Philip E. Ginsburg’s book was one that caught my eye in a Goodwill. I don’t read much true crime, but we Americans (maybe other countries, too?) are endlessly fascinated by the female killer in particular. The full title is Poisoned Blood: A True Story of Murder, Passion, and an Astonishing Hoax. What in the world could this plain-looking woman on the cover have been up to with that whole subtitle?

Audrey Marie Hilley was born and raised in a small town in Alabama where she married Frank and had two children, Mike and Carol. Hilley had massive spending issues that became apparent when Frank got calls from collectors claiming he had unpaid loans. After Frank suffered from a debilitating illness that affected his stomach — and catching his wife sleeping with her boss — he died in 1975.

Later, Mike and his wife experienced similar symptoms whenever his mother came to visit, and then Carol followed the same trajectory as her father. Meanwhile, Audrey Marie Hilley, the dutiful mother, took Carol (age 19) to the hospital where they could not figure out what ailed the teen. Eventually, she lost some function in her limbs before relatives on Frank’s side of the family, still unsettled by his death four years before, suspected Hilley of foul play.

Doctors, now knowing to look for the inconspicuous causes of Carol’s illness, quickly realized she was suffering from arsenic poisoning. Frank’s body was exhumed; he was loaded with arsenic. Hilley was arrested but her intelligence and kind manners fooled authorities, allowing her to slip away after posting bail. While FBI searched for Hilley for three years, she made up a new personality, got married, worked, claimed she has a twin sister in another state, faked her own death, and came back as the twin.

If you’re thinking, wow, that escalated quickly, you are only partially right. Hilley spent four years slowly poisoning Carol, likely for the life insurance policy Hilley made payments on above all other debts. Interestingly, author Ginsburg leads us to believe Hilley is killing people for insurance money. If that’s the case, why create a persona, fake her own death, and then go back to her new husband pretending to be the identical twin sister? There is no mention of money issues in the three years Hilley lives a lie. Even weirder, her new husband claimed she would sometimes revert to acting like a one-year old child despite her ability to type quickly, fit into office culture, and win over bosses. She was a valued employee.

Poisoned Blood is read by David Colacci. His voice is easy on the ears, and he speaks clearly. However, he does that unforgiveable stunt of most male audiobook narrators: he gives women a high, dainty voice that had me cringing. Otherwise, he does a fine job. Ginsburg keeps the book going at a steady clip, only slowing down in one chapter during which he gives a full backstory on Hilley’s new husband. It was unclear why his childhood and adolescence mattered when his role in Poisoned Blood was fairly smally by comparison. Ginsburg does avoid slowing things down during the trial, which most books with a trial in them cannot claim. The ending — what happened to Audrey Marie Hilley — absolutely surprised me.