Shanna Hogan Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Shanna Hogan is a New York bestselling author of crime and non-fiction books famously known for Picture Perfect, a book about convicted killer Jodi Arias. She graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 2005. 2009 she was awarded Arizona Press Club’s Virg Hill Journalist of the Year. Subsequently, she received the Journalist of the Year 2011 award from the Arizona Newspaper Association. Shanna lived in Phoenix, Arizona. She worked as a professor at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University. She died in 2020 after she was discovered unresponsive in her swimming pool after suffering a fall.

Picture Perfect by Shanna Hogan is a book based on the true story of the murder of an American salesman, Travis Victor Alexander, whom his ex-girlfriend murdered in his house in Mesa, Arizona. The ex-girlfriend, Arias, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. At the time of the killing, Alexander suffered more than 27 stab wounds, a gunshot wound to the head, and a slit throat. Jodi Arias argued that she killed the businessman in self-defense, but the Jury still found her guilty of first-degree murder. During the sentencing, the Jury couldn’t agree on the death penalty option, so Jodi was sentenced to life behind bars without parole. The businessman’s death, the investigation following his death, and the trial received widespread attention from media houses across the United States.

Picture Perfect retells and relives the murder case sensationalized by the media across the country. It’s a book that made Shanna Hogan one of the bestselling authors in America. Shanna weaves a story that will ultimately leave you, as the reader, questioning the true murder motive of Jodi Arias on a man whom his family and friends considered a devout Mormon and a well-spoken motivational speaker of his time. What made Travis Alexander not once or twice defy the church doctrine by committing to a relationship centered around sex with a mousey young woman? Was Jodi the modern form of Lorelei, a beautiful maiden from a German girl who committed suicide because of a faithless lover and was subsequently transformed into a siren who lured fishermen to their deaths? Did she use sex rather than a siren to draw young Alexander to his death?

Reading this book will give you a better glimpse into the life of Travis Alexander as told by his friends, business friends, and through Alexander’s writing. Even though a few readers have complained that the author wrote a one-sided novel defaming Alexander by solely relying on Jodi as the source, that’s entirely untrue, as the words of Alex’s closest friends shine a bright light on Alex’s warm and cold sides. While he wasn’t a saint, every reader would agree that no man deserves such a horrible death.

After spending his childhood in poverty and surviving through menial jobs, Alexander debuted in Prepaid Legal, a company with all the bells and whistles of being a Ponzi scheme. He joined the company and began recruiting his friends and clients to join the company. He would receive a commission for each recruit and from their earnings. He would rise through the ranks and become the face of the company, and he would often be invited to give sales pitches disguised as motivational speeches. The company was subject to Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. A simple internet search shows endless complaints by resentful employees and customers who were slippery slope to a doomed end because of their placement in the pyramid scheme.

Alex and Jodi Arias’s paths would cross at a Prepaid Legal seminar, and the two hooked up almost immediately. The staunch Mormon man, who was expected to remain married to a virginal Mormon woman by the church rules, went against important church law. The two became a couple to the perturbation of Alex’s friends, and sooner Jodi converted to Mormon. To Jodi, Alex was a love dream come true, but that was not the case for Alex. He would often cheat while in search of a good Mormon wife. The two would have kinky sex while, at the same time, Alexander was dating one virgin Mormon girl after another.

Jodi later discovered that her man was cheating, and their relationship ended. She was heartbroken, jealous, and, above all, angry. The tires on his cars were slashed. According to Alex’s close friends and roommates, he never locked the doors to his house, and Jodi would visit at will, which sparked a chain of events that some say would ultimately end in homicide.

What would a normal man do with an unstable-ex girlfriend who’s been visiting unannounced do? Maybe get a restraining order and secure the house? Alexander did none of the approaches and continued communicating with Jodi simply because he longed for their sexual encounters. Even after Jodi moved back to California, Ale would send mixed messages to an unstable woman in love. He never let her go, and Alex’s friends who knew about the relationship were uneasy with Jodi from the beginning, especially when Alexander continued tolerating her despite calling her a stalker.

Though based on a true story, Picture Perfect is a story that reads like a psychological thriller thanks to Shanna Hogan’s well research and flawless writing style.

The Stranger She Loved is the story of Martin MacNeill, a lawyer, doctor, and Mormon bishop who in 2007 found his wife lifeless in the bathtub. Her face had all the scars of a significant facelift he had persuaded her to undertake a week before her death. From the eyes of unsuspecting people, the death of the 50-year-old Michele, a mother of eight, seemed natural.

However, days after she was buried, her husband, Dr. Martin, would move his younger mistress to the family home, making his children suspicious. The children would conduct their investigations into their mother’s death. They would later discover their father’s multiple affairs, falsified college transcripts used to forge his way to medical school, and a past criminal record. It would, however, take six years for Michelle’s murder mystery to be solved and secure a 1st-degree conviction against the famous doctor. The Stranger She Loved is a fascinating story.