The First Time He Hit Her
The Murder of Tara Costigan
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Narrated by:
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Sylvie de Crespigny
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By:
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Heidi Lemon
About this listen
For fans of true crime and books such as See What You Made Me Do, a shocking and movingly told portrait of the murder of suburban mum Tara Costigan and an examination of why domestic violence affects us all.
Tara Costigan was the woman next door. A hard worker. Quick to laugh and easy to like. She was happy, confident, strong. A woman who always looked after herself and her kids. Close with her family and her friends, she was much loved. Then, in 2013, she met Marcus Rappel. A local tradie, he was charming and sincere, they dated and fell in love. That should have been the end of a happy-ever-after story. But for Tara, it was much uglier. And for her family it would be devastating.
A year later, Tara was pregnant to Marcus. Her family had been worried for a while, but Tara didn't tell anyone how Marcus' jealousy was souring the relationship. She tried to keep it quiet. Despite everything, she never imagined he would be physically violent - he would never hurt her.
Tara was wrong. One fine day, the last day of summer in 2015, she was holding their newborn baby in her arms when he attacked her with an axe. Her murder seemed to come out of the blue. But as this extraordinary, often shocking audiobook reveals, it did not.
The First Time He Hit Her is an attempt to understand why dozens of women are murdered each year by men who profess to love them.
©2020 Heidi Lemon (P)2020 Hachette Australia AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Nicholas “Foxy” Foxton, a former jockey who suffered a career-ending injury, is out for a day at the Grand National races when his friend and coworker Herb Kovak is murdered, execution style, right in front of him—and 60,000 other potential witnesses. Foxton and Kovak were both independent financial advisers at Lyall Black, a firm specializing in extreme-risk investments.
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Frustration
- By Anonymous User on 08-24-11
By: Felix Francis
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The Confession
- By: Jo Spain
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, Matt Jamie
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Late one night, a man walks into the luxurious home of disgraced banker Harry McNamara and his wife Julie. And when the man launches an unspeakably brutal attack on Harry, a horror-struck Julie, frozen by fear, watches her husband die. Just one hour later, the attacker, J. P. Carney, hands himself into the police and confesses to beating Harry to death. But he also claims that the assault was not premeditated and that he didn’t know the identity of his victim.
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Confession
- By Elaine on 12-10-19
By: Jo Spain
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Because You Loved Me
- By: M. William Phelps
- Narrated by: J. Charles
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeanne Dominico's fiancé found her body on her kitchen floor. More than forty stab wounds and blows to her head with a blunt instrument had cut her life short. What monster had struck in the heart of a peaceful New England town?
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"True?" Crime
- By Shelli on 09-30-09
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Can't Forgive
- My 20-Year Battle with O.J. Simpson
- By: Kim Goldman
- Narrated by: Kim Goldman
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kim Goldman was just 22, her older brother, Ron, was brutally killed by O. J. Simpson. Ron and Kim were very close, and her devastation was compounded by the shocking not guilty verdict that allowed a smirking Simpson to leave as a free man.
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Selfish
- By B. A. C. on 04-08-16
By: Kim Goldman
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One Last Child
- Tallman's Valley Detectives, Book 1
- By: Anni Taylor
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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It was summer in the mountains when five small children vanished from their nursery school picnic. The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle of an ice-cream van in the air.... Three-and-a-half years later, in the dead of winter, the children are returned to their families...one by one. All except for Ivy - the granddaughter of Homicide Detective Kate Wakeland. The other four children say Ivy is dead.
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Amazing book and amazing narration!
- By Jeffrey Yauch on 08-12-20
By: Anni Taylor
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Black Heart
- Detective Dan Riley, Book 1
- By: Anna-Lou Weatherley
- Narrated by: James Lailey
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nigel Baxter, a middle-aged married banker with an unremarkable past, is found dead in the bath of a plush hotel suite, his wrists slit, it looks as if he's taken his own life. At first. But when Detective Inspector Daniel Riley is assigned to the case, he soon realises all isn't as it first appears to be. When a postmortem shows Baxter was poisoned, Riley suspects foul play. And then there's the odd addition of a teddy bear left at the crime scene....
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Difficult to Love
- By Lynn on 06-06-20
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Lay Your Sleeping Head
- The Henry Rios Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Michael Nava
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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A completely revised edition of the first Henry Rios mystery, The Little Death, Lay Your Sleeping Head introduces Michael Nava’s singular protagonist, gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Rios, beset by personal and professional problems, begins a passionate affair with the black sheep heir to a great California fortune who tells Rios an improbable tale of murder and sexual predation in his wealthy family. When the young man is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Rios begins an investigation that ultimately reveals much more than murder.
