Beauty Sleep: A Glamorous Mother, a Woman from Her Past, and Her Mysterious Death

by Michaele G. Ballard

On April 10, 2001, Sandra Baker, a recently separated, forty-five-year-old mother of two, went for a facelift-and a new lease on life. But the nurse anesthetist was a woman from her past. And Sandra's future was in jeopardy...

Decades before, in a world of high school cliques and competition, Sally Jordan Hill had a crush on a guy whose attentions turned toward Sandra. Little did Sandra know how jealous Sally might have been...

Once Nurse Sally had Sandra in her care, she administered a lethal dose of the painkiller Fentanyl. Within hours, Sandra was brain dead-and her death was ruled a medical mistake. But earlier, Sally's coworkers heard her say That's the woman who stole my boyfriend in high school. And soon, a determined detective would find new clues to convince a judge that Sandra's death was no accident. ...

Beauty Sleep is the true story of glamor, jealousy ... and cold-blooded murder.

Genres: True Crime

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 30, 2008

Reviews

[Jeanine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give up after page 123! The case itself was interesting, but I have the sneaking suspicion that the author merely used cut and paste from surgery textbooks and internet sites to fill out the book. When I find myself skipping entire chapters filled with guidelines from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, its time to move on to another book. I wanted to know about the case. If I wanted to read plastic surgery guidelines, I could have done that research myself on the internet.

[Donna Hunt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think the book was all that well written, it leaves too much to be wondered, so why write it? And although not directly, it seems that the author makes a hit on Sally's faith, which I believe to be true by what she's quoted with saying. Did she do it? I don't know, and she's right in saying that only Jesus knows what happened. But regardless of whether she did it or not, I believe her faith to be true.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok but raved a bit too much about plastic surgeons and other cases.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains plenty of interesting information, but as noted in most of the earler reviews, it is very repetitive and positively loaded with padding.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't one of my better books to read. Gave a lot of information but not a lot of story. Just didn't really have a good story line.

[Krista · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very, Very! Repetative!! Interesting medical information thou. The ending left me hanging!!

[Carla (There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Repetitive, and contains an inexplicable chapter on serial killers.

[Pamster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book group.

[Lori Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book. Interesting to follow the case.

[Carmen Tudor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of other people have said, I was a bit lost with this one too. I thought the case was really interesting but it was weighed down by a noticeable amount of repetition and supplementary info. As such, we aren't really afforded any insight into Sally's true motives, or persuaded either way if any motives exist. I'm sure there's something going on there...I'm just not sure what.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was way too repetitive...ugh. Hard to get through. Literally some adjoining paragraphs contained the exact same sentence. Why? ... Also, this is not a spoiler, but there is zero closure at the end. The case is not even wrapped up by then. So don't expect a finite, ending to this.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

3/4 of this book is filler, albeit interesting filler about plastic surgery and fentanyl. 1/4 of this book is about the case--and it's all just speculation and repetition over what happened in the plastic surgery office. This really wasn't enough for a book...maybe just a long journalistic story.

[Donna Humble · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent book with a lot of information about the murder and what drove the killer to commit the crime.

[Melody Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like many reviewers stated this is full of filler. Poorly edited. Contradicts with dates and facts in several places.