You Belong to Me and Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files: Vol. 2)

Take the title story, "You Belong to Me." In this 192-page thriller, the wife gets the tee shirt, or at least its message in time and divorces her psycho policeman-husband. She lives in fear of him, is stalked by him, has her home invaded by him, has her phone tapped by him. Then he is finally arrested--not for stalking his ex-wife--but for the murder of a woman he had stopped for a traffic violation. "Black Christmas"--A loner commie-hater kills the wrong family, believing they're Communist (wrong) Jews (wrong). The manner of death is particularly macabre. This is going to be the worst Christmas story you've ever read. "One Trick Pony"--A beautiful cowgirl doesn't get her tee shirt in time, and is murdered by her alcoholic husband. He almost gets away with it, but continues to have bad luck with the women in his life. One of his girlfriends is shot in the stomach and her death is ruled a suicide even though "when the police got there they found Russ standing next to the dead woman, the gun in his hand." "The Computer Error and the Killer"--The author included this case because she thinks that "it demonstrates how charming and benign the sadistic sociopath can be when he wants to appear that way." A monster slips through the cogs of the criminal justice system and kills again and again. "The Vanishing"--A teenager who is about to go on vacation to Hawaii vanishes under strange circumstances. As the author states, "No one of us who searched for her could ever have guessed what [the teenager's] ending would be. Of all the possibilities, the truth was one that no one ever considered." "The Last Letter"--Mistresses are suckers for unrequited romance. According to "The Last Letter," one of the unhappiest endings to a love story features a husband who actually divorces his wife and marries his long-time mistress.

Following the success of four top-ten New York Times bestsellers, former Seattle policewoman Ann Rule offers readers Volume Two of her Crime Files. In the trademark style that makes her books such extraordinary pageturners, Rule now focuses on one of Florida's most shocking criminal cases: that of the state trooper who hid bizarre and fatal fantasies behind his badge. 8-page photo insert.

Publishers Weekly

Rule (Everything She Ever Wanted) upholds her title as maven of the murder tale in this riveting second volume in her anthology series. Like A Rose for Her Grave, this collection consists of one book-length treatment and five shorter case histories from her true-crime files. Meticulous in her coverage, Rule demonstrates her signature, compassionate re-creation, when describing the numerous lives affected when Florida highway patrolman Tim Harris obsessively stalked his wife and then raped and murdered a female driver near I-95. Operating on many levels, it can be read as the psychological profile of a man for whom a wife was simply another possession or as a wonderfully detailed police procedural, complete with frustrating false leads and a brilliantly inspired interrogation scene. In each of the subsequent cases, Rule shifts the focus slightly, concentrating on an entangled forensics puzzle in one, on a two-year missing-person search complicated by a psychic goose chase in another. Rule's considerable reporting skills and hindsight analysis make her a gifted cautionary guide through the hazards of human folly. Yet, as she admits in the chilling ``Black Christmas,'' when a picture-perfect family can be brutally murdered due to an absurd misunderstanding, all the little red flags in the world may mean nothing. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Sept.)

From New York Times bestselling author Ann Rule comes a riveting true crime story of Florida highway patrolman Tim Harris and his chilling crimes. In You Belong to Me , Ann Rule fixes her unsparing professional gaze on one of Florida's most shocking criminal casesthat of Tim Harris, a poster-perfect all-American Florida State Trooper who hid bizarre and fatal fantasies behind his badgeplus other incredible true crime cases from her personal files. Mesmerizing us with her masterful exploration of the personalities and backgrounds of the criminals and their families, and the circumstances surrounding each crime, Rule again proves that she is the undisputed master crime writer of the eighties and nineties (John Saul). The author mesmerizing readers with her command of key details about the circumstances surrounding each crime, as well as her consistently masterful examination of the criminals involved