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Not a Very Good Murderer

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Not a Very Good Murderer

By: Ronan Farrow
Narrated by: Ronan Farrow
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About this listen

Kidnapping plots, arson, jewel heists, attempted murder–just another day in Paradise...Valley, Arizona.

In this wild, genre-bending audio documentary, New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow dives deep into the strange and storied life of high-society socialite and former Miss Arizona Celia (Cece) Doane.

As a well-to-do ex-beauty queen in the 1970s, Cece had no trouble attracting husbands. She did appear to have some trouble getting rid of them, though. Under seemingly perpetual investigation for attempted murder plots against two of her spouses, she has been a “person of interest” to Arizona law enforcement for decades but never arrested. Did she actually conspire to have her husbands killed? And if so, how has she managed to elude detectives for so many years?

Through countless hours of interviews and painstaking investigative legwork, Farrow examines Cece’s checkered past, exposing a web of half-truths and omissions that shed new light on this shocking and confounding case. But what happens when he realizes that his most important source may also be his most unreliable?

Part true crime thriller, part captivating character study, Not a Very Good Murderer is a fascinating exploration of what it takes to uncover the truth and what it means to keep it buried.

©2025 Ronan Farrow (P)2025 Audible Originals, LLC.
Editors Select Murder True Crime

Editorial Review

The journalist and the not-very-good murderer
I knew Ronan Farrow’s first Audible Original was going to be juicy, but even I wasn’t prepared for CeCe Doane. A former Miss Arizona and Rolls Royce-driving fixture of wealthy Paradise Valley, AZ, Doane first caught Farrow’s attention when she tweeted about a story he was working on, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist soon found himself with a fascinating new subject. Had this eccentric woman really tried to kill her husband with Viagra, as a witness claimed—and if so, why was the couple still together more than two decades later? In this riveting character study-meets-true crime investigation, Farrow gradually reveals a nesting doll of family secrets, high-profile politics, scandalous gossip and one unreliable woman at the centre of it all. I loved hearing Farrow’s deep reporting and CeCe’s larger-than-life persona take shape in this voice-driven documentary, which adds needed nuance to the current obsession with female villains, con artists and shades-of-gray criminals. —Kat J., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Not a Very Good Murderer

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  • Overall
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How calm Ronan was

possibly could have been a little shorter but a fascinating story. Ronan is an excellent narrator

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

Potential but no end product

There’s definitely a really compelling story here and I think Ronan Farrow did a decent job of getting it out but it doesn’t quite come together. I think the whole thing didn’t really know what it wanted to be and needed more structure and story telling to be a better end product.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Well worth a listen

Really good listen and well presented. A balanced perspective. Nothing more interesting than real life. .Well worth a listen.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic storytelling

I love the way Ronan brings a story together, made a days work in the garden fly by

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting story but unnecessarily long

On episode 2 currently, we spend 50% or more of each episode repeating information already presented and keep playing the same audio recordings regularly.
The story is captivating but I think it’ll be about 2 hours too long.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Oh geeze

Why spend so much time with a woman who has gotten away with everything in her life by being a horrid drunk who refuses recovery? I just don’t get it.

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

Very balanced approach to a hard subject.

Great story and insight into the human condition and how people talk to themselves and ignore or delve into their childhood.

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long-winded , repetative

I think that it would have made a good listen if it had been half the time

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Interesting main character

While the main character is very interesting, the story itself doesn’t really get anywhere. I did enjoy it and it was an interesting listen

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outstanding!

great journalism, subtle yet persistent. engaging story, broadening into much more than its subject matter.

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