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Crime Files #2
You Belong to Me and Other True Crime Cases
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 cases—that of Tim Harris, a poster-perfect all-American Florida State Trooper who hid bizarre and fatal fantasies behind his badge—plus 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).
In You Belong to Me , Ann Rule fixes her unsparing professional gaze on one of Florida's most shocking criminal cases—that of Tim Harris, a poster-perfect all-American Florida State Trooper who hid bizarre and fatal fantasies behind his badge—plus 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).
461 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
727 people are currently reading
3317 people want to read
About the author
Ann Rule
141 books4,512 followersAnn Rule was a popular American true crime writer. Raised in a law enforcement and criminal justice system environment, she grew up wanting to work in law enforcement herself. She was a former Seattle Policewoman and was well educated in psychology and criminology.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
December 6, 2022
Interstate Horror!
Backstory:
The main storyline revolves around Florida highway patrolman Tim Harris back in the 1990's that would stop female drivers along the I-95 interstate just to check them out and sometimes give them tickets for minor stuff. Though when one of the women came up missing and then her body found out in the woods off I-95 no one really expected Trooper Tim Harris to be involved until the investigation slowly gets moving and then the detectives involved find out more than they want to know about the trooper.
That is about all I can give on a backstory without giving away spoilers so if you want to know more than you will need to read the book!
Thoughts:
This book is one of the ones that I never did read by author, Ann Rule. When I first started reading true crime she was the one that I was reading when I would go to the library. I loved her writing style and also how she would delve deep into the lives of not only the victims but the killers as well.
There are about five more stories in this book of other crimes, but the main focus was on the story of Trooper Tim Harris which is about 65% of this book. The kindle book also has pictures of the trooper along with everyone that was involved in the crime and investigation.
As far as the story about the trooper - it is a shocking account of what he did and would do to the women drivers that traveled that interstate. He definitely hid who he really was behind his badge and I could feel the shock of the detectives that investigated him when they found out what he had been doing.
Another great book by this author and I plan on stepping back more into her work as time goes on as I do love how she goes deep into the heart of the crimes and how she tells the story of the criminal and the victims. Giving this book four "Trooper Terror" stars!
Backstory:
The main storyline revolves around Florida highway patrolman Tim Harris back in the 1990's that would stop female drivers along the I-95 interstate just to check them out and sometimes give them tickets for minor stuff. Though when one of the women came up missing and then her body found out in the woods off I-95 no one really expected Trooper Tim Harris to be involved until the investigation slowly gets moving and then the detectives involved find out more than they want to know about the trooper.
That is about all I can give on a backstory without giving away spoilers so if you want to know more than you will need to read the book!
Thoughts:
This book is one of the ones that I never did read by author, Ann Rule. When I first started reading true crime she was the one that I was reading when I would go to the library. I loved her writing style and also how she would delve deep into the lives of not only the victims but the killers as well.
There are about five more stories in this book of other crimes, but the main focus was on the story of Trooper Tim Harris which is about 65% of this book. The kindle book also has pictures of the trooper along with everyone that was involved in the crime and investigation.
As far as the story about the trooper - it is a shocking account of what he did and would do to the women drivers that traveled that interstate. He definitely hid who he really was behind his badge and I could feel the shock of the detectives that investigated him when they found out what he had been doing.
Another great book by this author and I plan on stepping back more into her work as time goes on as I do love how she goes deep into the heart of the crimes and how she tells the story of the criminal and the victims. Giving this book four "Trooper Terror" stars!
July 31, 2024
What Ann Rule does a great job of is making sure to include every single detail, so that by the end there is no questions to be asked. In can get a little tedious in the title story, just b/c i want to get to the heart of it quickly, but i understand the need for them. Even with the additional chapters, nothing is left to imagination. She also just does such a great job at making sure the victim’s legacy lives on, with tales about their lives and what made them special. One of the best true crime writers!
October 18, 2021
"You Belong to Me" starts off with a longer story and then the anthology showcases other true crime stories. I didn't think that some of them fit with the overall theme I got from the first one though which is one reason why I lowered it half a star. And then I lowered it another half star when I realized one of the stories appeared in another collection before, and some of the stories to me, in my opinion felt like filler.
