Who is the serial killer beside you?

books:


	• The Stranger Beside Me (Revised and Updated): 20th Anniversary Ann Rule Signet, 2001 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 174 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Riveting

I would guess that this book is the best known and most read/popular book on Ted Bundy.
Ann Rule was certainly in a unique position to write it. And she did a fantastic job doing it.
Nobody can say that Ms. Rule isn't a talented writer or that this book isn't fascinating, gripping reading.
I'm fascinated by Ted . I think I always will be. No other serial killer has ever held my interest and attention like he has.
And I know that that thousands of others feel the same way.
I normally read fast but it took me over a week to finish this because I could only take so much of the subject matter at once.
I just finished it a few hours ago and I feel deeply shaky and emotional right now.
I feel horror,disbelief,and extreme sadness for everyone involved here, but especially for both Ted and his victims.
The whole thing is a complete, utter tragedy from start to end.
How sad that so many young women were taken in the very prime of life,and how sad that Ted , a man with so much potential , was driven by an uncontrollable, compulsive mental sickness to kill them.Its also wrenching that so many of the girls were never found and were never able to have a final resting place other than wherever they were dumped at.
I like almost everyone who has ever heard about these killings wish that it had never happened and that both Ted and the victims were still out there alive, living happy anonymous lives.

As much as I like the book, there are a few things I'd like to mention:

On the night before Ted's execution,Ann bitterly thinks to herself that she doesn't owe Ted anything. I have to disagree.I'd say that Ann owes Ted a great deal when it comes down to it.As much as I know that Ann was grieved and sickened by these murders and the fact that they were done by someone she considered a friend and as much as I know that she'd give everything up to have had none of it ever happen, the fact is that this book made her career.
Ann was always a talented crime writer, but the fact that she knew Ted Bundy and has such a fascinating ,insider track in which to write a book about him with, made her career.It plucked her out of obscurity to become a hugely popular and successful true crime writer.Without Ted Bundy, I doubt that she would have achieved this level of success.

I disgree with Ann's support of the death penalty, but I give her credit for not celebrating the execution and condeming the revelers outside the prison who did.

Finally, its very hard to get a grip on how Ann actually feels about Ted now.
The events in this book stretched for almost 30 years total(longer now,but 2000 was the last update},so of course her feelings changed over time.
Even in later years though, her feelings seem to waffle.
Sometimes she seems to almost hate him and says that she had kept hoping for a long time that the interest in Ted would die down, so she'd never have to think about him again.
At other times, even though she denounces him as a psychopath who had no conscience and could have never been cured, sometimes she seems to retain some tenderness for him.
Maybe she herself is still conflicted deep down about her feelings.

In closing, Mrs.Rule does an excellent job in bringing to life many of the young women who were Ted's victims.I found many things out about them and their lives that I didn't know.Its always nice to see a portrait painted of someone instead of them just being a name and number on a victims list.

for more information click here

Who is the serial killer beside you?

The next novel that I'm going to write has a serial killer in it, and Stranger Beside Me is the first book that I read for research. (I've got a list of 20.)

I started with this one because it is a personal story of what it is like to befriend a serial killer and extreme psychopath. In general, psychopaths are attractive to members of the opposite sex, but members of the same gender can tell that there's something off about them. Ann Rule's reaction to Ted Bundy is typical and thus a warning for all of us. Rule felt that Ted Bundy was one of the nicest, sweetest men she'd ever known. When they were through with their late-night volunteer shift at the crisis center, he walked her to her car because there are bad people out there. (Eek!) Bundy modeled the perfect gentlemen. Rule bought his act. I'm not condemning her, far from it. That's what most of us would do. That's one of the most important lessons in this book. Sometimes, the most perfect gentleman is also the most perfect monster.

Rule's 20 year update of this book is fascinating. Her reactions, still, to the sweet, gentle Ted that she knew are unreconciled with the monster than dwelled within him. Psychopaths, whether they become serial killers or not, damage the people around them for a long time. (All serial killers are psychopaths, but very few psychopaths are serial killers.)

While Rule's descriptions of Bundy's crimes are dispassionate and clinical, not sensational, I admit that I skimmed over them. I have too many nightmares as it is. Those chapters will give you more.

Again, the most fascinating chapters in this book are of Rule's reactions to Bundy and her lasting friendship with him even after she was intellectually convinced that he must have committed those horrific crimes. Her analysis of herself and her own motives is every bit as fascinating as anything she writes directly about Bundy.

Who's the nicest person you know, the very last one who you would suspect of being a psychopath who kills at night?

TK Kenyon
Author of Rabid: A Novel and Callous: A Novel

for more information click here

Fascinating Read!!

The best thing about this book is Ann Rule's unique perspective in being the only true crime writer who actually knew the killer as a friend before he committed his crimes! It's a fascinating read that is also heartbreaking for so many reasons. Rule perfectly describes the man she thought of as a younger brother, her affection and love for him, and the horror and true emotional pain she suffered as she slowly realized that he was a serial killer.

Rule does a commendable and touching job of showing us that human relationships are extremely complex, and that emotions cannot be shut on and off like a faucet. Intellectually, she accepts that Ted is guilty and admits that she would not have stopped his execution had she the power, but she also confesses that she cannot forget the true friendship and affection she felt for the charming, intelligent, and seemingly open 24-year-old she met at Seattle's Crisis Clinic in 1971.

Unlike many other books on Bundy (and there are plenty of them), this one allows a genuine first-person account of what he meant to people who knew him as something more than just a monster. It also proves unequivocally that Bundy's list of victims included more than just the poor girls he killed.

for more information click here

WHAT A THRILLER!!

ANOTHER MUST FOR THE SERIAL KILLER BUFF. NOT ONLY IS ANN RULE ABLE TO PROVIDE A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF EACH KILLING, BUT DUE TO HER INSIDE SCOOP OF BEING HIS UNKNOWN FRIEND, SHE PROVIDES INSIGHT OF THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS COMPLICATED MONSTER. HOW INTERESTING TO SEE THE FRIENDSHIP THIS PERSON HAD WHILE COMMITTING THE UNIMAGINABLE. ALSO, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOUT HIS SELECTION & OF HOW HE SECURED THE TRUST OF THE VICTIMS IS INVALUABLE IN POSSIBLY PROTECTING YOURSELF OR A LOVED ONE. A NEVER WANT TO PUT DOWN BOOK!!

Unnerving story.

In all the years since the murders by Bundy and his subsequent execution, I never read this book until now. The mind is a very mysterious organ. How is a murderer like Bundy created? Is it in his genes?
At this time in Phoenix, AZ we have been experiencing the deeds of two sets of serial killers. Fortunately one pair of murderers have been apprehended. Of course we don't know the whole story behind them but it seems their life experiences are rather average. So what creates the murderer?
I enjoyed (maybe wrong word) reading "The Stranger Beside Me" but it's still beyond my comprehension how someone can so compartmentalize their life.
The last addendum was also interesting in that Ms. Rule is still receiving stories from "almost" victim of Bundy. We'll never know how many there truly were.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Serial Killers - Real and Imagined
Favorite Serial Killer Books
Fact and or fiction
My Favorite Things
My 2008 Books

search for books
stranger beside, 20th, anniversary, beside, revised, stranger, updated

Impressum / about us