Everything She Ever Wanted [ABRIDGED] [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio Cassette)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Spoiled rotten by her family, Patricia Vann Radcliffe Taylor Allinson, a Georgia beauty whose goal in life was to emulate Scarlett O'Hara, led a life of deadly horror. Fed by her family's constant devotion from early childhood through middle age, Pat, who could do nothing wrong by her family's standards, could do nothing right in the view of society. A narcissistic personality, without a shred of conscience, she systematically destroyed her own family. Nothing she ever had was enough. She had to make things go her way and she did: through manipulation, poisoning, theft, lies, and deceit. Her presence was a constant danger to people who stood in her way: her brother a suicide, her new in-laws shot dead, her grandparents-in-law nearly poisoned by arsenic, her employer severely overdosed, her daughter, who finally saw the awful truth about her mother, possibly poisoned. Rule's tautly written study of this diabolical woman constantly fascinates the reader. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/92.
- Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'No writer in America has ever probed the dark heart of a killer so deeply' - Edna Buchanan 'Master of the true-crime genre' - CHICAGO TRIBUNE 'Ann Rule is the undisputed master crime writer of the eighties and nineties- no one does it better.' John Saul 'The tale chills the rerader to the bone and makes one wonder how anyone can be so wicked and get away with it for so long.' JERSEY EVENING POST --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audioworks; Abridged edition (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671748386
• ISBN-13: 978-0743527569
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #414,964 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating Ann Rule story of the ultimate sociopath, April 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Everything She Ever Wanted (Mass Market Paperback)

The most horrific, conniving, controlling, murderous, childish, sick person I have ever read about. Ann Rule is excellent in plotting the story of a truly heinous pathetic soul as Pat. Her enabling, sad parents and family members are to also be responsible for allowing such appalling behavior to continue. Pat would destroy anyone who was in her way, including her own children and grandchildren. There was absolutely no one who was exempt. The pain caused to her own parents was another devious act. She would keep her imprisoned husband from his only family; she would keep a small son from his sick mother (Pat's daughter); she would keep a dying old man from his beloved wife. etc. After serving prison time, and released, it was shocking to learn that she would include one of her daughters into her life of crime and deceit AGAIN. But fortunately, one daughter had the tenacity and courage to report her back to authorities. Family members become enablers and someone should have stopped her long ago, before innocent people are hurt.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pat Allanson a spoiled brat her entire life, February 1, 2003

By	Terry M. Callen (Gloucester City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Everything She Ever Wanted (Mass Market Paperback)

I can't much improve on the one review where the fellow who wrote it said he wish he could've reached into the book and strangled Pat Allanson.

This sociopath was never made to face reality. But, then again, her mother indulged in illusion. Marguerite had three illegitimate children before she was 20 years old by a married man, but acted as if she was this paragon of virtue and looked down her nose at everyone else. Meanwhile, her precious daughter, who drove her own brother to suicide, is ruining lives right and left.

I think the entire family was nuts and if Pat Allanson got the opportunity she would just repeat her past conduct because she knows her family...save the only sane member, her daughter, Susan...will continue to defend her and cover up for her!

Heaven preserve us from people who think they are entitled to everything they want and don't care who they run over to get it.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars quicksilver in the jaws of justice, October 23, 2002

By	thecastlebookroom "thecastlebookroom" (Bakersfield, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everything She Ever Wanted (Mass Market Paperback)

In "Everything She Ever Wanted" we are introduced to Patricia Vann Radcliffe Taylor Allanson, a woman fixated on emulating her role-model Scarlett O'Hara, a modern-day refined southern belle of infinite selfishness and a complete lack of remorse or empathy, devoid of conscience and incapable of love for anyone or anything save for herself, in search of her paradisaic "Tara".

While some have mistaken this as a story of a freak, it is quite the opposite - a tale of a clever, stubborn, adorable spoiled child whose submersion in unmitigated gratification and complete lack of disciplinary boundaries during her formative years turned the Shirley-Temple dream child into the Jekyll/Hyde adult. Do I recall that Pat Taylor Allanson served as the model for Caleb Carr's cold-blooded, manipulative, and realistic if fictional "Libby" in his chilling classic "Angel of Darkness"? If she didn't, she certainly could have.

The tale of a monster? Perhaps, but a common monster, one that breeds and multiplies and festers in the milieu of our modern society, that arises again and again, in ever more resistant strains, to test the limits of our enfeebled enforcement and justice systems.

Ms. Rule adroitly demonstrates the chameleon nature of the sociopath, the quicksilver-like ability to evade culpability and responsibility, while churning a carnage-laden path of ruined lives and festering emotional trauma through the lives of those who love them. We sense the frustration of a legal system than can never adequately resolve those crimes against the innocent which ultimately only a higher power can fully and fairly address, as is acknowledged in the novel's concluding and ironic axiom.

A fascinating read (I read it in about 3 long sittings) for those willing to wade into the restricting mire of non-idyllic reality far removed from Hollywood fantsies of quick revenge and violent retribution. Recommended.