Customer Reviews

But I Trusted You: Ann Rule's Crime Files #14

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Normally, I love Ann Rule's books. (And it bothers me that I find her books interesting. There must be something wrong with me to read true crime books!) Usually her stories take you to to a very dark and scary place but the ending reassures you that the bad person is locked away or dead. In her earlier books, she seems to pay close attention to facts and weaves her stories chronologically.
But this time, the book stinks. I don't know if Ann Rule was in a hurry whe she was writing this or if she had no editing or continuity help, because there were errors and inconsistencies throughout. For example, in the first and title story, the victim's young daughter at the time of the trial is 6 years old on one page, but 7 on the next page and then back to 6 on the third page. Huh?
Another example of the story rambling without following any particular order is when she describes the murderer's flight from justice. It is not clear when she is in one place before jumping to to another place and back again.
I have to be honest with you. This book turned me off to Ann Rule. The writing was just plain sloppy. It is difficult to become engrossed in a story if it keeps contradicting itself.

I don't know if my tastes have changed or if Ms.Rule's style and pacing have changed but I put this aside after struggling through four chapters and won't be picking it back up. The narrative was overly melodramatic in most of the stories, and there was at least one instance where the description of events was out of chronological order for no reason I could see. I may buy another of her long stand-alone titles but I'm done with this series.

I consider Ann Rule a national treasure. I have read her books for over 20 years. I admire the way she makes the victims in her narratives unique, loved, and unforgotten. That said, I have to agree with some of the other reviewers that the past two true crime case files have been rush-throughs. It's not that I don't care about the victims, it is the way the stories are put together.

Perhaps it is just me, but I prefer her stand-alone books, which are far more thoroughly researched and cohesive.

I know from her website that Ms. Rule is not too happy with the reviews here, but every good author must be willing to accept well-intentioned and honest criticism.

Everyone deserves a sabbatical to recharge . We ALL get burned-out from our jobs. Perhaps Ms. Rule should take some well-deserved time off. From everything I know about her, she is an incredibly hard worker.

Like many reviewers here, I have been an Ann Rule fan from the beginning. Early books like "Small Sacrifices" were archetypes of the true crime genre. But Rule's last several books--both individual monographs and those in the Crime Files series--show a significant decline in her work. In many of her recent books, the writing is extremely weak: it is hurried, full of non sequiturs and gaps in chronology, riddled with cliched diction, and as at least one customer reviewer notes, overblown and excessively melodramatic. This new Crime Files edition is the worst of the lot. Indeed, the writing is embarrassingly bad. Whatever happened to good old editing? It seems either Ann Rule eschews an editor or the editing has been incompetent--not good for her or for Simon and Schuster. The stories in this collection are tired: the long title story is not very interesting and the poor writing contributes to readers' boredom. At key junctures, important facts are left out, so we jump illogically to events without explanatory preparation for them, leaving us to say "What????" Sentences inside paragraphs jump around and are not cohesive. Narrative logic is missing. Most of the shorter pieces are too brief, provide no new information, leave out key explanations, and are too cold for interest. The most fascinating one, the story of the disappearance of the Cowden family, leaps from describing a suspect to assuming he committed the crime with virtually no connecting data or no explanation of what investigators concluded were the circumstances or the motive of the crime. Ann Rule needs to take time off, write more carefully and diligently, and insist on a good editor. Simon and Schuster needs to step up to support her and its own reputation. Her books sell on her name now, but if this shoddy writing continues, that will no longer happen.

The last 2 books Ann Rule has written were "not" page-turners for me. It seemed like she was in a hurry to get this book written. I couldn't wait until the end and could get into another book.

I have been reading Ann Rule's books for over 20 years. She has always been a must buy for me. However I think Ann is in a rut. All of her recent books seem to be the same old story recycled. Husband kills wife, or wife kills husband. Certainly there are more interesting crimes to write about. If she continues to do this type of book, she will lose me as a reader.

The most interesting case in this book, the 14th in Ann Rule's Crime Files series, is the mystery of the Spellbound, but less than 40 pagees are devoted to this case. It is, however, skillfully written and the somewhat complex turn of events are compelling.

Unfortunately, the leading case is the book is lacking in drama, and the writing is unusually careless for such a skilled writer. I have read all of the Crime Files, and I have no regret about having read this, but it is not among Ann Rule's best. I cannot rate it higher than 3 stars.

the primary case is not very interesting, it is obvious who committed the crime and how and even why and I just did not much care. The other cases are ancient, as much as 40 years old and also not very interesting...some so old the killers are long out of jail. this book seemed like a lazy attempt to get something new published, to me.
One thing that really bothered me, although A. Rule is never unbiased she is usually fair and yet she writes of Casey Anthony as a child killer...when we have to have a trial...lumping her with Susan Smith.

As usual, this is another excellent account of true crime stories from the NorthWest area. I have read all volumnes of Ann Rule's crime stories. This book features the account of the demented wife who murdured her husband as a part of her plan to ditch her husband and travel to Hawaii to marry her other "rich" lover, but it backfired on her. And the most intriging story in the book is of the family who were murdered on Labor Day weekend in 1974 in Oregon. That crime happened on the very day I was born. And the story of the "Swinger" who happened to come in contact with the wrong person, and it cost him his life. I would say Mr. Monohan brought his murder upon himself. This book contains an excerpt from a book to be released in the near future. I look forward to reading it, and I look forward to all of Ms. Rule's future books. Ann Rule is my favorite True Crime author. She has inspired me to major in Criminal Justice in school. Thank you Ms. Rule!

As always Anne rules ... I never get tired of her writing style and method. I grew up on Anne Rule after reading the Stranger beside me in the 70s ... I was hooked. A fascination with 'why' when reading true crime, I love the way Anne delves into the history and psychology of not only her killers but their victims. You can never go wrong with one of Ms Rules' page turning reads.