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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

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Great story by a great journalist. He kept the listener enthralled from start to finish.

Ronan is fantastic

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Wasn’t sure this needed to be made - it felt almost too personal to get into a woman’s life this way - but she seemed willing, and Ronan is a fantastic reporter, a mastermind in storytelling and journalism.

Ronan is Great

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

How calm Ronan was

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Loved Ronan’s erudite work and choice of a brilliantly bonkers subject. I really feel for anyone who has bumped up against Cece’s solipsism, selfishness and arrogance. She’s a deliciously unaware and unpleasant subject. Good luck to her family as they recover and to Jim - hopefully he makes it through.

Really enjoyed this - interesting and engaging journalism

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I have enjoyed listening to this strange story. The author, narrator were good,
. The characters needed some help to get through life.

A very enjoyable listening experience.

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Fantastic listen.
From the audio of the phonecalls to the interview and to the music along the way.

The sheer amount of investigation that went into podcast was phenomenal.

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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.

Oh geeze

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

Well worth a listen

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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.

Potential but no end product

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Took me a day to finish. I just could not stop listening and also couldn’t believe what I was hearing! What a tangled web weave…

Fascinating

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