's needs ahead of her own. The truth was far more disturbing. 

Four years after Frank died, Marie's daughter, Carol, began to experience debilitating stomach pains. The young woman was near death when the horrifying reality finally emerged: Marie had poisoned her husband with arsenic and was attempting to do the same to her daughter. It was the first in a series of shocking twists that exposed Marie Hilley as a cold-blooded chameleon capable of the most sinister of crimes. From Alabama to Florida to New Hampshire, her trail of death and deceit included multiple identities, a second marriage, a false kidnapping, a fake death, several dramatic escapes, and a final act of desperation that brought the whole sordid saga to an astonishing end.

©1987 Philip E. Ginsburg (P)2020 Tantor

You sure do get your money's worth

like a lot of other listeners, I was impressed with how the quality of this book sustained itself across many, many hours. it was impeccably researched and written. Very enjoyable. there was almost, but ultimately not, too much time devoted to her trial. overall, it's the kind of book you wish there were more of these days in the true crime genre. I can only imagine the immense amount of work that went into it. well done all around.

Well worth the credit

I listen to and read a TON of true crime books. Many people highly rate and review certain books in this genre and they end up being crap. "Poisoned Blood" was definitely NOT. Use your credit for this one. For a longer book it kept my interest the whole time. Marie is a snake/total sociopath/conwoman and it is almost unreal that she does right up until the very end. Use your credit for this one. You will not regret it!

Incredible Story

Enthralling, mind baffling story. The narration is good. Level of detail and how the story is woven together with twists and turns keeps it interesting all the way through.

Overly slow reader

The ghost of Miss Hilly slipped this man some sleeping pills before every recording session. There’s no real blood and gore in this thing so he should have kept the pace clipping along like a tight thriller.

Diabolical

The narrator sounds a bit like the guy from the dry eyes commercial but the story makes up for it. There are some crazy twists and turns that kept me fascinated until the end. Very unique story and worth the listen.

Snake in the Grass

I really do not write good reviews on books, but do tell you if it's worth getting. I would recommend this book, if only for the characters that are sewn into this yarn, if you will. It is full of all the emotions we are graced with, but I will guarantee that you will have a good time becoming acquainted with the frailties of us all.

Absolutely fantastic! it's like 4 books in 1!

Absolutely fantastic! it's like 4 books in 1! The extensive background on each of the players made this book feel like several combined. This would be the perfect book to listen to while driving cross-country!

Unbelievable story

The author told an amazing story, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a long book never lost my interest. As a lover of good true crime books, I tend to stick to authors I know and love, but took a chance on this and am glad I did. Marie was a unique character, I don’t want to give anything away to the potential reader, but she was something else. The opposite of the boogie man but twice as deadly.
The narration was good until towards the end when it got very robotic and annoying, but I was too far into the story to stop. This has happened with other Audible books 😒; they REALLY need to catch these quality control glitches. When I pay an extra $15.99 for a book and have to suffer through the last few chapters, it leaves a bad taste.

This one drags on & on!

I heard this story on the podcast, Small Town Murder, so I knew a lot of the twists and turns. Its a very interesting story of an expert con-artist, Munchausen by proxy, double lives & false identities. Unfortunately, the narrator sounds like he's on Quaaludes and the author has added so many superfluous details and long-winded imagined dialog, it makes this book difficult to finish. For a 10 hour book, I would muscle through it... But TWENTY HOURS?! It feels like a punishment. Even sped up, I just couldn't get through this without skipping whole chapters.

A struggle to finish

The story line is good, the narrator is horrible, as li g as this book is, it is difficult to listen to the narrator.

Fascinating story, didn't love the narration.

You will learn every detail of every persons life that is involved in this story, which is a lot. The ammount of detail throughout is astounding and thus can make it drag. I did almost give up at one point a few hours in as the narration is quite monotone but i persisted and it did end up being a fascinating story. I just could have done without learning where the main characters parents were born and grew up, every family members name and their life stories along with a lot of the life she led without incident included. The story of Audrey Marie Hilley is fascinating, with surprises, suspicions, shock and drama, so if you can stick it out you will definitly not be disappointed.

fascinating story

Not a story I had ever heard of. An intriguing journey through a fascinating woman's life. if it hasn't been made into a film it should be.

Mind blowing true life scheming

Wow. I
One of the best true crime books I've ever listened to.
If you didn't know it was true you'd think it was some sort of farce, the mind boggles.
This woman was truly bonkers.
Really entertaining, kept me guessing and left me with my mouth open in disbelief!

Could have done with en edit

I wanted to enjoy this, and in theory it is a really interesting story. I normally love longer audio books, and am not averse to seeing 20 hours plus of run time. However in this case, it didn't hold my interest, and I ended up petering out and not finishing it. There just wasn't enough happening to sustain all those hours.
I think it was definitely worth writing a book about, but I am a little surprised that the publishers didn't insist on cutting the word count significantly to push us through the story. If you fancy trying this, then you really need to be ready for a marathon!

tooooo long!!

This looked like a good story and was looking forward to listening to it.
As it happened I gave up halfway through!! To descriptive with unwanted details. IE:1 hr and a half detailing a victim!!
Also,the narrators voice when imitating a women made it seem like a kids bedtime story.

Too long

It was an interesting story but it went far too long. It started to feel like a marathon I had to finish, though my interest was decreasing by the mile