Wanda Ann Holloway seemed to have it all. Married to a prosperous oil field company owner, the mother of two happy, healthy teenagers, active in her church, Wanda enjoyed her comfortable life as a housewife in Channelview, Texas, a community outside Houston.Only one thing seemed to mar Wanda's otherwise perfect life: her daughter Shanna, then thirteen, had failed to make her junior high's cheerleading squad for two consecutive years. Wanda, obsessed about Shanna's failures, gradually became convinced that other girls and their mothers had conspired to keep Shanna off the squad. Most of Wanda's anger and resentment centered on Verna Heath and her daughter, Amber, who had made cheerleader.Verna was a neighbor and former close friend of Wanda's. Amber and Shanna had both attended the same Christian elementary school since kindergarten. After months of fuming about it, ranting to anyone who would listen, Wanda thought up an innovative solution to her perceived problem. She would simply hire a hit man and get rid of Verna and Amber once and for all. Such an action, theorized Wanda, would finally open the closed doors of the cheerleading squad to Shanna.Anne McDonald Maier, who covered the Texas Cheerleading story for People magazine, takes you behind the scenes of this bizarre and near-unbelievable case that made national and international headlines during Wanda Holloway's trial for soliciting the capital murder of Verna Heath.She reveals Wanda's repressed, fundamentalist upbringing in Channelview, her relentless ambition and her secretive scheming with her brother-in-law, who months before jokingly suggested to Wanda that she hire a hit man to get rid of her rivals. Wanda thought he was serious and went to him for help. He in turn, went to the police.The author also provides a behind-the-scenes description of Wanda Holloway's week-long trial as well as a psychological portrait of the mother who loved too much and a fascinating exploration of the cheerleader phenomenon. The craze reaches its height in Texas, where cheerleading often becomes an obsession and the ultimate status symbol for teenage girls, who find it the path to glory and success.Finally, the author (who is also an attorney) provides fascinating insight into the unusual legal technicality which later caused Wanda Holloway's conviction to be reversed and her fifteen-year prison sentence set aside. Read Less