Mommy Deadliest

Stacey Castor had everything: two loving daughters and a great husband. One morning, she called the police from her office. Her husband David been suicidal, and now he'd apparently locked himself in their bathroom. When police arrived at the house, they found him beside a bottle of antifreeze, dead. Though it did appear to be a case of suicide, police became suspicious that David was murdered. Further investigating showed that Stacy's former husband may have also been murdered. As the investigation dragged on, Stacey's daughter, Ashley, fell ill after drinking heavily with her mom; she'd been poisoned, but she didn't die, and Stacey was convicted of murdering David, attempting to murder Ashley, and forging a suicide note wherein Ashley took the blame for killing both of her mother's husbands. Veteran true crime scribe Benson (Betrayal in Blood) does best when he sticks to the facts, especially in a case as sensational as this. Stacey's behavior, demonstrating a chilling lack of remorse and a startling methodology, needs no adornment, and Benson's editorializing (particularly his personification of her drive to kill as "It") detracts from the story's impact. (Dec.)