Frank Rodriguez, a much-loved counselor of troubled teens, lies dead on the bedroom floor.
His wife and stepdaughter are in shock, and so is the medical examiner when he performs the autopsy. Aside from being dead, Frank is in perfect health.
A Taste For Murder was featured on Investigation Discovery's EPIC MYSTERIES show April 9, 2016
Demanding to know the cause of her husband’s death, Angie Rodriguez badgers the police, insisting that Frank was murdered. The cops attribute her assertions to overwhelming grief, but soon they too believe that Frank didn’t die of natural causes.
When the police enlist their number one suspect to help in the investigation, things spiral out of control until police are dealing with a daring plot to murder Angie’s best friend, and allegations of another homicide so evil and perverse that even seasoned L.A County Detectives are shocked beyond belief.
From the Book
You think you can put blood in a test tube and say `tell me what's in it,` but that's not how it works," said Shafer.
Angelina Rodriguez, 35, on trial for the murder of her husband, Frank, but did she really do it?
“The first tests came back positive for promethazine and other antihistamines, which was anticipated, but no cocaine, no stimulants, no heroin, no methadone, no marijuana or other drugs were present.” Acting on a hunch, a coroner's team went back to Angie's house in hopes of turning up something. They found some ant poison and other insecticides. Frank's blood was tested again. The results were negative. This death was becoming an endless source of frustration and suspicion. No one dies without cause. Frank Rodriguez was too healthy to die, and without a cause, the coroner couldn't issue a death certificate.
Frank, a prudent and responsible man, had life insurance with his beloved wife as beneficiary. Without a death certificate, however, the insurance company couldn’t settle the claim.“As soon as the medical examiner provides a death certificate, Mrs.Rodriguez,” the claims agent told Angie, “we will promptly send you a check. As much as we sympathize with your financial situation, we can’t do a thing until we have the death certificate.” Her financial situation was dismal simply because Frank’s paycheck stopped when his heart did likewise. This is precisely why couples buy life insurance, and Frank was, above all, a most responsible and caring husband who lovingly made sure that his wife would be taken care of in case something happened to him.
Acclaim for A TASTE FOR MURDER
"A true crime murder mystery that will leave you gasping for breath." —Steve Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of BOGEYMAN and NO STONE UNTURNED
"A doozy of a murder." —Suzy Spencer, New York Times bestselling author of BREAKING POINT
"In A Taste for Murder, the authors tell this true-crime mystery like they’re Joe Friday following his gut instincts. Skillfully written, the story unfolds with surprising twists and turns as the authors follow the clues. Burl Barer, with co-author Frank Giradot, has hit yet another home run with this crime story. A Taste for Murder is a smart and well-written whodunnit tale. —Cathy Scott is an award-winning journalist and Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Murder of a Mafia Daughter and The Killing of Tupac Shakur.
About the Authors
Frank Girardot and Burl Barer, the authors of A Taste For Murder
Frank C Girardot, Jr. Is an award-winning journalist, author and television commentator who recently resigned as senior editor for the Los Angeles News Group, which includes the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Whittier Daily News.
Teamed with Edgar Award Winner Burl Barer, Girardot crafts compelling true crime non-fiction thrillers and is frequently seen on major television news networks as an expert commentator. Girardot and Barer will appear together on EPIC MYSTERIES: A Taste for Murder on Investigation Discovery on March 19, 2015.
12/12/2021
I only now finished A TASTE FOR MURDER.
I do think Angelina killed her baby for the $50,000 insurance payment. I wondered whether the fact that her premature little girl was “slow” might have been a factor in Angelina’s willingness to kill her own child.
On the other hand, she was willing to kill her loving husband for money and her best friend to get a lesser verdict at trial. Was she, however, in terms of her two children, more attached to her older, “normal” daughter? In so far as she had any ability to attach?
I’m glad you considered the radical PTSD of incest on “cold killers” like Angelina. What is the best definition of sane? The judge at Angelina’s trial says she certainly appeared to be logical as well as “charming” in a recorded video of her in “the hole” of the Twin Towers prison she lived in for so long. Is that a good definition of “sane,” that you can plot, manipulate and “know” what you’re doing is wrong. Angelina knew right from wrong on the surface, but, I wonder, after the repeated incest and family derision—rather than liberation and support—she was subjected to,
was she truly able to feel wrong from right?
I don’t think she was sane in any deep sense of the meaning of sanity. I don’t support the death penalty, so I’m relieved that she won’t be executed. Neither do I think she could be rehabilitated and released.
Some of the interest the reader has in this crime stems from Angelina’s complete coldness in killing and continual belief in her own power to manipulate. Initially, we are all judging Angelina’s out-and-out evil personality and actions, and we are fascinated as well as appalled. Later, we come to understand how “Victoria,” the participant and beneficiary of incest, had taken over from “Angelina.”
But you, the authors, do portray Angelina, victim and victimizer, from a largely reductive and sexist point of view. I ask you, after knowing Angelina had been without most forms of human daily living, really, you would describe her as “Jabba the Hut?”
I didn’t look at when this particular book was published, but I hope your current books don’t come from that point of view.
As to how a murderer like Angelina should be treated in prison, what do I think? I think she should be there for the rest of her life and that maximum security is essential. But should she be housed in degrading conditions? No, our prisons are such shameful institutions that thinking about how we allow them is difficult to bear. We have barbaric prisons when we could have civilized ones.
Even nearly wholly damaged people like Angelina could turn their abilities to productive use in a secure but humane environment.