Customer Reviews

With Murderous Intent

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although with this piece of true crime from Robert Hemming we are subjected once again to the tale of a greedy husband whose only goal is to profit from the "unfortunate, accidental" death of his wife, what gives this story its uniqueness is how the murderer, David Richard Davis, planned and schemed his wife's, Shannon, murder and managed to elude authorities for eight long years. Definitely worth reading!

Robert Hemming's With Murderous Intent is the story of David Richard Davis, a sociopath who attempted to commit the perfect murder in 1980. Davis heavily insured his wife, Shannon Mohr Davis, and then murdered her with an exotic drug (succinylcholine) that scientists could not detect in human tissues. When the plan fell apart, Davis went on the lam for almost a decade before authorities caught him.

This book offers something for almost any fan of true crime. Davis' story will both fascinate and repel readers. He had no morals whatsoever and almost got away with a horrible crime. The story of Davis' flight to avoid prosecution is fascinating. Author Hemming deserves credit, however, for also focusing on Shannon's family. Hemming never allows the reader to forget that Davis caused incredible suffering.

There are a few drawbacks to this book. Hemming is a decent writer, but some of his prose is mediocre. The book moves well, but I think that Hemming could have cut about 50 of the 350 pages without losing much.

Fans of true crime will not want to miss With Murderous Intent.

I just finished reading the book "With Murderous Intent" by Robert Hemming. It was published in 1991 and is the story of Shannon Mohr, a twenty-five year old nurse who was killed in 1980 in a horseback riding accident (supposedly). Her husband, David Richard Davis, was later (8 years later) convicted of her murder by injecting her with a horse tranquilizer and then beating her in such a way as to make it appear that she fell off her horse. Davis enjoyed 8 years of freedom before being captured in Samoa. I enjoyed the book immensely. It went a little overlong when scientists were trying to identify the drug in Shannon's body and I did skim over those pages. I give this book 5 stars because I would read it again and also because the author developed an interesting story that held my interest.

As true crime stories go, this was not one of my favorites. The author spends alot of time detailing background on every new detective, wife, bailiff etc. that enters the picture. I prefer when they stick to the subject story and I found myself skipping over alot of detail that really did not affect the main story at all.