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Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder: And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files)
Ann Rule

Pocket, 2007 - 480 pages

average customer review:based on 35 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





Soggy

Rule's normally top-notch, formulatic TC books are always thrilling to read; this one, however, is limp and left me feeling cheated. No, it's not hasilty written; but rather open-ended. Rule has never before left her readers without an explanation, an outcome. Chapters such as "The Truckers' Wife" ask us to speculate on "Spontaneous Human Combustion" and never offers alternative theories, and very little investigation. As true crime, I was simply left unfulfilled.


another home run

Ann's insights on the Winkler case alone make this worth the purchase. But add into the mix the stories of several relationships gone bad, and you have a textbook of warning for women AND men. A great collection of shorter cases - not that the cases themselves are less important - but I do like this format because I can fit the reading into a busy mom's schedule.


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More Ann Rule

This is the latest book in Ann Rule's True Crime Series. The Writings are not up to her usual High Standards. In each of the cases covered it seems the villian is all bad and the victim is all good, which is not the usual case in real life. The best story is in the last one covered, which is "The Minister's Wife". The latter is the story of the Minister's wife from Tennesseee who shot him in the back "in self defense". I was not aware that part of the reason for problems in the marriage is that she fell for one of these Nigerian inheritance schemes. I still find it hard to understand (As Ann Rule does)how anyone could believe that a complete stranger would give you thousands of Dollars. But I guess financially desperate people do desperate things. However the depiction of "The Minister's Wife" (for some reason) created sympathy for her (in me.) I was glad that she served a very short sentence, and was released. One of the things that made these cases unappealing is that most of them occurred many years ago, when life was so much different here in the USA. (No internet, PCs or Cell Phones.)


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Excellent

Love Ann Rule's books, and I like these small case file stories more and more.


A panoramic true crime book

This is the first Ann Rule book that I have read.
She includes 7 cases that stretch from 1960 to the most current, the Winkler murder case.

The most intriguing for me was the oldest case. "The Antique Dealer's Wife" where Raoul Guy Rockwell undoubtedly murdered and dismembered his wife and step-daughter. He got away with it despite the dogged determination of the lead detective.

I found the case of Dorothy Jones a bizarre,unsolved mystery. There are two possible explanations and many reasons for believing either was the cause.

The chapter on the Winkler case leaves some questions unanswered.
There is no doubt that Mary Winkler killed her husband. The circumstances are unclear or at least,unproven.

"Smoke,Mirrors,and Murder" reads like a crime novel with both solved and unsolved murder cases. This is one of the better books in the true crime category that I have read to date and I can understand why readers like Ann Rule as an author. She's an excellent writer!


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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7



Includes Ann Rule's insider commentary on the Mary Winkler murder case

REAL-LIFE MURDER. REAL-LIFE MYSTERY.

In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 bestselling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase? Even the most devoted true-crime reader won't predict the outcome of these truly baffling cases until the conclusions revealed in Ann Rule's marvelously insightful narrative: An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars....

A sexual predator hides behind multiple fake identities, eluding police for years while his past victims live in fear that he will hunt them down.... A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument -- but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a page-turning collection you won't be able to put down.




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recommendations

Solstice, Renewal, Rebirth 2007




mirrors

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions (P.S.)
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
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murder

The 6th Target (Women's Murder Club)
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
1st to Die: A Novel
2nd Chance (The Women's Murder Club)
3rd Degree (The Women's Murder Club)



other

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II: More Stories of Life, Love and ...
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul : 101 Stories of Life, Love and ...
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
The Count of Monte Cristo (Modern Library)
When Pride Still Mattered : A Life of Vince Lombardi



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