Acclaimed for her "devastatingly accurate insight" (The New York Times Book Review) into the criminal mind, Ann Rule has chronicled the most fascinating cases of our time in her bestselling Crime Files series. For this sixth stunning collection, Rule has culled from her private files the most-asked-about homicide cases -- riveting accounts of seemingly normal men and women who are compelled d by a murderous rage to suddenly lash out at innocent victims.
Torn from the headlines, here is the case that shocked a nation: the Seattle city bus ride that turned to mayhem and murder at the hands of a gunman. Ann Rule unmasks the forces that drove quiet, clean-cut Silas Cool to shoot the driver, causing the bus to plunge off the Aurora Bridge into an apartment building. The catastrophe left three dead -- including Cool -- and dozens injured. While the scene unfolds as in a terrifying movie, Rule finds very real answers to the haunting question "how could this happen?" -- and expertly constructs the unseen chain of events that resulted in an explosive and shattering tragedy.
Included here are nine other sensational cases that illuminate Rule's unique and authoritative view of the human psyche gone temporarily berserk. No one can match Rule's meticulous research, or reveal the motives to murder in such explicit and chilling detail. You may think you know who is safe and who is dangerous; in A Rage to Kill, Ann Rule frighteningly shows that none of us are truly protected from the flashes of irrational violence that can erupt from the killers among us.
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'A tour de force from America's best true-crime writer...impossible to put down' KIRKUS REVIEW 'The undisputed master crime writer of the Eighties and Nineties' John Saul 'Devastatingly accurate insight' NEW YORK TIMES
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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.
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!)
This review is from: A Rage To Kill and Other True Cases: Anne Rule's Crime Files, Vol. 6 (Mass Market Paperback)
That Ann Rule is held in such regard by the literary world (and this probably includes non true crime authors) should surprise no one, especially her legions of fans who await every latest book of hers with baited breath.
In her 6th volume of crime stories, Ms Rule certainly proves her writing talent is 2nd to none. That she chose to write 10 short stories may have surprised some of her followers, but she is able to tell a story and draw conclusions in 20 or so pages, and how many authors have that ability?
In all but 2 instances, the stories and killers she profiles in this book most likely didn't even receive a radar blip in the media. America is a country where so many murders are committed, and sadly, only the goriest and most bizarre rate a mention in the media. But Ms Rule, a woman who doesn't seek out the sensational, a woman of great empathy and compassion, gives these stories a chance to be heard and discussed. She enables all the forgotten victims an opportunity to have voices.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 starswow! im speechless, August 21, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: A Rage To Kill and Other True Cases: Anne Rule's Crime Files, Vol. 6 (Mass Market Paperback)
I was just up all night with this book, and as the sun comes up, I'm finishing. It left me speechlesss. The stories in here, albiet short, are moving and will leave you stunned that such people exist in this world, and the inhumanity that they can inflict on others. One story in particular, "Spree Killer" had me crying and left me mad that it had actually happened. Had these stories appeared in a fiction book, or on television or movies, it wouldnt hurt the heart so much. And the "Spree Killer" story should be required reading for every junior high school female, to know or try to avoid strangers.
It's lovely to see a new Ann Rule book, her writing style seems to get better and better with each new book. As always, she can describe not only crime scenes, but the mundane like a pro. She is definately the best true crime author since Capote, bar none. What got me with this book, is its just vignettes. Even though you get a feel for the characters, the victims remain teriary characters at best. Which is a shame. But then, the book would be far longer, and wouldn't keep with the idea of short pieces she wanted to write. But for me, it was like a buffett- a taste here, a taste there, but when you leave you are still hungry for more.
I hope Ann Rule is working on the next book soon.
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This review is from: A Rage To Kill and Other True Cases: Anne Rule's Crime Files, Vol. 6 (Mass Market Paperback)
'A Rage To Kill' is the sixth installment of Ann Rule's "Crime Files", and I fear the series is running out of steam. While the others in the series focus on one main story followed on by shorter stories, this book only contains short-ish (30-50 pages) stories. And so we don't have the pleasure of Ann Rule's great research and insight, as found in her single story books (eg, 'Dead By Sunset'). It is as if the author didn't want to sweat the details and simply wanted to tart up police reports, and then stuff them into a book.
Having said all this, Ann Rule does write in a very fluid style. Her books are always a fast read. And while the stories here are most definitely morbid and horrific, they are fascinating (much like viewing a road accident).
Bottom line: empty calories for the brain. But like junk food, hopelessly addictive.
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