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Mortal Danger And Other True Cases (2008)

by Ann Rule(Favorite Author)

4.03 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1416542205 (ISBN13: 9781416542209)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Pocket Books

series

Crime Files

review 1: I love mystery-crime-thriller genre novels. But True Crime Non-fiction - not so much. The writing is usually horrible, either because the author had no talent for stringing sentences coherently or because the author should have outlined the chapters or a lot of excessive and pointlessly manipulative 'facts' are thrown in, similar to 'if she had lived, the pretty coed might have married, bought a house with a picket fence, and had three children. Now, she would never have the future we all hope for. Now, her empty eyes stare sightlessly at a plush coffin lid, buried six feet under' and so on. I HATE reading these type of books for this reason, unless I'm drunk.There are very few True Crime books I finish, and of the ones I do, usually I skim them. However, the funniest and... more best part are the pictures, and I look with deep amusement at the usual two sections of pictures of ordinary alleyways, or vacant lots or empty rooms or parked cars, along with staged really old photos of weddings and graduations, with everyone smiling (if we are REALLY lucky, we see a blood smear or bloody fingerprint of a bloody car seat), which leaves me thinking, 'why on earth is this alley of Interest to include three shots of, or why the hell include a shot of a sidewalk or this hiking trail? I remember one book I didn't finish that had a caption under a picture of a hiking trail that said something like, 'the victim might have walked this very trail.' O _oDespite the dreadful writing and construction of the books in this class of non-fiction, I occasionally read them because of curiosity about some well-publicized case, or a friend who loves them wants me to read one, or I pick up a box of free books and some of them are of this nature. In this case, I bought a bunch of used Ann Rule true crime books 10 or so years ago because I heard she wrote better quality books. That is true, actually. However, they are still put together in that annoying, seriously dumb downed fashion of True Crime writing style. Ann Rule actually can write a book because she is a real talent. She also was a working journalist, so she has real detective skills and she actually hung out with police officers. But her books also follow that horrible True Crime format and includes ridiculous sentences about lost possibilities so that we get it how the victim's future was trashed by the horrible murder, as if the murder itself doesn't move us enough. Also her books include plenty of pointless photos along with the sad school graduation and wedding photos and mug shots.Oh well. I spent the money, and they do add knowledge and insight if written by someone with real writing and investigative skills, which Ann Rule does possess. But, I am unable to READ these. To get through the book, skimming is the only way. There is so much fluffy sentimental filler in this damn genre!Anyway. She covers five murders, three fully, the other two take up only a chapter or so. She explains what is known through Interviews and court records, and unlike many of her competitors, she only makes logical and educated guesses filling in blank spots in the narrative. The details are dreadful, the crimes much more illogical and senseless than fictional crime stories, which makes them scarier, and the solving of them sound as if the police were terribly lucky and/or only through a happenstance turning up of a link, usually because the perpetrators are stupid, angry, crazed or the only possible suspect. Drugs, alcohol, previous police records, stories that are vague and inconsistent about the past, inability to hold down jobs, walking alone at night or opening up the front door to strangers and being female seem to be key factors in being attacked. The key failure that victims seem to fall prey to is trusting another human being while alone. The moral is never be in a position where it's only you and him. Yikes.
review 2: A Fast Read for vacation. Fairly typical Anne Rule. Naive, love-besotted woman falls for the man she thinks of as her soulmate, only to be locked in a relationship with a controlling psychopath murderer. Way too common. Sometimes the guy puts on a good face until the knot is tied and sometimes the woman is just plain stupid from the start. Like: How do you fall in ¨"long distance love" with a prisoner who describes himself as an albino gorilla with lots of tattoos???She didn´t even know what he was in prison for. Weird. Then there are the truly sad stories of young women snatched off the street. Well written for the most part. less

Download links for: Mortal Danger and Other True Cases

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