Gregg Olsen is one of my favs when it comes to true crime. This book is about the cyanide murders in Washington several years ago, I really appreciate the time and effort Olsen puts into portraying the story realistically--lacking sensationalism and sticking to the gritty (often horrifying) facts. If you like true crime as well as dipping into the legal system, how the FBI works, etc., this will be a good read for you.

Having read, and loved, other books by Gregg Olsen I was excited to see this release and to have the chance to give an honest review through #NetGalley.

American Mother is a horrifying true story about the cyanide murders in Washington several decades ago. True crime is a genre that I read frequently, and Gregg Olsen is one of the best in this field when it comes to creating a propulsive narrative based on facts and details without it becoming repetitive. Unfortunately though, with American Mother, I did not find those same qualities of writing that I am accustomed to when it comes to Olsen. This book felt overladen and extremely repetitive after just a few chapters. I highly recommend try other books by this author before picking this one up because it is definitely not the best example of how prolific his writing can be.

True crime lovers should still give this one a try because the crime is well-detailed, but just be prepared for it to become repetitive in areas.

Two stars. This book was convoluted and messy. I feel like I would have done better doing a Google search and learning about the crime on the Internet. The book was rambling and all over the place - it was definitely an early book that was rereleased, and you can tell. Luckily he's gotten better with experience.

This is an incredibly well written book, that doesn't spare any details in unravelling the lives of the relevant players in the eventual arrest and prosecution. If you appreciate a book which details the efforts of FBI investigators and the legal system, you will love this. The book was well paced and it felt like I was living it in real time. You can't help but admire the work behind this book by the author, as well as the real investigators in this true story. Definitely a book for fans of brainy true crime novels, as opposes to sensationalist work.

I read If you Tell a few years ago, I became a huge Gregg Olsen fan--he's an incredible true crime writer. So I immediately knew I needed to read American Mother. One thing I like about Olsen's work is his focus on crimes and events that aren't mainstream media and many don't know about. I'd never heard of this case before, so I was fascinated.

I think Olsen clearly told the story and connected all the events. However, I don't think this book needed to be 600 pages; there was a lot of background information on people, families, and events that didn't benefit the book or provide critical information and could've been left out.

Overall, I do think that some true crime fans would like this one, but you might be able to skip a few chapters here and there. Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the gifted e-copy!

I realised a little way into reading this that I’d read this before — it’s an updated version of an earlier book by Olsen. I wondered, as I read, why it was being re-released under another name, but the new endnotes/epilogue made it clear: the ambiguity of the earlier book, which cannot quite make the call between assigning blame to the mother alone or to the enmeshed mother-daughter dyad, has been clarified by time and circumstance, as the new title makes clear. It’s a sadder book, I think, for this new closure — for the daughter’s sake. It remains intensely readable and well-paced, and although I had read it before I read it through again.

American Mother is non-fiction, detailing a cyanide scare that took place in the 1980’s. I had never actually heard of this previously, although I was familiar with the Tylenol murders that occurred in 1982.

The story begins with details of the victims - Bruce Nickells and Sue Snow, and the reporting of the case initially. Bruce was originally deemed to have died from natural causes, a finding that was contested by his wife Stella, following the death of Sue Snow several days later. When Sue was found to have died from cyanide poisoning, suspicion fell on her husband Paul. Simultaneously, Stella began to push for a re-examination of her husbands body, claiming that he was also potentially a victim of cyanide poisoning. He was re-examined and his death certificate was updated accordingly, which allowed Stella to push forward with her additional life insurance claims.

The book follows the details of the investigation and subsequent trial, presenting the details in a relatively even-handed way. The story actually evolves to become an examination of Stella’s life and her relationship with her daughter Cynthia, who plays a significant role in her trial.

I enjoyed this - I wasn’t familiar with the story and found the approach interesting, going back through the history of the people involved and how their choices and actions led them to where they ended up. I am a big fan of true crime and enjoy Gregg Olsen’s writing - he is engaging and fluid, and it sounds like fiction at points, which I think is a testament to his writing style.

I would definitely recommend this for any true crime fans, even if they are previously aware of this case - it adds a lot of detail and information to the story.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

American Mother is the story of Stella Nichols and how she poisoned Tylenol capsules in Washington state. It all came down to money, and her husband's insurance policy. The author, Gregg Olsen, does a fabulous job in laying out the story and giving out all of the details, for all of the victims and the investigation. I basically knew the story before reading it, but he gave details that I did not know and made it so interesting that it was hard to put down. I love his writing and he has never disappointed me in anything I have read of his. This is no disappointment either. The writing is superb and the storyline very interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone!

Before reading this, I didn't realize this was originally published as Bitter Almonds, which I had already read.

The story is interesting and I do recommend it. But if you have already read Bitter Almonds, I'm not sure that there was enough new information, to justify a reread.

Every title by this author is phenomenal! Such hard story line material told in such a complex way! Definitely recommend, thank you for the review copy.

American mother really did have a very intriguing plot, but it felt like it couldn’t quite peak the readers curiosity enough to continue to be engaged.

The part about the wife poisoning her spouse with cyanide tainted exedrin was quite intriguing. You want to know the who what when and whys. But then they start getting into all the court documents and they just completely lost me!

This is a new to me author and I have to say I am looking forward to reading more by this author! I loved this book

Gregg did an amazing job on the details in this book. I’ve seen a few shows on the ID Channel, etc through the years about Stella Nickell and of course the book is usually better than the “movie”. This is no exception. I’ve read all of Gregg’s books that are out so far and I consider him one of my favorite true crime authors.