"You Belong to Me" (4 stars)-This story is heartbreaking. Rule traces one man whose dream was to be a Florida highway patrol officer and his young family. At first you wonder what is going on, until you realize that the man (Tim Harris) is odd and then you realize he is very very angry. This guy gave off so many red flags I was astounded that no one saw how on the edge he was until the very end. We then transition to Lorraine Dombroski Hendricks life and you start to feel uneasy about how she was going to end up meeting Harris. I think what gets me the most about this story is how everyone ignored all that was wrong with Harris cause he was a police officer. He ends up abusing and stalking his wife while seeing another woman and it's not until his wife's brother in law (also a police officer) steps in that she can get actually get some help.
"Black Christmas" (5 stars)- This is seriously heartbreaking. A family is murdered over a misunderstanding. I just can't even get more into it than that besides don't always open your door to deliverymen.
"One Trick Pony" (3 stars)-I swear I read this story in another Rule anthology because I had it down cold from beginning to end. That's the main reason why I gave it 3 stars. I hate it when authors do this.
"The Computer Error and the Killer" (5 stars)-Once again this was heartbreaking. Because of one computer error a man who had no business being allowed out in the public after being found criminally insane. I just shake at the things that used to go down in the 1960s and the 1970s. I hope things have gotten better with tracking people. I hope.
"The Vanishing" (3 stars)- This case was a bust. You find out what happened, which made me wonder why Rule even included it in this collection.
"The Last Letter" (4 stars)-This whole true crime was just sad from beginning to end. One woman who put her life on hold for a guy who wasn't worth it, who in the end goes and kills her rather than have her find out how worthless he really was in the end.
"You Belong to Me" (4 stars)-This story is heartbreaking. Rule traces one man whose dream was to be a Florida highway patrol officer and his young family. At first you wonder what is going on, until you realize that the man (Tim Harris) is odd and then you realize he is very very angry. This guy gave off so many red flags I was astounded that no one saw how on the edge he was until the very end. We then transition to Lorraine Dombroski Hendricks life and you start to feel uneasy about how she was going to end up meeting Harris. I think what gets me the most about this story is how everyone ignored all that was wrong with Harris cause he was a police officer. He ends up abusing and stalking his wife while seeing another woman and it's not until his wife's brother in law (also a police officer) steps in that she can get actually get some help.
"Black Christmas" (5 stars)- This is seriously heartbreaking. A family is murdered over a misunderstanding. I just can't even get more into it than that besides don't always open your door to deliverymen.
"One Trick Pony" (3 stars)-I swear I read this story in another Rule anthology because I had it down cold from beginning to end. That's the main reason why I gave it 3 stars. I hate it when authors do this.
"The Computer Error and the Killer" (5 stars)-Once again this was heartbreaking. Because of one computer error a man who had no business being allowed out in the public after being found criminally insane. I just shake at the things that used to go down in the 1960s and the 1970s. I hope things have gotten better with tracking people. I hope.
"The Vanishing" (3 stars)- This case was a bust. You find out what happened, which made me wonder why Rule even included it in this collection.
"The Last Letter" (4 stars)-This whole true crime was just sad from beginning to end. One woman who put her life on hold for a guy who wasn't worth it, who in the end goes and kills her rather than have her find out how worthless he really was in the end.
February 7, 2017
*"You Belong to Me": I-95 Indian River County FL 1990: The Florida State Highway Patrol was found not liable in Lorraine Dombroski Hendricks' murder, but the more I think about it, the more I think that judgment was itself part of the exact same failure that let her be killed: there was more than enough evidence that State Trooper Tim Harris was not fit to be out alone, much less in a position of authority--the problem was that the vast majority of the evidence was his behavior toward his estranged wife Sandy, and that evidence was consistently discounted because (1) it was considered Harris' personal life and not the business of his supervisors, and (2) his (male) supervisors preferred (again consistently) to believe Harris' version of the situation, which was that his wife was a cold-hearted bitch, rather than the truth, which was that she was terrified of her abusive unfaithful stalker of a husband. (Also (3) Sandy Harris had been conditioned to believe that the problem was her, even when it was manifestly him, and she had no confidence that her version would be believed, and that again is part of the same problem of not thinking that men need to be held accountable for their behavior toward women.) If Harris' supervisors had taken the situation seriously as what it was--mounting (and mountainous) evidence that Harris, sworn to uphold the law, believed with perfect sincerity that the law did not apply to him (it's the most ridiculously blatant double-standard I believe I've ever seen, or it would be ridiculous if the consequences hadn't become so dire)--or even if anyone, at any point, had looked at the way Tim Harris talked about women, treated women (including street harassment in front of other (male) law-enforcement officers), and behaved toward his wife, and simply said, Something here is not right, instead of letting it slide and letting it slide, Lorraine Hendricks would not have died in 1990. Because when you look at the pattern of evidence that Rule describes, the only surprise is that Harris' victim wasn't his wife. He used his authority as a Florida state trooper to find a proxy. I don't think--let me be clear--that anyone except Tim Harris is responsible for Lorraine Hendricks' death, because I am not prepared to accept excuses for him, but there is a certain amount of quis custodiet ipsos custodes? that, yeah, actually, I do think we need to be asking.
