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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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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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How calm Ronan was

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

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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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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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Boring

Sorry but I found this quite repetitive and no real story line. Performance was good.

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Uncomfortable listening

This did, I admit, keep me listening right to the end but I couldn't shake the feeling that all the subjects were being exploited and tricked into revealing more about their lives than they would have knowingly consented to. Farrow came across as condescending - judge and jury of all. I felt regret that I listened at all - especially to the end. It felt cruel.

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The interviewer is naive

Seems he has no idea how to read a self indulgent, functional, blaming, drama- seeking drunk. At one level or another, all drunks share common traits. People clearly loved this woman but she was surrounded by similar types and no one seems to have a clear memory of anything. All a bit sad and pointless.

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