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  • Too Pretty to Live

  • The Catfishing Murders of East Tennessee
  • Written by: Dennis Brooks
  • Narrated by: John Pruden
  • Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (49 ratings)

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Too Pretty to Live cover art

Too Pretty to Live

Written by: Dennis Brooks
Narrated by: John Pruden
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Publisher's Summary

In this stunning true-crime thriller of Facebook, catfishing, and jealousy, a double murder begins with the click of a button.

When Bill Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth began their romance, they unknowingly set in motion a diabolical plot that would end with them murdered in their own home, Hayworth holding their mercifully unharmed infant.

Chris was a CIA agent who was concerned about Jenelle. Seeing the cyberbullying she had endured, and worried for her safety, Chris got in touch with Jenelle's protective parents and her devoted boyfriend, warning them that Payne and Hayworth were a danger to Jenelle. He got especially close with Jenelle's mother, Barbara, who thought of Chris like a son, though she had never met him. Chris claimed that surveillance of Payne and Hayworth revealed that the two of them were planning on harming Jenelle, that it was imminent, and that something needed to be done immediately. Chris promised that he would have their back if they were to act to protect Jenelle. And so they did. Jenelle's father, Buddy, and her boyfriend, Jamie, broke into the home of Payne and Hayworth and murdered them in their own home.

What the police investigation turned up, though, made this crime all the more terrifying. Jenelle had been Chris the entire time, catfishing her family and her boyfriend to act in vengeance on her behalf. Using forensic linguistics and diving through the brambles that Jenelle laid to cover her tracks, police were able to put together a chilling portrait of a sociopath made all the more ruthless by the anonymity of her online life.

Bizarre and unforgettable, Dennis Brooks examines the crime and trial from all angles, bringing his expertise as the lead prosecutor in this strange and disturbing case.

©2016 Dennis Brooks (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Too Pretty to Live

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Very interesting case

I couldn’t stop listening. Few books come from the prosecution’s take and though the reading of emails was long winded at times, it really set the stage for the case.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

stranger then fiction

If this story was fiction I give up after 50 pages and call it ridiculous but it's real and I have to know more. I listened to the book cause I couldn't believe anyone would be catfished like this but it really explained the level of obsession, paranoia, need for victimization, and desire for drama these people had.

The narrator was very blah especially when he read out anything written on a computer (which is a lot of transcripts) it made the book harder to get through

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    5 out of 5 stars
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"Satirical comedy?"

Wow what a story!! I laughed out loud a few times I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. if this wasn't a true story it would be a great satirical comedy about "really dumb murders ".

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Would be a fun story if it were not true!

Very good story about how a prosecutor built up the case against an oddball family who fooled themselves into killing another family for absolutely no good reason. All the reasons were in their imagination and were caused by lack of education and critical thinking. Fascinating

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    1 out of 5 stars
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So hard to follow

I only made it a couple of hours into the book. I gave up when I couldn’t make heads or tales of it. The story had potential but I found it was so disjointed in the flow of the narrative from so many people being introduced. At times a pause between character switches would have been immensely helpful. I got tired of rewinding over and over to try and figure it out.

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Too confusing.

It hurt my brain to try to follow this story.
I rip through many audiobooks each month.
I couldn’t bare to attempt to continue this.
I wouldn’t bother.

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must be true crime dork to enjoy

I am really into true crime so I was able to finish this book. The main issue was that the majority of the book was the narration of conversation between suspects online. so alot of the English is text English. also the narration is dry and robotic when quoting the online chats.
there was not alot of information about the actual crime.

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1 person found this helpful