*"Black Christmas": Seattle 1984: a lawyer and his family are murdered because a young man (who was judged legally sane, but I'm not convinced) fixated on Communists as the cause of all his problems and decided to start killing them, and because he read and confabulated an old story about the lawyer's father--and that story wasn't even what he thought it was. David Lewis Rice used a steam iron to bludgeon the lawyer, his wife, and their two little boys to death.
*"One Trick Pony": Yakima WA 1975: This is the obverse face of Why Buy the Cow?: Murder Is Cheaper than Divorce. Man murders his wife and fakes the scene to look like she was kicked by one of her horses; determined efforts on the part of the woman's sister finally get people looking at her skull who know a HAMMER when they see its shape in someone's skull.
*"The Computer Error and the Killer": Burien WA 1974 (and several other dates and places): Here's another Kill Me Twice. Gary Addison Taylor should never have BEEN in Burien WA to abduct and kill Vonnie Stuth; he'd been judged psychotic--criminally insane and demonstrably a public danger--in Michigan in 1957. And then again in 1961. But our legal system has a really crappy memory, and in 1970 he was transferred to outpatient care (the director of the clinic said he believed Taylor "was no longer mentally ill and would be dangerous only if he failed to take his medication" (382)) and the blindingly inevitable happened. And at that point, as if this story weren't already beyond what a novelist could get away with, when he stopped showing up for his appointment in mid-1973, he wasn't reported as an escaped mental patient for three months and that report didn't get into the national law enforcement communication system, a mistake which wasn't discovered until more than a year later. And then, when Michigan authorities realized that mistake, their urgent bulletin which was supposed to be released on November 6, 1974 . . . wasn't. Gary Taylor's name wasn't actually entered into the national system until January 13, 1975. Vonnie Stuth vanished on November 27, 1974. King County law enforcement was forced to release Addison when they had him in custody on December 6, because they checked the system and his name came up clean. Which meant that more women in Texas would be raped and terrorized before Taylor was finally arrested in May 1975. He eventually confessed to four murders, including Vonnie Stuth, but investigators were pretty sure he wouldn't have told them about any murders they hadn't already connected him to. Which means the actual count of his victims is unknown.
*"The Vanishing": Seattle WA 1979: this one's a mystery without a murder. Stacy Sparks disappeared without a trace in 1979. Friends, family, police searched and searched without success. She and her car were finally found by construction workers in 1981 where she had gone off the Lacey V. Murrow Bridge, one of many victims of the bridge's infamous "bulge." No one saw it happen and the accident left no evidence above the surface of the water.
*"The Last Letter": Bellevue WA 1985: This case makes a horrible sort of ring composition with "You Belong to Me." Bill Brand, like Tim Harris, was a possessive stalker; Jackie Brand, like Sandy Harris, didn't recognize the difference between possessiveness and love until it was too late. In one way, Jackie was lucky; she never had to learn what Bill really thought of her.
Lorraine Hendricks' awful death, one part narcissistic sociopath, one part societal blindness, and one part malignant synchronicity, stirred into a cocktail of rape and ligature strangulation, just makes me heartsick.
*"Black Christmas": Seattle 1984: a lawyer and his family are murdered because a young man (who was judged legally sane, but I'm not convinced) fixated on Communists as the cause of all his problems and decided to start killing them, and because he read and confabulated an old story about the lawyer's father--and that story wasn't even what he thought it was. David Lewis Rice used a steam iron to bludgeon the lawyer, his wife, and their two little boys to death.
*"One Trick Pony": Yakima WA 1975: This is the obverse face of Why Buy the Cow?: Murder Is Cheaper than Divorce. Man murders his wife and fakes the scene to look like she was kicked by one of her horses; determined efforts on the part of the woman's sister finally get people looking at her skull who know a HAMMER when they see its shape in someone's skull.
