Secrets of a Marine's Wife

A True Story of Marriage, Obsession, and Murder

By: Shanna Hogan

Narrated by: Sophie Amoss

Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

This program includes a bonus episode of Case Closed, a true-crime podcast based on Secrets of a Marine's Wife, that brings Erin Corwin's story to life through firsthand interviews conducted by author Shanna Hogan. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author Shanna Hogan tells the true story of a young Marine wife whose illicit affair ended in tragedy. 

In June 2014, 19-year-old Erin Corwin was living a quiet life in Twentynine Palms, California, expecting her first child with her husband, US Marine Corporal Jon Corwin - until the day she drove off into the desert and never returned. As temperatures climbed into the hundreds, friends and family teamed up with local law enforcement in a grueling search of Joshua Tree National Park. Nearly two months after her disappearance, Corwin's body was found at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft, a homemade garrote wrapped around her throat.  

Detectives quickly turned their attention to the Corwins' next-door neighbors: fellow Marine Christopher Lee and his wife. The couples had leaned on each other for support, but it soon became clear that Chris and Erin's relationship had developed into a whirlwind romance that consumed them both and left the paternity of Corwin's baby in question. Lee told investigators he'd gone out hunting the day of Corwin's disappearance, but his claims of innocence soon began to crumble. And while Corwin was researching baby names, Lee was reportedly searching the internet for ways to dispose of a human body.  

Through interviews, court records, and extensive research, best-selling true-crime author Shanna Hogan constructs a chilling story of betrayal, deception, and tragedy.

©2019 Shanna Hogan (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Secrets

This is a pretty good telling of a sad story that should never have happened. Author Shanna Hogan outlines in stark detail the confluence of events and emotions that led the naive but headstrong teenager into a fatal liaison.

Narrator Amoss has a pleasant, gentle voice that helps to offset the grim reality of Erin's dalliance with a killer. She needs, however, to ensure the correct pronunciation of words she does not know before committing the book to audio. Dilapidated, (not dilapitated) garrotte, (not ga-rote') mauve, (not mawve) and my personal favourite, "Pudget Sound", are a few of her reading missteps, followed by "dint", "coont", "shoont" for didn't, couldn't, shouldn't. Inexplicably, she delivers most of the male voices in a smoky southern drawl, while portraying Jon Corwin, from Tennessee, in a flat northern accent. Go figure.

Heartbreaking 💔

The book was well written, however, the narrator made it extremely difficult to listen to, her attempts at changing her voice during dialogue to fit the individual ,combined w/the continuous mispronunciations..I felt like narrator was attempting to add so much character that her voice came off a bit too despairingly throughout ,maybe a bit too much ..a little much in the way of back info on Erin ...
I did have a hard time getting interested in the story due to this ..in fact within the first few chapters , at one point , turning off the book and contemplated returning , after a day or so I tried listening again , determined to just “get through it” as I was interested in the story and hadn’t heard much in the media regarding the case , seemed to get easier to listen too ( was definitely more interesting) after the first few chapters. It’s a very sad ,disturbing case , (driving home the point as ALL of these types of cases do) we should never take loved ones for granted! I am heartbroken for her family!
Please keep in mind this is just one persons opinion re: the narrator of this book, you may find it to be pleasing, or at least not as abrasive .

Need a new narrator

The narrator was annoying and boring. I couldn't get through it. She ruins an otherwise very interesting story.

Hard to finish

The performance of this book was DRY. I was looking forward to this story but this was terrible.

A true story that kept me in suspense!

This book came to me as a suggestion based on similar books I have purchased. Coming from a military family and whose husband was stationed at 29 Palms in the early 90's, hearing the familiarity of the locations and goings on in military life for these young couples is what hooked me. I shudder as I know the lure of what draws you to these young marines - the excitement of being married to a marine - a young, tough military trained man ready to fight the world while you hold down the home front. Yet, it's so easy to forgot that they are just young people, barely out of high school, and making adult decisions all in the face of war and long deployments. This poor girl got caught up in the all too common relationship drama that occurs on most military bases regardless of age. She was so trusting and young minded herself - nothing prepared her for what she experienced and it is so sad that she became the victim of a man who had his own psychological issues by his own admissions. As another reviewer stated, this should never have happened. I hope John and the rest of Erin's family find peace.
I highly recommend this book!

Great book about a horrible crime

I really got intrested in this case when I listened to the case closed podcast. It's a selfish crime that did not need to happen. The book was very detailed. I recommend this book to any true crime fans.

A sad read, yet I couldn’t stop

Seems like a long book, but it’s not. Truly a haunting book. I finished it in 2 days it was so good.

Impactful book, inconsistent narration

The crime and criminal are truly disturbing in so many ways but I'm very thankful for the author's emphasis on Erin's life and personality as well as the dedication of those who brought the family justice. I was deeply moved by this book. Unfortunately I had to remove a star because the audiobook performance contained many pronunciation errors and vocal inconsistencies which distracted from the narrative too often to ignore in an honest review.

An engaging story

The tendency to mispronounce place names was distracting but it was still a good listen.

Just a few things

The way the reader pronounced Yucca and Puget for Puget Sound was maddening.
if I was going to read a story and I wasn't sure about a word I would do my research.
and as a former Marine myself I know that PT is for physical training not personal training