But I Trusted You: And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files) [Large Print] [Paperback]

Ann Rule (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 561 pages
• Publisher: Large Print Press; Lrg edition (January 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594133824
• ISBN-13: 978-1594133824
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an author of true-crime books, and I'm now working on my 25th and 26th: NO REGRETS and TOO LATE TO SAY GOODBYE. I have lived in the Seattle Area for many years. Before that, I grew up in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and lived in Texas, Oregon, and near Niagara Falls, N.Y. I always wanted to be a police officer--because my grandfather was a sheriff in Michigan. I joined the Seattle Police Department when I was 21, worked a year and a half, but then I couldn't pass the eye test. After five years of rejection slips, I finally sold my first article for $35! Soon, I found my niche when I began writing for the fact-detective magazines like TRUE DETECTIVE in 1970, and I wrote more than a thousand homicide cases, and went to hundreds of trials. My first book, THE STRANGER BESIDE ME, was about Ted Bundy, but, amazingly, I had the book contract to write about an unknown killer six months before Bundy was identified as the "Ted Killer." And I had known him all along, and didn't realize it; he was my partner in the all-night shift at Seattle's Crisis Clinic! Oddly, I started out writing humor, but unless you are Erma Bombeck, Garrison Keillor, or Fanny Flagg or Dave Barry, it's hard to make a living. Now I write humor for fun and for my friends.

I graduated in Creative Writing from the U of Washington, with minors in criminology and psychology. I also have an AA degree in law enforcement, taking classes in crime scene investigation, arrest, search and seizure, crime scene photography and forensic science. I've lectured in seminars all across America to detectives, prosecutors, and even at the FBI Academy. My subjects have been serial murder, high profile offenders, and women who kill. I write two books every year--one hardcover single-case book, and one Ann Rule's True Crime Files original paperback. Although people tend to think I write only about the Northwest, I go wherever the cases are most interesting. I've written about murder cases in Florida, Georgia, New York, Kansas, Texas, Hawaii, and California, too.

I raised five children on my own--starting out with articles for baby care magazines, Sunday features, true confessions, and then "slicks" like Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest. Now, my children are grown.

I like to keep in very close touch with my readers, and I'm able to do that with a weblog and a guestbook on my website pages at www.annrules.com This also gives readers a chance to talk with each other, and its' a pretty lively spot--as I'm sure this page will be.

To choose a book subject, I weed through about 3,000 suggestions from readers. I'm looking for an "anti-hero" whose eventual arrest shocks those who knew him (or her): attractive, brilliant, charming, popular, wealthy, talented, and much admired in their communities--but really hiding behind masks.

I'm a reader myself, and I always have several books going at once--one upstairs, downstairs, near the bathtub, in my car, and beside my hammock (in the summer, of course!)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Wake up and smell the coffee' before it's too late, July 8, 2010

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: But I Trusted You: And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files) (Paperback)

Ex-cop and true-crime writer Ann Rule is a strong victim's advocate, and after you read this book, you'll be one, too. The final two stories are particularly haunting.

Her ill-fated characters are usually undeserving of their fate, although I wish some of them had taken the late Ann Lander's advice to 'wake up and smell the coffee' before it was too late. A few of the victims in these stories knew what was coming, but they couldn't quite separate themselves from their fate.

In Volume 14 of Ann Rule's Crime Files, it is a guy (for a change) who provides the title for this book, and the 173-page lead story: Chuck marries a sociopath who begins to isolate him from his friends and relatives, beginning at their wedding reception. He's a nice guy with a few odd quirks, such as a predilection for mowing the lawn in his BVDs. He quickly realizes his marital mistake, and the only real suspense in this story is to see whether he can extricate himself from his relationship before it's too late.

"Death in Paradise: The Haunting Voyage of the Spellbound"--A couple builds their dream boat and sail off to Tahiti. They never reach their planned destination. The author provides a possible solution to their fate, but this reader was never certain whether their deaths were due to accident, suicide, or murder.

"Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth"--A mother is afraid of her psychotic son, but lets him move back home.

"Monohan's Last Date"--A history lesson on how guys used to find adulterous partners before the days of 'point and click' on the Internet. Stranger-to-stranger encounters were just as dangerous back in the Stone Age (the 'Swinging 70's').

"Run as Fast as You Can"--Female joggers are the chosen prey in this disturbing story.

"The Deadly Voyeur"--No town, however small and rural is safe from a boozed-up creep with a gun. Two students are walking home from school when they meet up with a completely undeserved fate.

"Dark Forest: Deep Danger"--Ann Rule presents her solution to the mysterious disappearance of a young family that went camping in the forests of Oregon.