Too Late To Say Goodbye: A True Story Of Murder And Betrayal (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
Ann Rule is a terrific crime author. She lays out the whole story and rarely allows her own opinions regarding the case to filter into the pages of the book. She simply lays out the facts and allows the reader to come to their own conclusions.Bart Corbin had a huge problem with rejection. Of the women mentioned in the book who tried to leave him, only one left with her life. Both Dolly and Jennifer were murdered. While Dolly's death was originally ruled a suicide, her family never believed that she could have done it. And Bart was questioned regarding her death at the time that it happened. He even changed his story and admitted that the first time he was questioned he had lied!! In the end, there wasn't enough evidence in the early 90s to convict him of any wrongdoing. Not until after his wife was found dead under disturbingly similar circumstances.Jennifer Corbin was introduced to a game called Everquest and met someone named "Christopher" through the game. They began emailing back and forth daily. The relationship that Jennifer had with Chris really struck a chord with me as, two years ago, I was involved in an online relationship. Most people nowadays have met someone in person that they first met online. Some of my closest friends in daily life were people that I originally met online. Anyhow, in Jennifer's case, she couldn't figure out why Chris never wanted to talk to her on the phone. They had such a connection! Wouldn't anyone with that type of connection want to hear the other person's voice? Hear the other person tell them that he/she loved them? About a week before Jennifer died, "Chris" admitted to her that he was a woman and his real name was Anita. Fortunately, in my own online relationship (where I never got to speak on the phone with my "boyfriend"), I was spared from him telling me that he had been lying to me about his gender or anything else he had told me. He simply got mad at me and decided that I had been lying to him all along. It was easier to just cut ties and let it go than continue trying to fight for something that never was meant to be. Jennifer, however, was not spared from this. She never really had the time to process the fact that she had been lied to by someone she cared about deeply. I think that most of us have been betrayed in one way or another at some point in our lives. And this is how we can all relate to Jennifer, even if it's not in the exact same circumstances.
enn Corbin, a lovely, slim, brown-eyed blonde, appeared to have it all: two dear little boys, a posh home in one of the upscale suburbs of Atlanta, expensive cars, a plush houseboat, and a husband -- Dr. Bart Corbin, a successful dentist -- who was tall, handsome, and brilliant.But gradually their seemingly idyllic life together began to crumble. There was talk of seeing a marriage counselor. Bart was distraught; Jenn seemed disenchanted. She needed to reach out to someone she could confide in -- beyond her mother and her sisters. Then, just a few weeks before Christmas 2004, Jenn was found dead with a bullet in her head, a revolver beside her. From the position of the body her death appeared to be a suicide. But Gwinnett County detective Marcus Head was not totally convinced, nor was Jenn's family, who could not believe she would take her own life.And how was this death related to another apparent suicide fourteen years earlier -- that of Dorothy "Dolly" Hearn, a spectacularly beautiful dental student? A star athlete and homecoming queen in high school, Dolly later dated Bart Corbin in dental school. Was there a connection, or was the answer to be found in a secret -- even dangerous -- relationship Jenn Corbin was having outside her marriage? For "Too Late to Say Goodbye," Ann Rule has interviewed virtually everyone in any way related to the story -- the victims' families, police investigators, prosecutors, and sources from Georgia to Australia -- to uncover the truth behind the headlines of these two sensational deaths. What emerges is an incredible tale of jealous rage; of stunning circumstantial and physical evidence that runs from the steamy to the macabre toalmost-unheard-of forensic techniques; and of a tragic irony -- a fateful discovery that motivated the killing. The definitive unraveling of one of the strangest murder investigations of our time, "Too Late to Say Goodbye" is perhaps the finest achievement of a truly great writer's career.
What do You think about Too Late To Say Goodbye: A True Story Of Murder And Betrayal (2007)?
I have a love hate relationship with Ann Rule's books. I love the genre - true crime and I love that she's so thorough, but sometimes her writing is to sterile, too police report-like. I know that she's trying to do justice to the facts, but sometimes her writing is just downright boring. Luckily, this book is one of her better books. Dr. Bart Corbin is a dentist with a dark side. No woman ever leaves him...voluntarily. His first girlfriend broke his heart and let loose a monster. When Dolly Hearn tries to break up with Bart, he methodically stalks her and sets out to make her appear unstable. She ends up dead. When his wife of 9 years finally gets the nerve to leave him, she ends up dead. The two deaths are similar in many ways. Rule does a good job of being fair and impartial to all in this book. She is a true reporter in that sense. One of the key problems I have with her writing in this book as in others is that I really don't care about the characters because they're treated so clinically. I think she needs to add more of a human touch to them, then the true horror of the crime is apparent. As it is, I know from the beginning that people are dead and I never have any true sense of fear for them. But as much as I find Rule's writing somewhat clinical, I keep going back because I like the subject matter.
—Tabi34
It is another typical Ann Rule true crime book. For the most part, anyone into True Crime and who's read Rule will know what I mean, and I can stop here. Something bugged me about this particular book, though.Rule does always make a good attempt to humanize the parties involved, but she never does shades of grey very well. The murderer is always the devil and evil, their family complicit in some manner. The victims are always angels and anything bothersome can be explained away or excused, and when you are judged unimportant and inconsequential to the story or engaging in something Rule doesn't understand or approve of, watch out because your character arc is gonna be nuked even though this is supposed to be a documentation of reality.In this case, Anne's bias against Internet communication/relationships leaves a glaring hole in the story - despite naming Anita Hearn the likely catalyst/first domino for Jen Corbin's tragedy and the person that communicated with her most leading up to her death (including on the day of her murder, with the communication ending just a half an hour before she was killed), the woman is dismissed as a crackpot and barely touched upon other than to reference the inconceivability of the whole thing.Perhaps the multiple emails per day for months and the four hour phone conversation with one of the victims on the night she died is totally unimportant and inconsequential the telling the story, but it doesn't sound like Rule bothered in any way to find out.I think Rule paid more attention to understanding the emotional motivations of Dolly's cat, Tabitha.
—Jen Lepp
I read this book mostly because it was about my former dentist. I hadn't read it before now because it's about my former dentist and it's weird to think that a murderer had his fingers in your mouth, and had funny small talk with you while waiting on the laughing gas to work.I saw the professional, very kind and caring part of Dr. Corbin. He had an easy smile and was pretty much loved by his patients. He had a picture of him and his wife on his lanyard. It was very hard to believe that he could have murdered anyone, much less, two people. This book showed another side of him.Good Book!
—Mimi
