America's First Female Serial Killer
Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster
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Narrated by:
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Mary Kay McBrayer
About this listen
This book is for listeners of true crime podcasts and audiences of both fiction and true-crime nonfiction. It is for watchers of television shows like Deadly Women and Mindhunter who are fascinated by how killers are made. It's for self-conscious feminists, Americans trying to bootstrap themselves into success, and anyone who loves a vigilante beatdown, especially one gone off the rails.
It's the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Because even though all the facts are intact, books about her life and her crimes are all facts and no story. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way.
When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, wrote her out of the will, and essentially taught her to hate herself. Jilted at the altar, Jane became a nurse and took control of her life - and the lives of her victims.
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The Bahamas, 1941. Newly widowed Leonora “Lulu” Randolph arrives in Nassau to investigate the governor and his wife for a New York society magazine. After all, American readers have an insatiable appetite for news of the duke and duchess of Windsor, that glamorous couple whose love affair nearly brought the British monarchy to its knees five years earlier. What more intriguing backdrop for their romance than a wartime Caribbean paradise, a colonial playground for kingpins of ill-gotten empires? Or so Lulu imagines.
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Stick with it!
- By Colleen on 07-17-19
By: Beatriz Williams
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The Setting Sun
- New Directions Book
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: June Angela
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
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MORE OSAMU DAZAI TRANSLATIONS PLEASE!!!!!
- By Lucky on 10-19-22
By: Osamu Dazai
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Murder on the Golden Arrow
- Kitty Worthington Mysteries Series, Book 1
- By: Magda Alexander
- Narrated by: Kim Bretton
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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England. 1923. After a year away at finishing school where she learned etiquette, deportment, and the difference between a fish fork and a salad one, Kitty Worthington is eager to return home. But minutes after she and her brother Ned board the Golden Arrow, the unthinkable happens. A woman with a mysterious connection to her brother is poisoned, and the murderer can only be someone aboard the train. When Scotland Yard hones on Ned as the main suspect, Kitty sets out to investigate.
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Cozy mystery
- By Patricia V. on 06-26-23
By: Magda Alexander
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If I Were You: A Novel
- By: Lynn Austin
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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1950. In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve’s secrets - and the complicated history of their friendship - to the surface.
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performed beautifully
- By Colby on 07-16-20
By: Lynn Austin
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The Godmothers
- A Novel
- By: Camille Aubray
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the Godmothers: Filomena is a clever and resourceful war refugee with a childhood secret, who comes to America to wed Mario, the family's favored son. Amie, a beautiful and dreamy French girl from upstate New York, escapes an abusive husband after falling in love with Johnny, the oldest of the brothers. Lucy, a tough-as-nails Irish nurse, ran away from a strict girls' home and marries Frankie, the sensuous middle son. And the glamorous Petrina, the family's only daughter, graduates with honors from Barnard College despite a past trauma that nearly caused a family scandal.
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Easy Enjoyable Read
- By Bunny on 06-23-21
By: Camille Aubray
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Maggie-Now
- A Novel
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate a cycle of loss, separation, and hope as she forges her own path toward happiness.
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no unabridged
- By sally on 08-03-21
By: Betty Smith
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The Love Note
- By: Tracy Rees
- Narrated by: Jasmine Blackborow
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Perfect for fans of The Keeper of Lost Things and The Villa in Italy. Blue lives a charmed life. From her family's townhouse in Richmond, she lives a life of luxury and couldn't want for anything - well, on the surface at least. Then, on the night of her 21st birthday, her father makes a startling toast: he will give his daughter's hand to whichever man can capture her heart best in the form of a love letter. But Blue has other ideas, and, unwilling to play at her father's bewildering games, she sets out on her own path to find her own destiny....
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The Love Note❣️
- By Leslie Gail Mnich on 10-25-20
By: Tracy Rees
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Pale Horse, Pale Rider
- Three Short Novels
- By: Katherine Anne Porter
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The classic 1939 collection of three novellas by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author and journalist, including the famous title story set during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
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Some of the most brilliant prose ever written
- By Anonymous User on 03-21-23
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The War Nurses: A Moving Wartime Romance Saga Full of Heart
- The War Nurses Series
- By: Lizzie Page
- Narrated by: Marian Hussey
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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You will love every moment of this absolutely brilliant wartime saga, perfect for fans of Diney Costeloe, Soraya M. Lane, and Nadine Dorries. As war takes its toll, the love and care of two brave young nurses become everything to the wounded soldiers they tend... 1914. Two plucky young nurses pledge to help the war effort: Mairi, a wholesome idealist hoping to leave behind her past and Elsie, a glamorous single mother with a weakness for handsome soldiers. Despite their differences, the pair become firm friends.
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I really really wanted to like this book...
- By Teresa M. Thornborough on 09-26-19
By: Lizzie Page
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Exit Betty
- By: Grace Livingston Hill
- Narrated by: Anne Hancock
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Soon-to-be heiress Betty Stanhope is a runaway bride, but not for the usual reasons - she didn't flee because of a change of heart. Reluctant about the wedding at the outset, the dutiful Betty reaches the altar to find that her groom is a different man altogether and someone she's dreaded most of her life! Before the wedding can proceed, she is taken to a room to recover from her fainting spell.
