Wilder Intentions

Love, Lies and Murder in North Dakota

By: C. J. Wynn

Narrated by: Katrina Medina

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Angila was stabbed 44 times.

This was personal.

On a November morning in 2015, Christopher Jackson waited for his fiancée, Angila Wilder, to pick him up from work as she always did. But this time, she didn’t show - and Christopher’s calls went unanswered. The police found what looked like a scene from a horror movie at their home. The backdoor kicked in. A bedroom splattered with blood. And a pregnant young woman violently stabbed to death.

Could Christopher have murdered the woman he claimed to love? Or was the crime done by an intruder Angila had feared for weeks? Angila’s womanizing ex-husband, Richie Wilder, Jr., aimed detectives straight toward Christopher. The evidence, however, pointed squarely at Richie. 

Kindergarten teacher Cynthia Wilder thought her dreams had come true when she married Richie. But while her husband sat behind bars, Cynthia grew lonely. When she shared some disturbing details with a former lover, Cynthia finally revealed the truth behind the sinister plot to kill Angila Wilder. After four years of lies and deceit, the real story would shock a community to its very core....

©2020 C. J. Wynn (P)2020 C. J. Wynn

Incredibly shocking and intriguing story

I just wanted to touch on the point of the narrator since others seemed to make it as if she ruined the story. It is not nearly as bad as others have made it out to be and the story is definitely worth the read! It’s very well written, intriguing, and keeps you pulled in wanting to know more throughout the book.

No, she was not the best narrator I’ve ever heard only due to the times she would try to use her “manly” voices for characters at times which was annoying at first. However, just as with many other audible books, once you get used to the narrative style, it’s not really noticeable anymore and you are pulled into the storyline, rather than the narrative aspect.
Also, it was nice that it was used much more in the first couple chapters then in the remainder of the book. So once you get past the beginning it’s much easier. Had it not been for her voice overs or change of voice to betray male characters I do not believe there would’ve been any negative comments regarding her as she has an overall easy to follow, calming, & smooth voice.

Cmon Mr. Wynn, didn’t you get the memo....

It’s worth spending the extra money on a experienced and exceptional narrator, as it will make or break the nook, no matter how brilliantly written. This book was good but would have been great, but I was distracted with the subpar narration. Not horrible but distracting.

Good story but bad performance

The book was well researched and laid out well. However, the reading of the book was very choppy, pauses where not warranted, emphasis on meaningless phrases and words. It made me have to rephrase things mentally...distracting.

This was so enlightening

My sister and I grew up in the same LDS ward as them. Richie was my sisters first boyfriend and would spend so much time with us even coming to Disneyworld with us in 2000 when I was 5.

As a teenager I babysat Angila’s daughter. She never so much as raised her voice in her daughter’s presence (at least around me) let alone result to slapping her across the face. She lived in a little White House much like the one she was living in at the time of her murder and I always loved babysitting for her. She paid well, her daughter was delightful and easy to care for, and Angila was always respectful of my time! I would often sit for her when she would be studying and eventually for her to go on dates with Richie prior to their civil marriage, followed by their sealing with Angila’s daughter a year later. It is unbelievable to think that someone I have old childhood pictures with could be capable of something so evil. Thank you for bringing some peace by shining light on parts of the story I had not yet heard.

You’ll listen twice

Book is NOT full of painful fake accents. Story good. Sometimes it jumps to a part in life that doesn’t make sense at the time but she always seemed to see the loose ends together. This is worth your time and money.

Great book

Great writing! Horrible narrator...so many words mispronunced. Is there no audible director or editor?
A disservice to an otherwise excellent book.

Always love a murder story

I am a frequent listener to murder podcasts, 48 Hours/Dateline shows, etc. I had never heard any coverage of this case, which was refreshing. That being said, the story is too long, with much repetition of facts in the case.
My biggest beef was the narration. While I found her voice pleasant, even soothing, there were at least a dozen mispronounced words that made me wince. Ugh. Really takes me out of the story. "Poignant" is the word that stands out most, as it was repeated a number of times.

Lies and More Lies

I chose to read this audiobook in part because I lived in North Dakota for four years. This may have been a silly reason because I only visited Minot a dozen or so times. Still, I wasn’t too disappointed by the book. Wilder Intentions: Love, Lies, and Murder in North Dakota is C. J. Wynn’s first true crime book. She did a fairly good job of researching and reporting this crime. Maybe she will pick even more interesting crimes in the future.

For me, the most important contribution of this book is not so much the recounting of the murder. It was the vast number of lies that were told before and after the murder that interested me. Also, I was impressed by how implausible some these tales were. I wondered why the military did not explore the validity of the early claims more thoroughly. Perhaps if the early lies had been given more scrutiny, Wilder would not have become so over-confident about being believed.

Wynn emphasized that attention to the victim’s life is essential to the making of a good true crime book. I believe the book did try to portray that. Still, I would have liked a little more about her since so many lies were told about her character.

The narrator, Katrina Medina, does one great male voice, but every male voice was the same. Also,
there were several mispronunciations (or at least what are mispronunciations to my ears), that I found distracting.

Don't Bother

thus is a compelling story ruined by the worst narration ever. I am sure that the kindle version would be a thousand times better. That, however, is not available to me because of my limited vision. Buy the print version. This new author has promise. The narrator should NEVER be used again until she gets some training.

Good story, not a great narrator

Narrator needs to look up pronunciation and make sure she uses the right words in general. She substitutes words like this: exacerbate vs exasperate. Good story, though, written as a thorough retelling.

Brilliant

Harrowing and heartbreaking story. I often feel guilty reading true crime!. Like the author, it’s usually the psychology of the perpetrators, police procedure/investigation and their dedication to the victim that makes me read true crime.

I can’t believe this is the authors first book and that she is not an investigative journalist! Beautifully written. Sticks to the facts and written with compassion for the victim and her family. I hope this is not your last book.

Narrator was excellent and easy to listen to.

Exellent

Thank you C.J. Wynn, you have written a great true crime book with interesting twist and turns. Your personal approach and close contact to the persons concerned made it more rivveting. I can't wait for further books. Please keep on doing this. Also the author Katrine Medina was excellent, I hope she keeps on narrating books like this. Overall, I am glad that there is a future in non-fiction crime books in the era of DNA, because it needs more storytelling. Keep up the great work! Thank you

Didn’t like it at all

Boring. Boring. Boring. Too long and rambling. Put me to sleep a few times. Obviously great research and detail but just didn’t flow.