Missys Murder, Karen Kingsbury
Missys Murder, Karen Kingsbury
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Missy's Murder
Passion, Betrayal, and Murder in Southern California

Author: Karen Kingsbury

Narrator: Laural Merlington

Unabridged: 10 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/26/2023


Synopsis

From a New York Times bestselling author and former Los Angeles Times reporter, two teens kill their friend, then befriend the girl's family to avoid suspicion.

On a beautiful October day in the San Fernando Valley, teenager Missy Avila was lured into the woods, beaten, tortured, and drowned. Missy's best friend, Karen Severson, publicly vowed to find the killer and even moved in with Missy's family to help. Three years later, a surprise witness exposed the murderers as Missy's two best friends—one of whom was Karen.

New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers a story full of twists, turns, betrayals, and confessions. Missy's Murder is a shocking tale of one of the most notorious murder trials of the eighties, and a startling debut novel from Kingsbury, who now has over twenty-five million books in print.

About Karen Kingsbury

American author, Karen Kingsbury, is the country's bestselling, inspirational storyteller. She has over twenty-five million copies of her books in print. She knew she wanted to be a writer as soon as ten years old, falling for the Dr. Seuss at the age of 5. She was born in Fairfax, Virginia, but given her dad's computer programming job, the family of seven moved quite often. When Karen was 10, they moved to the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. Just thirty minutes from the beach, she spent hours sitting on the sand, reading her books, and dreaming of being a novelist.

Karen's journalism teacher placed her on the newspaper staff at Pierce College, and told her to never stop writing. She graduated from California State University at Northridge with a degree in journalism. She immediately began a job as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times. She wrote mostly high school sports articles in the beginning, but later wrote for college and national professional sports. It was during this time that she met her future husband, Don. He was a handsome young man with an extraordinary love of Jesus Christ. Karen tells the story that he came to pick her up for their first date, with Bible in hand. It became what she considered annoying after three months, so she confronted him about it. Don left that day, but God would bring them back together. She unknowingly came to understand Don's thoughts about life as a Christian. They married and lived their married life as God would see fit. When she found out she was pregnant after six months of marriage, she did not know how she
would take care of a baby with such a busy work schedule. Don said that God would show them the way to write at home. Later, she submitted an article to People Magazine, and they thought the article would make a great book. Karen submitted a book proposal, a bidding war resulted, and she ended up with a book deal that paid her a little more than she already made in one whole year of work. She has been home writing books ever since.

Karen wrote four books in the crime genre, then decided to switch to books that glorified God. Her first novel in the new genre was ......Where Yesterday Lives. It was published in 1997, the same year their third child was born. Ever since her first novel, she wrote life-changing fiction. She said God puts a story on her heart and in her mind. Many of her books are under development with Hallmark Films and as major movies.

Karen and Don now live in Tennessee. She is an adjunct professor of writing at Liberty University. In 2001, they adopted three boys from Haiti, very quickly doubling their family. They are now empty nesters, living near their five adult children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brooke on April 04, 2017

This is one of my favorite true murder stories. In my opinion, Karen Severson is really one of the deadliest women.......more

Goodreads review by ♥ Marlene♥ on January 27, 2018

Sorry but I can't put this book under non fiction which I normally do for my true crime books. This author is making up dialogues and thoughts and I think she was very clever to stop writing about true crime.(She is now writing religious romance I think) Then I can see why she has become an author wi......more

Goodreads review by Margaret on February 26, 2025

This is one of Karen's books she wrote while a newspaper reporter. This I believe is a true story. I read one of her other books - Deadly Pretender that she wrote around this same time period. There are two more - Finals Vows and Snake and the Spider. After writing these books, Karen chose to be a be......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on June 07, 2021

I don't usually write reviews but I highly recommend this book. Very well written. Easy to get completely sucked right in......more

Goodreads review by Helen on September 20, 2015

This is one book where the movie was much better than the book. The author writes a little too speculatively about what people were thinking for a an honest account in my opinion. It is a horrific story and one that reminds us that teens can get themselves very involved in things when parents aren't......more