Before He Wakes (True Crime) by Jerry Bledsoe

Paperback:  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.  Who can know it? - Jeremiah 17:9

In 1988, high school coach Russ Stager of Durham, N.C., was "accidentally" killed by his wife, Barbara, shot with a loaded gun he allegedly kept under his pillow.  A seemingly happy and popular couple, both active in their church, the two were compulsive overspenders and she was a sexual overachiever with a string of extramarital affairs.  As the case developed, it became clear she was a liar and a thief as well.  Then detectives discovered that exactly ten years earlier, in 1978, Barbara's first husband, Larry Ford, had died in an identical fashion but police had done nothing about their reservations concerning that "accident."  Detective Rick Buchanan's relentless investigations into Barbara Stager's life revealed a stunning vortex of compulsive lying, obsessive spending and sexual promiscuity.  With every shocking new discovery, more of Barbara’s impeccable image unraveled but the greatest shock - a damning piece of evidence Russ Stager left behind - revealed the nightmare truth about Barbara.

New York Times bestselling author Jerry Bledsoe takes us deep into one of the most spellbinding cases of double life, lethal lust, and almost perfect murder.  However, the greatest strength of Bledsoe's fine study is less his account of the murder case than his picture of the Baptist culture of the Bible Belt, where the baptized Barbara Stager was assumed to be a "good Christian woman" because her church work meant she could do no evil.

About the author:  Jerry Bledsoe is the author of the New York Times Number One bestseller Bitter Blood (1988), as well as two other national bestsellers, Blood Games (1991) and Before He Wakes (1994), and many other books.  He has been contributing editor for Esquire, a reporter and columnist for the Greensboro, North Carolina, News & Record, The Charlotte Observer, and the Louisville Times.  Three of his books were made into movies and mini-series for CBS, and a feature film of The Angel Doll was released for Christmas 2000.  His work also has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other publications.  Bledsoe also contributes investigative reports to the Rhinoceros Times, including a multi-part series detailing the controversies surrounding the Greensboro Police Department.  He lives in Randolph County, North Carolina, with his wife, Linda.