*"The Computer Error and the Killer": Burien WA 1974 (and several other dates and places): Here's another Kill Me Twice. Gary Addison Taylor should never have BEEN in Burien WA to abduct and kill Vonnie Stuth; he'd been judged psychotic--criminally insane and demonstrably a public danger--in Michigan in 1957. And then again in 1961. But our legal system has a really crappy memory, and in 1970 he was transferred to outpatient care (the director of the clinic said he believed Taylor "was no longer mentally ill and would be dangerous only if he failed to take his medication" (382)) and the blindingly inevitable happened. And at that point, as if this story weren't already beyond what a novelist could get away with, when he stopped showing up for his appointment in mid-1973, he wasn't reported as an escaped mental patient for three months and that report didn't get into the national law enforcement communication system, a mistake which wasn't discovered until more than a year later. And then, when Michigan authorities realized that mistake, their urgent bulletin which was supposed to be released on November 6, 1974 . . . wasn't. Gary Taylor's name wasn't actually entered into the national system until January 13, 1975. Vonnie Stuth vanished on November 27, 1974. King County law enforcement was forced to release Addison when they had him in custody on December 6, because they checked the system and his name came up clean. Which meant that more women in Texas would be raped and terrorized before Taylor was finally arrested in May 1975. He eventually confessed to four murders, including Vonnie Stuth, but investigators were pretty sure he wouldn't have told them about any murders they hadn't already connected him to. Which means the actual count of his victims is unknown.
*"The Vanishing": Seattle WA 1979: this one's a mystery without a murder. Stacy Sparks disappeared without a trace in 1979. Friends, family, police searched and searched without success. She and her car were finally found by construction workers in 1981 where she had gone off the Lacey V. Murrow Bridge, one of many victims of the bridge's infamous "bulge." No one saw it happen and the accident left no evidence above the surface of the water.
*"The Last Letter": Bellevue WA 1985: This case makes a horrible sort of ring composition with "You Belong to Me." Bill Brand, like Tim Harris, was a possessive stalker; Jackie Brand, like Sandy Harris, didn't recognize the difference between possessiveness and love until it was too late. In one way, Jackie was lucky; she never had to learn what Bill really thought of her.
Lorraine Hendricks' awful death, one part narcissistic sociopath, one part societal blindness, and one part malignant synchronicity, stirred into a cocktail of rape and ligature strangulation, just makes me heartsick.
June 6, 2020
During COVID I'm trying to read books that I've had on my bookshelves for ages. Years ago I read a few of Ann's books and thought they were very written true crime stories. This one written in 1994 was no exception. She really was "the queen of the genre."
June 27, 2011
I'm a big Ann Rule fan. I've always enjoyed her detailed description of the real-life characters in her book.
March 15, 2024
This one was okay. Some of the stories dragged but picked up, or didn't, others were quite engaging. It started with the novella length story that shares its name with the title of the book. Rule leaves her usual setting of the Pacific Northwest and heads to Florida where we follow Florida highway patrol officer Tim Harris. The amount of times I felt like screaming or hitting Sandy for being incredibly stupid. Harris is not just a red flag, he's the whole Chinese flag, he's the Bolsheviks in October 1917, he's essentially a walking red flag. If a police officer takes your license and says he'll give it back only if you go out with him, run, run as fast as you can. But Sandy was a teenager and who among us hasn't been incredibly stupid as a teenager? Anyway Sandy wises up eventually but Tim uses his power to kill an innocent woman and then throws her under the bus making it seem like an accident. I hated Tim Harris and am glad he got what he deserved. This was dragged a lot but did get better.
Black Christmas was just a senseless heartless killing of an innocent family because of a slanderous story published years ago by one of the victim's parents and was truly heartbreaking. This was one of the saddest things I've ever read.
The next story reminded me of the MacNeil case. Michelle died in the bathtub it was ruled an accident but the family didn't believe it and eventually got a conviction. There's even a mistress he moved on with quickly after who he claimed was a baby sitter. In this story Donna who grew up around horses is found dead in the barn believed to be kicked in the head by said horse. She and her husband Russ were going through a divorce. Russ marries his mistress soon after ending gossip about whether it really was a baby-sitter situation, the family demands an investigation. The difference between this and the MacNeil case is that Martin never married his mistress and she never really turned on him and there were and still are rumours that she was involved. The mistress here was a star witness against him. This one was actually quite interesting especially with my comparisons to the MacNeil case that would happen over a decade after this was published.
Next up a young wife disappears before Thanksgiving and is found to be the victim of one of the apparently many serial killers and predators in the Seattle area in the 70s. All because of a computer error. It did make me laugh Rule describing the sophisticated top notch computers of the mid 1990s. This was sad and I almost forgot abut it when writing my review. Also terrifying that so many serial killers were roaming around back then. Are there still serial killers around? Do I really want to know?