Unfortunately I struggled with this one. I want to love Gregg Olsen’s non-fiction books as the cases are always interesting, but unfortunately I struggle with the writing style as they’re non-fiction but it feels like I’m reading fiction. Unfortunately they’re just not for me.

This book was incredibly interesting. I feel like I learned a lot even though I feel like this space in the book world can be pretty saturated. I loved it.

Oh, my! If you like true crime, this is for you. The pages are full of background information about the day to day, sometimes hour to hour lives and heart-wrenching decisions made by "ordinary" people. I felt like I knew them. I liked some of them. I did not like some of them. It definitely got my attention and even though the book was a little long (for my taste), I wanted to read until the end. And, don't forget.....what a title...American Mother!

The ebook version was great (I also read it as an audiobook). It was easy to read and it was organized well.

With respect to the story itself, American Mother is the true crime story of a woman, Stella Nickell, who murdered her husband Bruce by giving him Excedrin capsules filled with cyanide. The medical examiner initially stated that the cause of death was emphysema. Stella was free and clear of the murder -- that is -- until she became greedy. You see, if the death was accidental, then Stella would get a bigger payout from the life insurance.

Sickly inspired by the "tylenol murders", which was a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982, Stella formulated a plan: she would contaminate Excedrin bottles with cyanide filled capsules and put them on the shelves at drug stores. Then, when someone else took them and died, it would be seen as another "drug tampering" case, and Bruce's death would be ruled an accident. This plot is sick and twisted, and Stella almost got away with it. Who would think that someone would be so callous as to murder complete strangers to cover up the murder of her husband?

A short while after Stella put the bottles on the shelves, a woman named Sue took those cyanide pills and died. This time the medical examiner found the cyanide in her system. After Sue's death hit the news, Stella started calling authorities stating her belief that her husband had also taken contaminated pills. It was found to be true.

Essentially, what it boils down to, is that Stella murdered Sue so that Bruce's death would be ruled an accident and Stella could get more money. What a heartless piece of garbage!

Gregg Olsen tells the story of not only the murder and the victim, Sue, but also the background on the Nickell family. While I'm not a big fan of focusing on the killer (because the focus should be on the victim instead), it was important to see Stella's family dynamics, as there was some speculation, although never proven, that Stella's daughter was in on the plot as well.

I really like how Olsen told the story -- it wasn't dry like some true crime books, and it held my interest. There was some repetition of the facts when Olsen wrote about the trial (and honestly this was my least favorite part), but on the other hand it really drove home the point that Stella was a heartless monster who killed 2 people for the money.

If you like true crime, I would definitely recommend this book.

This was such an interesting true-crime story. I knew about the case regarding cyanide-laced Tylenol that occurred in the early 80s in Chicago, but somehow I hadn’t heard about this one involving Excedrin. It’s pretty crazy to hear about the lengths that some people will go to in order to get a life insurance payout, but Stella Nickell and her family clearly had issues that went beyond this. I’m still on the fence as to whether Stella’s daughter, Cindy, was involved, but I guess we’ll never know.

The only downside of the book is that it was a bit too long for me (almost 500 pages). At times it seemed to drag on and was a bit repetitive, but overall it was worth reading.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central publishing for providing a copy of this book to review.*

I have read a few books by Gregg Olsen and have enjoyed all of them. The story was really interesting. It broke down each family and their backgrounds. I liked seeing how the story played out. There were a few issues I had.
One you never knew what perspective or time period each chapter was. So you had to play a guessing game at the beginning of each chapter.
Two it dragged. I felt that it should have moved faster. It kept going back and forward for every groups perspective and if you don't read it in one or two sittings it might be hard to keep track of.

The premise of this book is intriguing, and it starts out very strong. Unfortunately, it was bogged down with extemporaneous detail in the middle which really detracted from my overall enjoyment of it. I believe it would be much better with some heavy editing. A lot of the detail could be left out or summarized instead for a better reading experience. I expected this to be more succinct and perfected since this is a revised and updated edition.

I wasn’t familiar with the crimes so all of it was new information which is what drew me to the book initially. The events themselves, the investigation and the trial are all quite fascinating. All of that occurred before I was born or while I was very young, so it was noteworthy to read about the news coverage and the public fear of poisoning from product tampering during that time.

The book centers on three generations of women and ultimately focuses on the mother and daughter while the grandmother fades into the background for the majority of the second half of the book. The mother we are primarily following, Stella, who is charged with committing the cyanide murders, seems to be very manipulative and narcissistic. Much of the book centers around her family life growing up and then as a mother herself. There was significant trauma and abuse throughout each generation which I believe was included to help us understand why Stella and her family behaved the way they did. But the author includes so much detail about the family that I wondered when we could get to the point. I also had trouble keeping up with the names of many extended family members mentioned and for what purpose. Sometimes one sentence would reference multiple people that were only mentioned once or twice in the whole book and in completely different sections or context. It was hard to keep all those threads connected.

I agree with many of the other reviews I’ve seen that this book started strong, but finished poorly. It lost me about halfway through and made me annoyed by the end. At one point, I sighed out loud when I saw a specific section of the trial transcript was being included after the entire trial had already been described.

My final rating is 2.5 stars which I round up to 3 stars. I would recommend it to readers who are looking for a traditional true crime non-fiction book where the author does not insert themselves into the narrative. I don’t ever skim books myself, but there are sections of this book that could be skimmed entirely without detracting from the reader’s overall understanding of what happened. Modern true crime readers might be interested in how the investigation was handled and the subsequent trial which relied heavily on circumstantial evidence such as fingerprints in library books since the events took place in the 1980’s. There is no “smoking gun” evidence. The author leaves it up to the reader to determine who they think actually committed the crime and whether a poisoner is still out there or others should also have been held accountable.

Thank you NetGalley and Thread Books for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.