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Loved It
- By Leah Brock on 06-20-20
By: Michael Nava
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Impostor
- Alexander Gregory, Book 1
- By: LJ Ross
- Narrated by: Hugh Dancy
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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After an elite criminal profiling unit is shut down amid a storm of scandal and mismanagement, only one person emerges unscathed. Forensic psychiatrist Doctor Alexander Gregory has a reputation for being able to step inside the darkest minds to uncover whatever secrets lie hidden there, and soon enough he finds himself drawn into the murky world of murder investigation. In the beautiful hills of County Mayo, Ireland, a killer is on the loose. Panic has a stranglehold on its rural community, and the Garda are running out of time.
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Great beginning to a new series
- By Maine Knitter on 11-03-19
By: LJ Ross
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The Day The Lies Began
- By: Kylie Kaden
- Narrated by: Casey Withoos
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It happened the day of the Moon Festival. It could have been left behind, they all could have moved on with their lives. But secrets have a habit of rising to the surface, especially in small towns. Two couples, four ironclad friendships, the perfect coastal holiday town. With salt-stung houses perched like lifeguards overlooking the shore, Lago Point is the scene of postcards, not crime scenes. Wife and mother Abbi, town cop Blake, schoolteacher Hannah and local doctor Will are caught in their own tangled webs of deceit.
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good but mixed feelings
- By lisa on 09-16-19
By: Kylie Kaden
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An Accusation
- A Novel
- By: Wendy James
- Narrated by: Cat Gould
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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When eighteen-year-old Ellie Canning is discovered wandering the countryside, dazed and traumatized, she tells a harrowing story of abduction, captivity, and escape. An overnight symbol of survival and empowerment, Ellie enthralls an outraged nation. Then authorities zero in on an unlikely suspect: high school teacher Suzannah Wells, identified by Ellie as the woman who kept her drugged and bound in a basement. The evidence against Suzannah is damning—vilified by the media, Suzannah’s only defense is that not a single word Ellie says is true. Suzannah has no reason to lie.
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DNF - terrible narration!
- By Amazon Customer on 01-28-21
By: Wendy James
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In the Absence of Miracles
- By: Michael J. Malone
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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John Docherty’s mother has just been taken into a nursing home following a massive stroke and she’s unlikely to be able to live independently again. With no other option than to sell the family home, John sets about packing up everything in the house. In sifting through the detritus of his family’s past he’s forced to revisit, and revise his childhood. For in a box, in the attic, he finds undeniable truth that he had a brother who disappeared when he himself was only a toddler.
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Wonderful Book
- By Amazon Customer on 03-16-21
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Without a Prayer
- The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult
- By: Susan Ashline
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar - he'd practiced witchcraft, conspired to murder his parents, and committed unspeakable crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas was brought to the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas' church would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess?
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The Depravity of the Human Soul
- By J. Miller on 01-31-20
By: Susan Ashline
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Under the Cold Bright Lights
- By: Garry Disher
- Narrated by: Douglas Hansell
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Detective Alan Auhl does things his own way - and gets results. He works cold cases now. Like the death of John Elphick - his daughters are still convinced he was murdered, the coroner not so sure. Or the skeleton that’s just been found under a concrete slab. Or the doctor who killed two wives and a girlfriend and left no evidence at all....
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The unique main character
- By Sarah on 06-25-24
By: Garry Disher
What listeners say about The First Time He Hit Her
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jennifer Tanner
- 07-21-20
Good Book
I just feel like the ends was a little bit repetative but the additional information on domestic abuse as week as the authors own experiences made for great additional info!
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- Anonymous User
- 08-25-20
Author should have left her personal story out
As always, I wait until I've finished a book before looking at other reviews so as not to be influenced by them. Now that I've read some of the other reviews, I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one who thinks the author should not have interposed her own experiences - as valid as they are and as free as she is to do so. It detracted from Tara's story and to a degree, piggy-backed on a tragic story and therefore disrespected it. I kinow that's not what the author intended but that's how I found it.
What does it matter that the author spends her days "hooking bras across sweaty backs" while trying to establish herself as a writer. I feel like the author sees herself as some sort of romcom character; slaving at a job she hates during the day while waiting for her life to be transformed when her true talents are revealed. That's a different story and should have been kept separate.
I'm also heartily sick of true crime authors who - when they get to the court proceedings - are disparaging of defence counsel and paint them (us) in a rotten light. As unsavoury individuals who act as our client's puppet; repeating untruths, strategising on the border of unethical behaviour and generally being less competent/dignified than the saintly prosecutors.
We have a job to do and if you were ever charged with criminal offending, you would want us to do that for you too.
I can't wait to find a true crime report which keeps its head at the point where the case ends up in a trial, instead of resorting to the standard patter which this book fell into.
Finally - "the judge was exacerbated"? No - the judge was exasperated. An elementary error, surely.
Positives: the narrtor. She had a good tone to her voice and was really easy to listen to. No annoying mannerisms. Just a good steady narration.
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