The Vanishing was puzzling and part of me wondered if Stacy had run away or even ended her own life. I thought I'd seen the case on Unsolved Mysteries about someone who set up a date through a personal ad then vanished and was found dead in a hotel by her own hand. This was not that case. Stacy,whatever reason died in tragic and accidental circumstances. This story held my attention the most and bumped the rating up from 3-4 stars. I really wanted and needed to know what happened to Stacy, it was a true real life whodunit.
Finally we have the story of Bill and Jackie a good way to wrap things up since it's a story sort of similar to the first. Jackie was basically groomed by Bill from the age of 17 while he was in his 30s. He was married. She lost a fiancé in a tragic accident and married again to a man with small kids, until Bill bullied them apart. Bill's control and jealousy eventually puts an end to their story described as a love story here but in reality she was abused and groomed by a mentally and later physically sick man. Also a gripping story that made me shake my head at Jackie. But if you've been groomed from a teenager I can't fully blame her.
Overall the moral here is trust your instincts and listen to your mother especially Sandy from story one and sometimes it's just better to be a single woman who never answers the phone or the door..
Black Christmas was just a senseless heartless killing of an innocent family because of a slanderous story published years ago by one of the victim's parents and was truly heartbreaking. This was one of the saddest things I've ever read.
The next story reminded me of the MacNeil case. Michelle died in the bathtub it was ruled an accident but the family didn't believe it and eventually got a conviction. There's even a mistress he moved on with quickly after who he claimed was a baby sitter. In this story Donna who grew up around horses is found dead in the barn believed to be kicked in the head by said horse. She and her husband Russ were going through a divorce. Russ marries his mistress soon after ending gossip about whether it really was a baby-sitter situation, the family demands an investigation. The difference between this and the MacNeil case is that Martin never married his mistress and she never really turned on him and there were and still are rumours that she was involved. The mistress here was a star witness against him. This one was actually quite interesting especially with my comparisons to the MacNeil case that would happen over a decade after this was published.
Next up a young wife disappears before Thanksgiving and is found to be the victim of one of the apparently many serial killers and predators in the Seattle area in the 70s. All because of a computer error. It did make me laugh Rule describing the sophisticated top notch computers of the mid 1990s. This was sad and I almost forgot abut it when writing my review. Also terrifying that so many serial killers were roaming around back then. Are there still serial killers around? Do I really want to know?
The Vanishing was puzzling and part of me wondered if Stacy had run away or even ended her own life. I thought I'd seen the case on Unsolved Mysteries about someone who set up a date through a personal ad then vanished and was found dead in a hotel by her own hand. This was not that case. Stacy,whatever reason died in tragic and accidental circumstances. This story held my attention the most and bumped the rating up from 3-4 stars. I really wanted and needed to know what happened to Stacy, it was a true real life whodunit.
Finally we have the story of Bill and Jackie a good way to wrap things up since it's a story sort of similar to the first. Jackie was basically groomed by Bill from the age of 17 while he was in his 30s. He was married. She lost a fiancé in a tragic accident and married again to a man with small kids, until Bill bullied them apart. Bill's control and jealousy eventually puts an end to their story described as a love story here but in reality she was abused and groomed by a mentally and later physically sick man. Also a gripping story that made me shake my head at Jackie. But if you've been groomed from a teenager I can't fully blame her.
Overall the moral here is trust your instincts and listen to your mother especially Sandy from story one and sometimes it's just better to be a single woman who never answers the phone or the door..
November 22, 2019
Ann Rule is the queen of true crime. I couldn't give this 5 stars for a few reasons. The first story included so much information about Officer Tim Harris's wife that I thought she was the victim. I was thoroughly confused when the actual victim was introduced as I had already read about 100 pages of the story without any mention of her. It feels like it took too long for her to be introduced. The next story, Black Christmas, was heart-breaking and a senseless crime by a not-so-informed criminal. I found One-Trick-Pony to be fascinating, but I feel I may have come across the story before perhaps on Forensics Files or a similar show. I'm not sure why The Vanishing was included in a Crime anthology...maybe because the police worked so hard to solve the missing person's case. The last story was called "the last letter", which is referenced several times but unfortunately no excerpts of the letter were included in the novel.
May 20, 2019
This is my first Ann Rule book and since I'm an ID Channel addict it won't be my last. This book with several True Crime stories in it just proves the old adage that "truth is stranger than fiction". I enjoyed Ann Rules take on the crimes and how she gives us so much on the background on the murderers. A little insight into whether the murderer's background may or may not be part of the cause for the suspect to have gone on to be a murderer. A question of if evil is breed into a person, their destiny from birth, they're brain is just wired wrong or it's purely the choices they have made. Great read, I'm looking forward to the next edition which I do happen to have.
