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

Ann Rule (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As in her previous true-crime accounts, Rule presents the facts of a murder case with all the intrigue, suspense and characterization of an accomplished novelist. Listeners learn how young Sheila Bellush met and married charismatic Allen Blackthorne, only to find that his charming exterior hid a ruthless, abusive swindler. After years of beatings and the birth of two daughters, Sheila left him and later remarried and had quadruplets. Alan also remarried and was hugely successful in business, but seemed obsessed with the need to punish Sheila for leaving him. When she was found brutally murdered, her toddlers crying and huddled around her body, investigators quickly found the culprits but were they sent by Sheila's ex-husband, or did they act on their own? Veteran narrator Brown strikes just the right note in her reading. Her voice is varied and expressive, not one-note, and pleasant to listen to. But apart from a touch of sympathy, she is not emotional and does not project herself into this nonfiction account. Instead, she steps back and lets the story tell itself, altering her voice slightly to indicate a quote and deepening it a bit if it's a man talking, but not offering character voices.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1688 KB
• Publisher: Free Press; Lrg edition (January 14, 2002)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FC0O36
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,402 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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.