Series: St. Martin's True Crime Library | Publication Date: March 2, 2010
A beautiful nurse. A lethal injection. A gruesomely charred corpse. Nothing could have shocked the sleepy community of Morgantown, West Virginia, more than the lurid details that surfaced after a house fire claimed the life of Shelly Michael’s husband Jimmy. Local authorities suspected possible arson. Then they discovered that Jimmy had been dead before the fire even started—paralyzed by a fatal dose of muscle relaxant…
Did Shelly Michael, a respected nurse and mother, kill her second husband and torch her own home? Were the rumors true that she’d had an affair with her husband’s employee only two weeks before the murder? Or did she kill Jimmy simply for the insurance money? Charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson, Shelly would never stop claiming her innocence—even to this day
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“John Glatt is one of the finest true crime craftsmen writing today.”—Howard Goldberg, VH1.com
From the Back Cover
SHE PARALYZED HER PREY…
A beautiful nurse. A lethal injection. A gruesomely charred corpse. Nothing could have shocked the sleepy community of Morgantown, West Virginia, more than the lurid details that surfaced after a house fire claimed the life of Shelly Michael’s husband Jimmy. Local authorities suspected possible arson. Then they discovered that Jimmy had been dead before the fire even started—paralyzed by a fatal dose of muscle relaxant…
BUT SHE WAS PLAYING WITH FIRE.
Did Shelly Michael, a respected nurse and mother, kill her second husband and torch her own home? Were the rumors true that she’d had an affair with her husband’s employee only two weeks before the murder? Or did she kill Jimmy simply for the insurance money? Charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson, Shelly would never stop claiming her innocence—even to this day…
“John Glatt is one of the finest true crime craftsmen writing today.”
John Glatt is an investigative journalist with more than thirty years experience. In the last fourteen years he has written 12 true crime books and 4 biographies. With more than half a million books currently in print all over the world, Glatt is acknowledged to be one of the best true crime writers working today.
A native of London, England, Glatt left school at sixteen and worked in a variety of jobs - including tea boy and messenger - before joining a small weekly newspaper outside London, where he honed his keen news sense. Over the next few years he freelanced for many national English newspapers, including The Daily Express, The Sunday People, The Daily Mail and Woman Magazine.
In 1981 he moved to New York, working on staff for News Limited, as well as freelancing for Newsweek, Omni, the New York Post, the Australian, Modern Business and other newspapers and magazines worldwide.
His first book Rage & Roll: Bill Graham and the Selling of Rock, was published in 1993 to critical acclaim. Two years later he wrote Lost in Hollywood: The Fast Times and Short Life of River Phoenix, a well received biography on the tragic movie star. His next book, The Chieftains: An Authorized Biography, which was published in 1997, saw him nominated for a 2000 Grammy in the spoken word category. In 1998 wrote the well-received The Ruling House of Monaco: The Story of a Tragic Dynasty, uncovering many new revelations about the Grimaldis.
In 1998 he wrote his first true crime book, For I Have Sinned: True Stories of Clergy Who Kill. A year later he followed it up with Evil Twins, an anthology of twins that kill. And since then he has written a True Crime book a year for St. Martin's Press True Crime Library, establishing him as a master of the genre.
Over the years, Glatt has appeared on scores of television and radio programs all over the world, including Dateline NBC, Fox News, Current Affair, BBC World, and A&E Biography.
He and his jewelry designer wife Gail divide their time between New York City, the Catskill Mountains and London.
This review is from: Playing With Fire: The True Story of a Nurse, Her Husband, and a Marriage Turned Fatal (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)
John Glatt has written another intriguing true crime book. Shelly Michael is possibly the most calculating killer that I've ever read about and she almost got away with it! This excellent page turner kept me up several nights as I followed the riveting investigation by arson detectives that finally lead to her downfall. I highly recommend this book.
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This review is from: Playing With Fire: The True Story of a Nurse, Her Husband, and a Marriage Turned Fatal (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)
I have read all of John Glatt's book's. He is a great writer. This is a good story that is unbelievable you will be asking yourself why??? The whole crime is so sensless. I would of liked somemore background on some of the individual's in the story.
It's a good book but gave it 4 stars as it is not the best John Glatt book I've read.
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This review is from: Playing With Fire: The True Story of a Nurse, Her Husband, and a Marriage Turned Fatal (St. Martin's True Crime Library) (Mass Market Paperback)
I enjoyed this book very much. One of the best true crime books I've read. The book was well written and difficult to put down. I found the excellent investigative work of the police and fire officials very interesting and suspenseful. Shelly Michael is a true sociopath. It is almost unbelievable that she would have been drawn to nursing as a profession. It is frightening that someone with no conscience would be working with pediatric patients. The author provides an excellent history of the main characters and offers an explanation as to why Shelly Michael would have killed her husband. When you finish reading this book you won't have any question of the guilt of Shelly Michael.
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