October 30, 2025
She was supposed to be the queen of true crime? This and her Ted Bundy books I have tried, they are so boring.
I read true crime and like true crime books, even long ones with lots of transcripts and trial bits.
I’m fascinated what exactly it is that makes her books so far so absolutely boring.
It maybe feels like she is writing as if trying to write as if it is a TV program in a book?
Anyway I’d have rather had these as documentaries.
Whatever it is, I just don’t like this way she writes at all.
Wonder if its a generational thing?
No idea.
I read true crime and like true crime books, even long ones with lots of transcripts and trial bits.
I’m fascinated what exactly it is that makes her books so far so absolutely boring.
It maybe feels like she is writing as if trying to write as if it is a TV program in a book?
Anyway I’d have rather had these as documentaries.
Whatever it is, I just don’t like this way she writes at all.
Wonder if its a generational thing?
No idea.
January 15, 2023
Great true book
I am never disappointed with Ann Rule book. She always gets the point of everyone involved. An tells the story in an entertaining way. There a reason she set the tone for this genre.
I am never disappointed with Ann Rule book. She always gets the point of everyone involved. An tells the story in an entertaining way. There a reason she set the tone for this genre.
September 11, 2023
One thing I know I’ll never tire of is Ann Rule’s writing. Every time I pick up one of her books I know it’s a guaranteed good read and there’s something very priceless about that! This wasn’t my absolute fave by her but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I prefer her longer stories over her shorter ones and this collection was mostly shorter ones.
January 13, 2025
This is a very sad case.
It’s not every day I read a book about a murderer only to find that he graduated high school with my mother. Tim Harris is a horrible man and Ann Rule did a wonderful job of making me hate him, not that I needed much help.
It’s not every day I read a book about a murderer only to find that he graduated high school with my mother. Tim Harris is a horrible man and Ann Rule did a wonderful job of making me hate him, not that I needed much help.
June 11, 2018
3.5 stars
December 14, 2021
Audiobook
January 29, 2020
A really good Ann Rule narrative about the worst phenomenon of all: a corrupt killer cop.
July 8, 2014
I just got through You Belong to Me (still working on the short cases after that one), and felt compelled to go ahead and start the review.
This case is TERRIFYING, mostly because I read it on the heels of the UCSB shooting (that, and framed by my own past experience in a relationship with a controlling man). There is very little I find scarier than misogynist men who feel they are owed ownership over women. So trigger warning, guys. This book is scary.
That being said, the coverage of the case was comprehensive, and I loved that the first part was more or less from the point of view of the wife, and the second half more less from the point of view of the lead detective on the murder in question. Framing Tim Harris's life in that way gave so much background, so much context, which seems particularly important since, in this case especially, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact truth of what happened (I think Anne did an excellent job in that; Tim's loose grasp of reality vs. his fantasy world is definitely one of the more disturbing details).
This case is TERRIFYING, mostly because I read it on the heels of the UCSB shooting (that, and framed by my own past experience in a relationship with a controlling man). There is very little I find scarier than misogynist men who feel they are owed ownership over women. So trigger warning, guys. This book is scary.
That being said, the coverage of the case was comprehensive, and I loved that the first part was more or less from the point of view of the wife, and the second half more less from the point of view of the lead detective on the murder in question. Framing Tim Harris's life in that way gave so much background, so much context, which seems particularly important since, in this case especially, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact truth of what happened (I think Anne did an excellent job in that; Tim's loose grasp of reality vs. his fantasy world is definitely one of the more disturbing details).
February 27, 2018
I've read a number of Ms. Rule's books; enough to know that the majority of the cases she covers tends towards the Pacific Northwest. So it was with some surprise that I found this book, which covers the case of Timothy Harris, written about a murder in my own backyard. Vero Beach and Sebastian are the two part of Indian River county, where the main story is set. It has the small town feel so it was very shocking to read of a murder here. Tim Harris was a Florida Highway Patrol officer who had issues with his now ex-wife, and for whatever reason, kidnapped, raped, and murdered a woman and left her body in a forested area that I drive past everyday. I'm very glad to know that this man is off the streets and locked up in prison with little chance of getting out anytime soon. There were a few other shorter cases profiled here; at least one or two of them I felt like I had read before in another book.
