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Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder
- And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 12)
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
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A Fever in the Heart: And Other True Cases
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A must listen
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Mortal Danger
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Only Ann Rule, who unknowingly worked alongside the smart and charming Ted Bundy - America's most notorious serial killer - could lend her razor-sharp insight into these cases of the spouse, lover, family member, or helpful stranger who is totally trusted but whose lethally violent nature, though masterfully disguised, can and will kill.
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good as usual
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If You Really Loved Me
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David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity—revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games.
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This is the type of story that makes you question
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The I-5 Killer
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As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.
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Dry but captivating
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long , full of details. The story continues today
- By sd on 2021-06-09
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Loni Ann, Cynthia, Lauren, Cheryl, and Sara seemed to have it all - beauty, wealth, children, and a husband who they believed to be this perfect man - Brad Cunningham. He was handsome, charismatic, and mysterious. They adored him and tried to give him all he wanted. But he wanted everything: sex, money, and it seemed, their very lives. How long would it take before he finally got what he deserved?
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A must listen
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Mortal Danger
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good as usual
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-04-11
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David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity—revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games.
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This is the type of story that makes you question
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The I-5 Killer
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As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.
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Dry but captivating
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long , full of details. The story continues today
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And Never Let Her Go, Great Read
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Every Breath You Take
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Although happily ensconced in a loving second marriage and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila Blackthorne Bellush never truly escaped the enslavement of her ex-husband, multimillionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer - and a violent, controlling sociopath who terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge.
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Ann Rule is my favourite true crime author
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Overall
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Performance
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In this fascinating account, Ann Rule delivers a tour de force: a whirlwind of misguided love, denial, guilt, and passions out of control; a series of brilliantly manipulated crimes; the bizarre and horrifying tale of two families brought to ruin; and, at the center of it all, the heartless, supremely selfish sociopath whose evil hid behind soft words and gentle manners, but who destroyed—without mercy—those who loved her.
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Great story and narration
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Written by: Ann Rule
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Overall
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Ann Rule presents her 8th collection of crime stories drawn from her private files - and featuring the riveting case of a fraudulent doctor whose lifelong deceptions had deadly consequences. Dr. Anthony Pignataro was a cosmetic surgeon and a famed medical researcher whose flashy red Lamborghini and flamboyant lifestyle in western New York State suggested a highly successful career. But no one was safe if they got in his way. With scalpel, drugs, and arsenic, he betrayed every oath a physician makes - until his own schemes backfired.
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"A Rose for Her Grave" - the principal story of this collection - vividly recreates the cautionary tale of Randy Roth, a misogynistic sociopath from the Pacific Northwest whose rage was directed primarily at women and children. Addicted to his own greed, Roth exercised a powerful aura of control over his victims, using his ability to charm and boyish good looks to lower their defenses. By the time they saw the reality of the madness in his eyes, it was usually too late.
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Love Anne Rule!
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Bitter Harvest
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In this harrowing New York Times best seller, Ann Rule is at her masterful best as she winnows horrific truths from the ashes of what seemed like paradise in Prairie Village, Kansas. Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother who seemed to epitomize the dreams of the American heartland. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion.
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crazy story
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-09-07
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Empty Promises
- And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 7)
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Overall
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Expertly analyzing a shocking, headline-making case, Rule unmasks the deadly motives inside a seemingly idyllic marriage: a beautiful young wife, a rising star in America's top-ranked computer corporation, and a prosperous husband, the scion of a family building business.
Written by: Ann Rule
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Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors: And Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 16
- Written by: Ann Rule
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It’s a chilling reality that homicide investigators know all too well: The last face most murder victims see is not that of a stranger, but of someone familiar. Whether only an acquaintance or a trusted intimate, such killers share a common trait that triggers the downward spiral toward death for someone close to them: They are masters at hiding who they really are. Their clever masks let them appear safe, kind, and truthful. They are anything but - and almost no one can detect the murderous impulses buried deep in their psyches.
Written by: Ann Rule
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The Stranger Beside Me
- The Shocking True Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy
- Written by: Ann Rule
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ann Rule was working on the biggest story of her career, tracking the trail of victims left by a brutal serial killer. Little did this future best-selling author know that the savage slayer she was hunting was the young man she counted among her closest friends. Everyone's picture of a natural winner, Ted Bundy was a bright, charming, and handsome man with a promising future as an attorney. But on January 24, 1989 Bundy was executed for the murders of three young women - and had confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more women from coast to coast.
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There is an Audio problem in Chapter 54
- By Bailey on 2020-01-28
Written by: Ann Rule
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The End of the Dream: The Golden Boy Who Never Grew Up and Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 5
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
They were best friends, four talented and charismatic young men who lived charmed lives among the evergreens of Washington state: Kevin, the artist; Steve, the sculptor; Scott, the nature lover and unabashed ladies' man; and Mark, the musician and poet. With their stunning good looks, whip-sharp minds, athletic bodies - and no lack of women who adored them - none of them seemed slated for disaster. But few knew the reality behind the leafy screen that surrounded Seven Cedars, Scott's woodland dream home....
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one of the weirdest crime cases, totally hooked
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-04-11
Written by: Ann Rule
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Lust Killer
- Written by: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When young women begin mysteriously disappearing in Oregon, Police Lieutenant James Stovall leads a relentless search for a killer. With little evidence available, and the public screaming for answers, he must find a remorseless, brutal killer whose identity will shock them all....
Written by: Ann Rule, and others
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But I Trusted You and Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 14
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The most fatal mistake? Trust. It's the foundation of any enduring relationship between friends, lovers, spouses, and families. But when trust is placed in those who are not what they seem, the results can be deadly. Ann Rule, who famously chronicled her own shocking experience of unknowingly befriending a sociopath in The Stranger Beside Me, offers a riveting, all-new collection from her true-crime files, with the lethally shattered bonds of trust at the core of each blood-soaked account.
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Some Unique Stories I Never Heard Before
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-03-04
Written by: Ann Rule
Publisher's Summary
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 best-selling 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 listener 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 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 collection you won't be able to stop listening to.
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What listeners say about Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Raina Mermaid
- 2020-03-04
I'm Addicted to These
I binge listen to these anthologies, they're so interesting and the cases are obscure and often I haven't heard anything about them before. Ann Rule does such a great job researching, and drawing modern-day parallels for older cases.
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- Product Princess
- 2021-01-17
brilliant
loved this compilation of true stories. this author captures both the victims view and the perpitrator
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- Anita
- 2018-10-13
Dated cases
The cases were pretty good but they were very old. Otherwise, not a bad read. I'll be looking for more Ann Rule books. Hopefully they'll be more current.
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