Cruel Deception

The True Story of Multiple Murder and Two Devastated Families (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

By: Gregg Olsen

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce

Gregg Olsen tells the whole shocking story of this true crime in Cruel Deception.

In and out of hospitals since birth, angelic nine-month-old Morgan Reid finally succumbed to what appeared to be sudden infant death syndrome. Morgan's Texas-born mother, Tanya, a nurse and devoted wife, pulled up stakes with her grieving husband, Jim, and moved on. It was the best way to put the past behind them. Until their son, Michael, a boy who by all accounts was terrified of his mother, began showing signs of the same affliction that stole the life of his baby sister....

First, the suspicion: Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Then, Tanya was charged and convicted with felony child abuse of her son. She was later tried and ultimately convicted for first degree murder of Morgan. It would become a landmark trial that unfolded in a series of reversals and bizarre twists of fate as it gradually revealed another side of Tanya Reid—of her own troubling childhood and the dark secrets that drove a woman to the cruelest deception of all....

©2022 Gregg Olsen (P)2022 Gregg Olsen

A mental health condition to be shared

This was good I learned a lot and grateful this story was shared. This crime needs to be told and shared.

I lived in Hereford during the time of the trial.

Bringing this horrible MSVP to light is something that needs to be addressed. Good story of this happening, sad but necessary to bring it to light.

What happens behind closed doors...

(As posted in Goodreads)
Shiver; what an icky feeling the whole case leaves in the reader. MSBP us one of the most unfathomable crimes known to man (OK, cliche, I know). As a mother, I know that an awful lot is expected of us, and it may be unreasonable to expect it all- for a bare minimum of care and concern for our babies- or even older children or offspring is fur from Unreasonable! In a questionable situation, I can see different people coming to different solutions, BUT SUFFFOCATING YOUR BABY/TODLER SON is NEVER One of them!
Gregg Olsen continues to write relevant and interesting (mostly true crime) books in a captivating and enthralling way; I am far from current on all of them, but I continue to embrace and enjoy.!

Munchausen

This is a great story of the beginning documentation of Munchausen in the U.S. Who would think a mother would do this to their own child? So sad.

Hardly a must read/listen

I loved “If you tell” and “The Hive” by Olsen and looking at the books tagline I thought I was in store for another true crime nail biter. I think Olsen did a fantastic job of fleshing this story out and providing thorough detail but at the end of the day, it’s just a boring story. When I think true crime, I think murder and mystery—this could have been a dateline episode (if that), not a 50-some chapter read. I’m torn on Kevin Pearce’s performance too. His cadence and tone of Tanya and some of the other characters in the story seemed spot on but overall he sounds like a cute grandma or Frosty the Snowman and I would have preferred a different narrator.