Empty Promises And Other True Cases (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
Pretty good. I've read enough of her books to recognize a specific pattern. The people who've committed the heinous crimes depicted are, well, heinous. But Ann tends to depict the victims as being almost 'too' good. She also gives prodigious praise and goes into a lot of detail about investigators and police officers in the cases - without whom I guess she wouldn't have much of a career. I'm not dismissive of the investigators, but I have a friend who was a fire-fighter/ paramedic for many years in the thick of some extremely hostile areas, yet medics are rarely given much credence, though they deal with the immediate and intimate aftermath of these events. I'd also like to read more about the survivors and how their lives were affected years later. All said, anyone who has a penchant for true crime should check out Ann Rule. She does rule.
"Expertly analyzing a shocking, headline-making case, Rule unmasks the deadly motives inside a seemingly idyllic marriage: a beautiful young wife, a rising star in America's top-ranked computer corporation, and a prosperous husband, the scion of a family building business. With an adorable son and a gorgeous home, the couple seemed to have it all. But a furtive evil permeated their days and nights, draggin them into a murky world of drugs, sordid sex, and con operations. In this realm, one of them would prove to be a virtual innocent, the other a manipulator with no conscience. Sudden, violent death brought their charade of a fairy-tale romance to a tragic end - with brutal crime that might never have come to light were it not for the stubborn detectives and prosecutors whose fight for justice spanned an entire decade."
What do You think about Empty Promises And Other True Cases (2001)?
Not bad. I feel so sorry for the women in these books who fall victims of men who are so obviously wrong for them. I guess hindsight is 20/20, and it's easy to read about a crime and think you'd never fall for it or you'd never believe the criminal's lies, but I guess it's harder to see how someone really is when you're blinded by love. I wouldn't know -- I'm much too cynical for that! But this was a good collection, and one of the stories was about a crime against a gay man, which was a bit unusual for Rule.
—J.M.
