The Stranger beside Me
- Book Review,
by Ann Rule
Amazon.com
Not long ago, true crime writer Ann Rule recalls lying on an operating table. The anesthesiologist leaned over before putting her to sleep. "Ann," the anesthesiologist said softly, "tell me, what was Ted Bundy really like?" Despite meeting Florida's electric chair in 1989, the subject of Rule's bestselling book continues to haunt her. Rule and Bundy were friends. They met in 1971 at a Seattle crisis clinic, where they shared the late shift answering a suicide hotline. Their subsequent conversations, meetings, and letters spanned the rest of Bundy's life as he evolved into one of the century's most notorious serial killers. It's been 20 years since Rule first penned this chilling account. But the story--and her 2000 update--will still have readers reaching for their Xanax. No gratuitous gore here; just the basic, bone-chilling evidence. In fact, like a protective mother shielding us from horrors too awful to mention, Rule seems to avoid delving too deeply into crime scene descriptions. She devotes one paragraph in her new afterword to her discovery that Bundy engaged in necrophilia and returned to the scenes of his crimes to "line dead lips and eyes with garish makeup and to put blush on pale cheeks." She tells readers that John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan, and David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam Killer, traded prison correspondences with Bundy. And she hints that Bundy's insatiable killer instincts may have started when he was a 14-year-old paperboy. (Ann Marie Burr, an 8-year-old girl on his route, mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night and has never been found.) The skimpy update is over too soon, leaving readers wanting more and offering further proof of the public's never-ending fascination with serial killers. --Jodi Mailander Farrell
From Library Journal
Rule met Bundy at a local crisis counseling center. Sharing long nights helping those who felt that suicide was the only option, they developed a friendship. She believed that she knew the handsome psychology major about to attend law school; however, she only knew a part of the man. Bundy was also a cold-blooded serial killer. This story follows Rule as she at first denies that the Bundy she knew could have committed these murders, and then the realization that he was ruthless, dangerous, and evil. Lorelei King is a phenomenal reader; her vocal characterizations never seem forced and fit seamlessly into the narration. Listeners will be spellbound and anxiously awaiting the next twist, when they are not double-locking their windows and doors. A wonderful tape that will find a home in all true crime collections. One warning: some of the descriptions of the crime scenes and murder victims are a bit graphic and may want to be avoided by those with delicate constitutions. Danna Bell-Russel, Library of Congress Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
This generation's most violent sociopath, murderer, and mutilator of women, Ted Bundy, is the subject of this true-crime exposé. Ann Rule tells all, from the time she met and worked with Ted Bundy to the moment of his death by electrocution in Florida. The investigative crime writer objectively relates the story of Bundy, his murder sprees, and how the police caught him. Lorelei King narrates this tale of murder and its detail-filled investigation in clear, concise words. She deftly shifts genders, while remaining firmly in control of the story line and the horror. The story unfolds chronologically--as Rule learns of events from newspapers and police. Never once does she jump ahead of the story. King excels as she maintains Rule's distance as an investigative writer, emphasizing the facts, without ever getting caught up in the terror of it all. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
The New York Times
As dramatic and chilling as a bedroom window shattering at midnight.
Book Description
Ted Bundy was handsome, charming, a brilliant law student, and on the verge of a dazzling career. On January 24, 1989, he was executed for the murders of three young women, having confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more. This is the story of one of the most fascinating killers in American history--of his magnetic power, his bleak compulsion, his double life, his string of helpless victims. It is also the story of Ann Rule, a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass murderer. Little did she realize that the "Ted" the police were seeking was the same Ted who worked with her at a Seattle crisis clinic, a man who had become her close friend and confidant. As she began to put the evidence together, a terrifying picture emerged of the man she thought she knew. Twenty years after it was first published, The Stranger Beside Me remains a gripping, explosive true-crime classic. 8 pages of photographs.
About the Author
Ann Rule, a former policewoman, is the author of fifteen New York Times bestsellers, including Small Sacrifices and Lust Killer. She lives in Seattle.
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