September 18, 2013
I was very interested in reading this one because the Tim Harris case struck close to home....literally. I grew up on the other side of the state in Tampa and in 1990, graduated from high school. I remember that everyone was talking about the case and warning all young ladies to not pull over on the highways for ANYONE, including police officers. We were all instructed to go to a well populated location first... all because of Tim Harris. I enjoyed reading about the case and finding out what happened. The other cases were also very interesting and tragic.
January 16, 2016
Another goodish selection of cases from Ann Rule. Includes a cop who murdered a speeder, a serial killer from Michigan and a variety of other cases. DO NOT look at the photo section before reading the text -- the captions spoil every story.
February 14, 2018
This 1994 book by a prolific true crime author covers the stories of a Florida cop turned killer, a tragic murder in Seattle (the killer picked the wrong family!), and four other cases of mystery and/or murder. Her fans won’t be disappointed.
December 28, 2017
Not her best work. Page after page of marital trouble followed by a smattering of crime.
March 31, 2024
Rated 4 for important cautionary book; I remember some of areas where these cases occurred.
Having just finished LITTLE CRAZY CHILDREN by James Renner this is a different approach to telling true crime. Ann Rule has better pespective and more reliabe experiences than Renner does.
Years ago, I read her book about Ted Bundy because she ”thought” she knew him while she worked with him. I've read so much fictional crime for the puzzles that reading some true crime is overdue without telling myself “It’s only fiction” for emotional reassurance. I’m hoping with the short stories to not get overly immersed. I’ve never been able to watch or read horror stories and true crime stories have to be worse for the too-real horrors. These are sickening murders by those we think of as purely insane, even though not declared legally insane. That alone seems odd. Some of her stories were made into movies that I wouldn’t want to watch.
Ann Rule, as you may know, has published many true crimes, and has been applauded for her efforts to try to bring some insight to the criminal mind, as well as the victims’ and their families POV. It’s more about the frustration of getting perpetrators to trial.
The TITLE STORY is full of abuse for the girl-in-love being 16 years old to a COP aged 21. We’re probably all aware there are wife-beater-cops and it’s especially tragic because the wife feels trapped not being able to trust his cop friends to help and she's in denial to her family as well are her own delusions.
BLACK CHRISTMAS is so bizarre that no fiction crime author would dare to use. It’s too unbelievable. It seems to be taken from his own confession. If so, truth is stranger than fiction, and therefore harder to read.
One story tells of an early-in-life woman hater who randomly killed across the country before finally caught and tried - due to COMPUTER glitches (1970s). Surely a textbook psychopath? High intellect, charismatic when he willed, and faked out everyone for years; walked away from criminal psychiatric institution because they trusted him to return on his own volition; left the state instead. He seemed so normal that his wife took a while to believe his drunk bragging about killings. When she left him to hide in another state, he escalated all across the country.
There are two more short equally sad stories. True crime can be harder to believe than fictional crimes and it does not require hyperbole to keep your attention.
Mostly what I gained from reading this was relief that I've escaped being a target -- so far. I won’t be relinquishing my cautionary practices. Even the elderly aren’t safe. Any rational person can become a criminal’s target at any age.
Having just finished LITTLE CRAZY CHILDREN by James Renner this is a different approach to telling true crime. Ann Rule has better pespective and more reliabe experiences than Renner does.
Years ago, I read her book about Ted Bundy because she ”thought” she knew him while she worked with him. I've read so much fictional crime for the puzzles that reading some true crime is overdue without telling myself “It’s only fiction” for emotional reassurance. I’m hoping with the short stories to not get overly immersed. I’ve never been able to watch or read horror stories and true crime stories have to be worse for the too-real horrors. These are sickening murders by those we think of as purely insane, even though not declared legally insane. That alone seems odd. Some of her stories were made into movies that I wouldn’t want to watch.
Ann Rule, as you may know, has published many true crimes, and has been applauded for her efforts to try to bring some insight to the criminal mind, as well as the victims’ and their families POV. It’s more about the frustration of getting perpetrators to trial.
The TITLE STORY is full of abuse for the girl-in-love being 16 years old to a COP aged 21. We’re probably all aware there are wife-beater-cops and it’s especially tragic because the wife feels trapped not being able to trust his cop friends to help and she's in denial to her family as well are her own delusions.
BLACK CHRISTMAS is so bizarre that no fiction crime author would dare to use. It’s too unbelievable. It seems to be taken from his own confession. If so, truth is stranger than fiction, and therefore harder to read.
