In the Name of Love and Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files) [Library Binding]

Ann Rule (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998 | ISBN-10: 141765029X | ISBN-13: 978-1417650293

Inside a circle of trusted friends...one was a killer.

Jerry Harris was a self-made California millionaire who, at age forty-four, had it all: booming businesses, yachts, a mansion, a beautiful wife, and a voice to rival Elvis. No one who knew this well-liked, generous man could make sense of his sudden disappearance one autumn night. On a final phone call to his brother from his Mercedes, Jerry breathed a muffled oath -- then the line went dead. For Jerry's wife, Susan, it was just the beginning of an unwavering, eight-year search for the truth behind her husband's vanishing. Through exclusive access to an FBI agent inside the investigation, Ann Rule unmasks a man driven by malevolence and hidden jealousy to destroy Jerry Harris' magnificent business empire. She expertly profiles a criminal mind that stopped at nothing in a scheme of greed and violence. With the riveting power of a Greek tragedy, Rule reveals the dark underside of an all-American success story, and a wife's ultimate triumph of justice in the name of love. Including other unforgettable accounts of true crime, this is Ann Rule at her chilling best.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jill Jordan Sieder US News & World Report Rule has become the Danielle Steele of true crime. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Ann Rule is the author of more than two dozen New York Times bestsellers, all of them still in print. A former Seattle police officer, she knows the crime scene firsthand. She is a certified instructor for police training seminars and lectures frequently to law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and forensic science organizations, including the FBI. For more than two decades, she has been a powerful advocate for victims of violent crime. She has testified before U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittees on serial murder and victims' rights, and was a civilian adviser to the VI-CAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program). A graduate of the University of Washington, she holds a Ph.D. in Humane Letters from Willamette University. She lives near Seattle and can be contacted through her Web page at www.annrules.com. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 414 pages
• Publisher: San Val (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141765029X
• ISBN-13: 978-1417650293
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,796,939 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another book I couldn't put down, August 18, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Name of Love: Ann Rule's Crime Files Volume 4 (Mass Market Paperback)

This is another of my favorite true crime books. Once again, Ann does an outstanding job of introducing the reader to all of the characters. I felt like I knew each person by the time everything tied together in a horrible tragedy. Ann did a wonderful job of detailing the "friendships," the murder, the investigation, and luck involved in finally learning what had happened to the victim and who was responsible. True, the book does paint the victim as somewhat of a saint, despite the evidence that he may have been "creative" in some of his business practices. However, this book to me was more about true love -- finally found, and then lost way too soon, and how this horrible experience affected the widow for the rest of her life. It was quite a tear jerker, unlike most true crime books. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to read true crime as well as to those who like romance. This book has it all.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I remember when this actually happened, October 7, 2005

By 

Valerie Jordan "Valerie" (Austin, TX. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Name of Love: Ann Rule's Crime Files Volume 4 (Mass Market Paperback)

I grew up in Fremont CA and I remember when this happened and when they found Jerry Harris's body but never knew the outcome. A friend at work gave me the book and I could not put it down. It was very weird reading it and knowing a person in the book and reading about night clubs and places I have been to. It is the 1st book of Ann Rule's that I have read, and I really enjoyed the book because I finally found out what happened to Jerry Harris.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars watch your enemies closely, watch your friends even closer, April 21, 2006

By 

Sammy Madison (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Name of Love: Ann Rule's Crime Files Volume 4 (Mass Market Paperback)

Ann Rule is by far my favorite true crime author. Her stories are gripping, and she is really good at setting the mood and locale. Her books also make me think of "America's Most Wanted" or "Unsolved Mysteries" in that they perform a public service. "America's Most Wanted" strives to capture fugitives, and "Unsolved Mysteries" tries to find a resolution to the unsolved crime. What I feel Ann Rule does for the public is use her stories to make people more aware of the dangers of the manipulators, users, and abusers in our lives. Rule's description of a pathological narcissist in one of her books put me on a path that I am convinced saved me from emotional and financial disaster, if not worse. My ex was preoccupied with insurance. I have often wondered how many other women Ann Rule has motivated to leave their abusers before it was too late. "In the Name of Love" is a collection of shorter stories by Rule. The main story offers a twist on the usual pattern of the abusive male victimizing his female partner. Jerry, a wealthy if somewhat shady businessman fell in love with Susan, who seemed to be a very passive and retiring woman. Jerry is portrayed as a very informal, easygoing guy. He had a childhood friend, Steve, who he took to be just a harmless loser, so he humored him and let him be a hanger-on. He even used him a little for a loan. In Steve's mind, this made him Jerry's business partner. If Jerry was eliminated, Steve thought he would have it all. Jerry never took Steve seriously, a very big mistake. It cost Jerry his life. Steve then made a personality misjudgement very similar to Jerry's. He thought he would be able to intimidate and decieve Susan, who he mistook for a passive victim. The story is very interesting, and might make you take a second look at the people in your own life. This is not Ann Rule's best book, but it is still a stand out in the true crime genre and worth reading.