Fatal Friends Deadly Neighbors

In July 2011, billionaire Jonah Shacknai's Coronado, California, mansion was the setting for two horrifying deaths only days apart--his young son's plunge from a balcony and his girlfriend's ghastly hanging. What really happened? Baffling questions remain unanswered. Rule looks at the closed cases through the eyes of a relentless crime reporter. The second probe began in Utah when Susan Powell vanished in a 2009 blizzard. Her controlling husband, Josh, proved capable of a blind rage that was heartbreakingly fatal to his innocent young sons almost three years later in a tragedy that shocked America as the details unfolded. If anyone had detected the depth of depravity within Josh Powell, perhaps the family that loved and trusted him would have been saved. In these and seven other riveting cases, Ann Rule exposes the twisted truth behind headlined and little-known homicides and speaks for vulnerable victims who relied on the wrong people.

Only Ann Rule, the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling true-crime author, could lend her 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 kill. Original.

This first installment in the New York Times bestselling Crime Files series is a chilling collection of shocking crimes and the ensuing struggles to bring the perpetrators to justice—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me. The “country’s premier true crime author” (Library Journal) brings her clear-eyed, compassionate writing and investigative skills to this unputdownable anthology. Distinguished by the former Seattle police officer’s razor-sharp eye for detail and her penetrating analysis of the criminal mind, the featured case in this collection is the twisted story of Randy Roth—a man who married, and murdered, for profit. Following are compelling tales of bloody vengeance, estranged relationships that turn deadly, and fateful encounters. With her trademark “unwavering voice” (Publishers Weekly), Ann Rule exposes the darkness that lurks among us.

The best-selling author of Dead by Sunset traces the murder case of Whidbey Island resident Russ Douglas, who after spending Christmas with his estranged wife and children in 2003 was found murdered in his car and whose death implicated a long list of suspects, including an aging beauty queen and her boyfriend.

From the Crime Files of New York Times bestselling author Ann Rule, the true story of a man who killed his lover's husband, his second wife, and kidnapped his own child. A cold case reopened—and solved—with dogged police work and new evidence. One of the shocking true crimes of passion and greed from Ann Rule's Crime Files. Former Marine sergeant and judo instructor Roland Pitre Jr. claimed it was all an elaborate plan to win back his wife's love—it wasn't supposed to end with her dead body in the trunk of a car. Nearly twenty years later, he acknowledged that he had hired someone to kill his estranged wife in 1988, though his alleged excuse for why a monstrous "mistake" happened is as shocking and convoluted as the crime itself. Eventually, he was charged with first-degree murder in the long-unsolved death of Cheryl Pitre, after a mysterious witness betrayed Pitre to save his own skin. Tracing back the dark and bloody path of Pitre's life, two generations of detectives found a chain of brutal and terrifying crimes by a man who manipulated the courts and prisons to walk free.

The gruesome discovery of several dead bodies on the moor sparks a police investigation and a heavy media presence in the remote North Yorkshire Village of Chellingford. When Adrian Brooks shows up at Jessica Scanlon's cottage, however, it is with another line of enquiry in mind. His sister, Laura, has disappeared, and he thinks watercolour artist Jessica might be able to help him find her. Jessica's friend Etta has also gone missing, and when she is called upon to identify of the bodies discovered by the police, she confirms that it is Etta. But Jessica's landlady Mildred seems to have other ideas. A mysterious suicide, an elaborate insurance scam and the arrival of nosy true crime writer Diana Wishart create further layers of intrigue that lead to a thrilling denouement.

Ann Rule dissects a case centered around an alluring young wife and the two men desperate for her love.

As you will discover by reading this book, the term “stranger danger” is not only misleading to children, it actually does more harm than good. By the constant reminder that a child encounters by media, adults and television programs about never talking to strangers, children are often left confused and powerless of how to deal with the many strangers they come across on a day to day bases. Secondly, this book aims to teach children to become aware of their instincts (feelings of uneasiness, suspicion or otherwise their apprehension) when it is appropriate and important to do so and when it comes to people and situations they encounter as they go about their lives. Not just people of whom they do not know (strangers), but also of people of whom they may already know. Finally, this book is in two parts: The first part are the three short stories of Polly, a fictional character, that describes in detail certain dilemmas she encounters when she becomes lost, first at a grocery store, next at the fair and then in the third story, the close encounter she experiences of nearly being abducted by a stranger. The stories go into detail about the positive aspects that Polly took each time to protect herself in each case scenario. The encounters are based on a realistic chain of circumstances. The second part of this book is aimed towards parents to look at self-protection strategies suggested by some of the world’s most prestigious experts on the subject of child safety and the criminal mind.