Internal Combustion

The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City

By: Joyce Maynard

Narrated by: Janey Ivey

On Mother's Day night, 2004, award-winning fourth grade teacher Nancy Seaman left the Tudor home she shared with her husband of 32 years in the gated community of Farmington Hills, near Detroit, Michigan, and drove in a driving rain storm to Home Depot, to purchase a hatchet.

Three days later, police discovered the mutilated body of Bob Seaman - a successful auto industry engineer, softball coach and passionate collector of vintage Mustangs - in the back of the family's Ford Explorer. As the shackles were placed on her wrists, Nancy Seaman asserted that her husband had been beating her, and she'd killed him in self-defense.

At her trial, two radically different stories emerged. One of the couple's sons, Greg, testified that his father had been abusing his mother for years. The other, Jeff, testified for the prosecution, charging his mother as a cold blooded killer.

Joyce Maynard's chilling work delves beyond the events of the crime itself, to explore the lives of an American family who seemed to have everything. Her exploration of the story led to a year's research in suburban Detroit - but the story she found there will take the listener to the Depression-era farm country of Illinois, the working class neighborhoods of the auto industry in its heyday and even, surprisingly, to a Baptist church in burned-out downtown Detroit. Along the way we meet a Transylvanian forensic pathologist, a beautiful young prosecutor, an old-school police chief, a television news crew hungry for ratings, the softball scorekeeper mom accused of carrying on an affair with the murdered man, and her two shell shocked teenagers, still reeling from the death of their beloved coach, and a mother who has to tell her daughter why her favorite teacher won't be in school any more.

As in Joyce Maynard's previous books - including To Die For, based on a true crime, and her best selling memoir, At Home in the World - Joyce Maynard's themes here involve family secrets, the deep fissures that lie below the surface of the glittering exteriors, and the deep, potentially fatal, fissures in the American Dream.

©2006 Joyce Maynard (P)2009 Tantor Audio

Somewhat Tedious 3.5 Stars

At some point, an author must decide when writing a book of this type, am I going to write this as a document showing off every bit of research I did or do it palatably for the reader? This book is of the all-inclusive, repetitive type. Coming from the perspective of a reader/listener, every small detail of what to begin with is only a slightly compelling story, results in 12+ hours of tedium. Not Maynard's best effort.

True Crime

First half was interesting, second half was repetitious with no new insights or revelations .There were some follow up interviews that were interesting but superficial. The change of sentence for the accused was the only new information and should have been included after the first half of the book. This book could have told the tale in half the time instead of the 13 hours.
One of my favorite authors with mostly 5 star reviews. I also would have like the author to have narrated herself.

Way too long to no purpose

An interesting story which could have been told more effectively in half the length. One of my favorite writers but she needed a good editor with this one.

Gripping account of a gruesome murder in an average middle class neighborhood

The actual story, while horrifying, is only part of what’s going on here. This book will appeal to true crime fanatics as well as to those who are Joyce Maynard fans. Having already read her published autobiographical memoirs adds to this book because there are moments of inflection throughout where knowing about some of the writer’s own life experiences helps the reader to understand why she stays so completely focused and consumed with this case. She won’t let up or miss out on an interview to figure out just what made the accused murderer do what she did and give such a detailed performance on the witness stand. The book is outstanding. The narration would have been better if Ms. Maynard had read it herself, because the reader’s voice sounded a bit automated and lacking emphasis and/or mispronunciation too many times throughout. Overall, the book was excellent.

Boring and the performance is horrible

This is a painfully wordy, boring and disappointing book on all fronts. Joyce Maynard is an excellent author when she writes fiction but this true detailed account of a family and a murder is awful. Ms. Maynard's reading is deplorable. Sorry. Couldn't finish the book.

WAY TOO LONG

Was an okay story at first, but was WAY too long / detailed and more about the author than the subject. Narrator singing creeped me out. Maybe I prefer the 48 Hours methodology; 1-hour solutions versus 13-hours of minutiae thrown against the wall