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AMAZING
- By Peggy Palmer on 02-15-18
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Silent in the Grave
- By: Deanna Raybourn
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
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Happily surprised
- By 9S on 07-04-09
By: Deanna Raybourn
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Mayhem
- By: Sarah Pinborough
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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A new killer is stalking the streets of London’s East End. Though newspapers have dubbed him 'the Torso Killer’, this murderer’s work is overshadowed by the hysteria surrounding Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel crimes. The victims are women too, but their dismembered bodies, wrapped in rags and tied up with string, are pulled out of the Thames - and the heads are missing….
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Just Wow.
- By Sylvia on 03-04-14
By: Sarah Pinborough
What listeners say about America's First Female Serial Killer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jason Hejna
- 05-09-20
I couldn’t put it down
This is one of the best books about a serial killer I have read. There’s a certain sick fascination I think we all get from Serial killers. America’s first female serial killer delivers on this fascination. Page turning plot. I would recommend this book to anyone.
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4 people found this helpful
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- !n!go
- 09-23-21
Wow!
I’m just starting chapter 7 and couldn’t help but review. I knew the book would be wonderful after the introduction, but held off reviewing. McBrayer is a stunning beautiful writer… especially for the subject. She is an equally talented reader. Often, the author should avoid reading their own book, but this is just not the case with McBrayer. Her voice is wonderful and the reading of her work is flawless.
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- Sarah Chisolm
- 08-21-20
Very well written.
Mary Kay McBrayer has does an excellent job with this book. I was enthralled throughout. It is well written and very detailed. I feel like I learned a lot and enjoyed it along the way. I definitely recommend to anyone but especially anyone who is fascinated by true crime.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-04-24
A compelling story
I enjoyed the subject matter as true crime is very intriguing to me. and the author’s voice is mesmerizing. I found myself feeling sorry for Jane at times as I could see why she did what she did.
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- JR
- 06-15-21
Great until the final third
Despite a rather naive preamble by author (read by author) the book was well paced, detailed, interesting and full of intelligently crafted nuance that felt true to the spirit of this woman’s biographical story with info from source material.
However once the media gets involved in the case and the author describes what protagonist’s internal monologue might have been refuting the simplicity of the hyperbolic slander about herself, the author takes dramatic liberties that make the author sound more like a millennial grad school drop out then a woman with the paradigm or verbiage of time period.
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3 people found this helpful
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- KS a Guess
- 05-30-20
Gifted Storytelling - Rare in True Crime Genre
Mary Kay McBrayer narrates this true crime, and she is perfect for the job. The tone of the story itself is probably not what most people would expect of a historic true crime. It has a "dramatized" feel to it, but it works. Trust me. I have read and listened to many, many books in the genre.
Presenting the setting of a crime cannot be easy, even for more contemporary murder cases. This is not just referring to the geographical and time period. McBrayer is great at showing you what it must have been like for Jane Toppan, who was apparently born with needs that couldn't be satisfied by healthy relationships and who had the additional misfortune of being abandoned, neglected, then used for labor and frequently physically abused. No one was THERE for Jane, who could only watch and interact with people that appeared to lead normal lives. This true crime story shows you how those phases of Jane's life played out.
McBrayer doesn't often leave Jane alone for long periods of time by going into lengthy clinical explanations of the crimes and their origins. That's why (to me), this book is remarkable as a true story: the people (the victims and the survivors alike) actually existed, yet they are told so well they seem as "knowable" as the most carefully created characters of good fiction.
For some of the reasons that this book shines, it might not completely satisfy every true crime lover. It certainly humanizes the "bad" people, while not leaving out the detailed context that this cruelty emerged in. I highly recommend it.
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- Stephen Lawrence
- 10-29-21
Narrative non-fiction instead of a case study
Not very good, more narrative non-fiction than a study of the serial killer in question
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- Tiki Phyl
- 12-23-22
Written like a romance novel
Very few books are made better when they are read by the author. This isn't one of them.
The author starts out by stating this is the most accurate detailed book about Jane Toppan. The rest of the book is explicit conversations and daily happenings, which I found highly unlikely that there was any record of. The book is written more like a romance novel than a true crime. It definitely takes a lot of liberties with what might have happened. Still, I labored on and listened to the whole book, even tho a few things bothered me.
For example, there is a discussion by a sailor in 1901 (I think, maybe 1902) in which he laments that he quit smoking because he was short of breath, and besides his fingers could no longer strike a match, but if his fingers could light a cigarette, he'd smoke them both to the filter. This bothered me since at that time there was no correlation drawn between smoking and shortness of breath. And because filters were not added to cigarettes until the 1950's.
In another passage, the author writes that Jane pulled herself up by her bootstraps. That phrase had a much different meaning then, meaning it was an impossible and ludicrous task, not like today where it means fought her way up. Details matter.
By the end of the book, several sentences were repeated. It was hard to blame the editor though, as I'm sure they were nodding off by this point too.
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1 person found this helpful