Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder [Loose Leaf]

Ann Rule (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0743229274 | ISBN-13: 978-0743229272

If anything ever happens to me, promise me that you will see that there is an investigation....And find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story," Sheila Blackthorne Bellush told her sister after she divorced multimillionaire Allen Blackthorne. Now, in perhaps the first book ever written at a victim's request, America's Number One bestselling true-crime writer, Ann Rule, untangles a horrific web of lies that culminated in Sheila's savage murder more than ten years after she left Blackthorne.

When beautiful, blond Sheila married the charming, handsome Blackthorne, she was convinced she had found her perfect soul mate, and helped him reach his goal of living the privileged life of the country club set. But behind Allen's smooth facade, she discovered a violent, controlling sociopath -- a liar, a scam artist, a sexual deviant. When she finally fled with their two young daughters, she was skeletally thin, bruised, and beaten.

Although Sheila recovered, remarried, and was starting a new life and family, she still felt she was doomed. Joyously pregnant, she and her new husband expecting quadruplets, Sheila still feared Blackthorne, who had sworn to her he would monitor her every move and "every breath you take." And, in fact, Blackthorne inevitably tracked her down, as did her killer, who left her in a pool of blood marked by the tiny footprints of her two-year-old toddlers. The questions remained: Could the authorities ever link Sheila's murder to Blackthorne himself? Was his true obsession high-stakes golf and his extravagant pink mansion -- or was it to destroy Sheila?

Following a trail of deception from Oregon and Hawaii to Texas and Florida, Ann Rule gained complete access to Sheila's family, friends, and neighbors, as well as to the detectives and prosecutors on the case. With Every Breath You Take, Ann Rule has written a heart-pounding account of obsession, revenge, and murder that will enthrall readers from beginning to end.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest from respected true crime veteran Rule (And Never Let Her Go, etc.) walks readers through the tortured life and ugly murder of Sheila Bellush, a woman relentlessly pursued by her sexually obsessed ex-husband, Allen Van Houte. The crime scene is horrific: Bellush lies dead in the kitchen while her toddler quadruplets are left to walk naked through her blood. Bellush had long warned close friends that she feared her ex-husband's reprisals and went so far as to request "if I'm not here... find Ann Rule and have her write my story." Rule, in classic form, meticulously re-creates the prosaic lives of her characters, charting one woman's pleasantly humdrum existence undermined by a man bent on making a fortune though defaulting on bank loans and pedestrian cons, such as swindling family members. After he lured Bellush into his world of sexual play, she left him, and he hired a man to kill her. The subsequent fallout included a complex and lengthy inquiry by investigators. There are no surprises here for the reader, though some may enjoy Rule's examination of Van Houte's manipulative and predatory nature. Essentially, this account is too long for its limited subject matter. (Oct. 15)Forecast: Sixteen of Rule's 18 books have been bestsellers, and the Free Press is pushing this with a 10-city tour, a 20-city radio satellite tour and floor displays. But it's possible that less-than-favorable word-of-mouth will cut into sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Rule, a former police officer, investigates another cold-blooded murder. This one has an unusual origin: the doomed woman, suspecting her eventual demise, tells a relative to contact Rule in case she dies suddenly. Every Breath You Take points to the perpetrator, so it is the narrative skill that hooks us. From a much longer book, this abridgment's brisk pace is well calculated for audio, with Blair Brown's straightforward narration. The tale involves wife and child abuse, kinky sex (no details provided), and fortunes made and squandered on the wrong things. Will the evil man who specializes in colossal deception in the end slip through the legal net? Strong as fiction, these hard facts have been researched. Definitely recommended for popular true-crime collections. Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Loose Leaf: 464 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (January 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743229274
• ISBN-13: 978-0743229272
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,130,379 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

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book!, February 15, 2002

By 

Tricia Murray (Sarasota, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (Hardcover)

As a long-time reader of Ann Rule, I am pleased to say that this is her best book yet. While reading this unbelievable story, you will feel like you personally know the characters. Of all of Rule's protagonists, Allen Blackthorne is the most intriguing. He had everything anyone could want, and really nothing to gain by killing his ex-wife, but just couldn't allow her to slip away from his grasp. Well researched and written!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sanitized, January 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Every Breath You Take : A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (Mass Market Paperback)

I I hesitate to say that "Every Breath" doesn't live up Rule classics (If You Really Loved Me, Small Sacrifices) - books should be judged on their own merit - but the fact remains it isn't one of her best. However, a lesser Ann Rule is still pretty good, and "Every Breath" has one amazing character, Allan Blackthorne. He is despicable, fascinating, and absorbing. Rule relates his tumultuous childhood with compassion, yet without even a hint of making excuses.

I have to agree with other readers that Rule is not critical enough of Sheila. Rule is a good enough writer to allow us to feel compassion for a creep like Allan, she ought to have trusted her readers enough to depict Sheila more honestly and still feel horrified at what happened to her. Sheila stays with Allan after he murders a motorcyclist (in her presence) and bankrupts her parents, and this is never viewed critically. Sheila is simply the passive, perfect victim for whom Rule makes excuses. After Sheila eventually leaves Allan (hurrah!) she marries another controlling, violent man. Jamie is clearly a thousand times better than Allan, but when confronted with Sheila's two rebellious teenage daughters he reacts with physical violence. A more compassionate man might have seen that these girls had experienced a lot of chaos and pain in their short lives, and needed patience, not a drill sergeant. I can't begin to imagine the pain this man experienced, yet I remain critical of Jamie. Perhaps Rule was required to depict Sheila and Jamie in such a positive light to get cooperation for the book, it feels very sanitized. Sheila's memory might have been better served by more honesty.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but for editing, March 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (Hardcover)

Ann Rule usually does a good job -- this time her editors let her down. There are so many repeated thoughts, concepts and facts that one gets tired. On Page 143 she actually re-states the birth weights of the quads twice -- differently! Later on she talks about Allen taking a reverse position (180) and labels it a "360." The subject matter is good, but getting through it was very difficult.