Customer Reviews

Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters, and the Seattle Cyanide Murders

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm glad that I chose "Bitter Almonds" as my first Gregg Olsen book. I'm amazed at the research & detail that went into this tale of greed, deception, promiscuity & a whole bunch of various adjectives to describe Hot-to-Trot Stella Maudine Nickell.

Without giving too much away, should you read this book, pay particular attention to the difference in relationships Stella had with each of her daughters.

I was amazed at the similarities between Stella & Sue Snow's eldest children and seemingly lost younger girls.

Who is Sue Snow? Read up and find out! You will not be disappointed with this book. The trial was probably the most detailed I have ever read and a bit difficult for me to follow and stay interested, but I made it through and look forward to reading the rest of Gregg Olsen's titles!

I also appreciate the updates Gregg has provided at the end of the story. Any T.C. reader is always wondering what key characters are up to in recent days.

Random killings & murders of strangers are relatively rare--even when it comes to product tampering. There's a reason police usually look close to victims first: That's where the answer lies in more than 90 percent of cases. Turns out this is true even when someone keels over as an apparent victim of ramdomn tampering of over-the-counter drugs.
Gregg Olsen's account of the deaths of Bruce Nickell and Sue Snow and the subsequent conviction of Stella Nickell is extremely thorough & painstaking. At times, there are too many characters, but the book settles down as it goes along and improves the further one gets into it. It's very difficult with true-crime writing to know how to handle the large number of peripheral characters who sometimes appear in cases. Leaving them out could leave the story incomplete. Combining them into composites is a step into fictionalization. Including them as they are can bog things down. Tricky.
Particularly memorable are the characters of Stella and her daughter Cynthia, juror Laurel Holliday & the unfortunate Paul Webking, wrongly suspected of murder.
The questions left by the case & the ambiguity are fascinating. A solid read for true-crime fans that offers a very, very complete account & leaves no doubt that Olsen is the expert on the case.

This wasn't the first book by Mr. Olsen that I've read, and it certainly won't be the last. He skillfully weaves together the many intricate details of Stella Nickell's murders and her victims' lives into a fascinating, cohesive tale. The book is extremely well-researched and detailed. It's worth the effort to read through this complicated case. Another fine work, Mr. Olsen!

This was my first Gregg Olsen book but it won't be my last. This was a complicated story to put together and he did an amazing job. It did leave me wondering if Cindi really did help her mother Stella kill her dad though. They certainly aren't the kind of people I would hang out with.

I have been a fan of true crime for many, many years. As with anyone who reads true crime, you learn that those capable of murdering someone come from all walks of life; from "white trash" to "upper crust." But I have never seen in one book so many candidates for Redneck of the Year Award; from their outlandish attire to their conspiracy theories. And, as per recent updates, it seems to be a cycle that, like the Energizer bunny, is still going twenty years later!

I believe that with so much contradicting information and complicated characters to work with, Gregg Olsen did an excellent job of creating an intruguing true crime account of cold, calculating Stella Nickells' crime against her husband. And admist it all, Olsen does a superb job of leaving that one question that I believe all readers walk away with, "Just what was Cindy's [Nickell's daughter] involvement?"

I love a book that leaves me wanting to know what happened to those involved. And this one definitely did!

This book is a handful, but the story is good and the characters are just unbelievable. I can see why Ann Rule recommended it as a must-read. Not a particularly easy read, but well worth the immersion it requires. These days crime novels seem to offer little more than what we've seen on TV. Thank goodness this one gives us a real insider's look at the product tampering case that put an end to two-section capsule products.

Being a vivid true-crime reader I must say that this book really stands out from other true-crime books I have read over the years, the research is outstanding and it must have been a very difficult task for Gregg to get all that information from both families involved in this sad human tregedy. Stella Nickells thought that she could get away with murder for insurance money but the long hand of the law finally caught up with her, I have no doubth in my mind that she is guilty for both murders and she got what she deserved. It made me feel sorry for the third parties involved in this human trededy, thankfully few people who are living on the verge of poverty end up taking these crazy measures to make a quick buck, its no dishonour to be poor. A truly remakable book, a must read

I read this book because the incidents took place in my hometown and I remembered reading about it in the paper. Gregg Olsen does an excellent job of "filling in the blanks" to give a more complete picture of what happened. The research was top-notch. I have since read other books by this author. I put him right up there with Ann Rule as a true-crime author (a HUGE compliment from me!)

Before there was "mega" there was "super". In the 1970s anything that was more with a capital m earned the prefix "super". Stars whose mere existence caused fans to swoon were superstars. Billionaires were super rich. The top trailer park antics of Stella Maudine Stephenson etc Nichols and her daughter Cindy are of a similar magnitude - they are more than trashy, they are super trashy. In the hands of true crime great Gregg Olsen their story is art.

Do It Yourself gal Stella Nichols, who lived a tough life by any standards, is one of the most staggeringly promiscuous people ever. How promiscuous? She drove to bars in her trusty pickup truck ""TP 4" with a mattress in the back. That's how promiscuous. Being a bar fly with her own rolling motel wasn't enough to keep Stella amused. She was a winner at Tri-Chem design, which seems to have been the tasteful way to tart up one's clothes before the invention of the Bedazzler. She designed her own pottery. She even managed to fit a few fish tanks into her single-wide trailer. Oh, and she picked up a few facts about how to kill with natural herbs and cyanide. One of the challenges of Stella's story is that while her crime is awful, you can't help admiring her ability to fit so much into a day.

Stella isn't the only epic barfly in this story. Her whole family is man-crazy. I tried adding up the number of marriages the Stephenson "girls" and Grandma Cora Lee managed to rack up and I stopped at 30. That's thirty marriages for 5 women. Just the marriages. When Stella's even trashier daughter Cindy complains about Stella's boozing and bed-hopping a few weeks after her husband's death saying "I have a reputation myself to uphold in the town" one wonders if Cindy was merely vexed at having competition for the title of town tramp. This example of family love pales in comparison to warm welcome Stella's sister Georgia extends to her daughter Wilma's baby: "I hope that bitch you're holding ..." Wilma responds to this heartwarming expression of maternal love with a right hook and some hair pulling. The female bonding in this clan is something else.

In the hands of a lesser writer, this would be simply depressing. Fortunately we have Gregg Olsen on the case and no one is better at depicting the underclass of America. He's neither preachy nor faux-sympathetic. The more of his work I read the more convinced I am that Gregg Olsen is a brilliant combination of Darcy O'Brien (another true crime great) and filmmaker John Waters in his ability to show us what we'd prefer to avoid while showing us a little of ourselves in the process. Gregg Olsen gives Stella Maudine and the rest of the Stephenson girls what they would probably most want: their dignity. He shows them at their trashy worst but always shows their strength. Of course, that strength can take the form of dumping your kids, turning your mom into the FBI or poisoning your husband but then life's not for wimps.

An engrossing account of the Seattle cyanide murders, Olsen's research is meticulous, his prose is well phrased, and his description of the events and characters flows unhaltingly from start to finish. All in all, an excellent read.