One story tells of an early-in-life woman hater who randomly killed across the country before finally caught and tried - due to COMPUTER glitches (1970s). Surely a textbook psychopath? High intellect, charismatic when he willed, and faked out everyone for years; walked away from criminal psychiatric institution because they trusted him to return on his own volition; left the state instead. He seemed so normal that his wife took a while to believe his drunk bragging about killings. When she left him to hide in another state, he escalated all across the country.
There are two more short equally sad stories. True crime can be harder to believe than fictional crimes and it does not require hyperbole to keep your attention.
Mostly what I gained from reading this was relief that I've escaped being a target -- so far. I won’t be relinquishing my cautionary practices. Even the elderly aren’t safe. Any rational person can become a criminal’s target at any age.
June 8, 2021
Tim Harris is a cop (actually a Florida State Trooper) – actually a sociopathic, obsessive compulsive, narcissistic nut case who, by all unimaginable accounts, manages to slip through the system of all the other nut case chief cops to become a Florida State trooper. This was after previously being discharged (booted out) from three other law enforcement agencies --- go figure!
Here we have a Florida state trooper who likes to stop the young pretty girls on the freeway and show them his shiny belt buckle and his well tailored uniform. Problem is he actually hates women and only gets off when he does them violence. His long-suffering wife finally, finally after many beatings and some really scary weird stuff, tells him to get out. He can't cope with that because although he hates women, he needs their approval. (Obviously even more maladjusted than most cops!) He hates himself for desiring women, but he needs their love to feel confident. So he stalks his wife in the most pathetic and all-consuming way, sneaking into the house late at night and sleeping in the attic, bugging her phone, etc. All the while, Harris is banging and trying his best to exert the same kind of sick, macho control over his “girl friend” who, by the way, Harris makes no secret of this nefarious affair to his wife who, by this point could really care less. Her only concern is how to extricate herself from this obsessive controlling nut case, Tim Harris. Meanwhile he loves to play macho cop on the freeway. One day he pulls over a blond woman who reminds him of his wife and does a psycho-sexual sickie murder on her, calling her by his wife's name as he rapes and kills her.
I'd guess the moral of this story is that stalkers should be taken more seriously by law enforcement, even (or especially) if they happen to be policemen.
Here we have a Florida state trooper who likes to stop the young pretty girls on the freeway and show them his shiny belt buckle and his well tailored uniform. Problem is he actually hates women and only gets off when he does them violence. His long-suffering wife finally, finally after many beatings and some really scary weird stuff, tells him to get out. He can't cope with that because although he hates women, he needs their approval. (Obviously even more maladjusted than most cops!) He hates himself for desiring women, but he needs their love to feel confident. So he stalks his wife in the most pathetic and all-consuming way, sneaking into the house late at night and sleeping in the attic, bugging her phone, etc. All the while, Harris is banging and trying his best to exert the same kind of sick, macho control over his “girl friend” who, by the way, Harris makes no secret of this nefarious affair to his wife who, by this point could really care less. Her only concern is how to extricate herself from this obsessive controlling nut case, Tim Harris. Meanwhile he loves to play macho cop on the freeway. One day he pulls over a blond woman who reminds him of his wife and does a psycho-sexual sickie murder on her, calling her by his wife's name as he rapes and kills her.
I'd guess the moral of this story is that stalkers should be taken more seriously by law enforcement, even (or especially) if they happen to be policemen.
December 1, 2020
"guns don't kill people, but irons and knives certainly do"
Dear reader, you will find a completely senseless act of homicide in this volume of Ann Rice's Crime Files. In fact, if you look hard enough, you might find more than one case of senseless murder. But the case involving David Lewis Rice is enough to turn you stomach several times over. It's difficult to read, to absorb, to process. You might ask yourself, "why am I bothering myself with this material?" and, frankly, I couldn't begin to justify it for you. In fact, we pay judges and lawyers very well to take care of this business. That's the advantage of being a middle-income person; the high paying job, so-called "glamour jobs" are in fact filled with filth, anxiety, and troubling situations.
Red Scare?
The Red Scare came and went, for the advantage of Richard Nixon in particular. Since Nixon had very little to recommend himself as a politician or as a human being, he used the Red Scare to drum up fear as a leverage for seeking elected office. Why he didn't retire to practice law I for one will never understand. Instead he chose a collision course with Fate and, like always, Fate had the last word. But back to the Red Scare. McCarthyism had long since exhausted itself in its famous last words: "Sir, have you no shame?" Not for David Lewis Rice. No sir. Having lost his job as a welder, he needed to focus on his grudge against society. That all came to a hear when Rice read/heard/listened to accounts of Goldmark's mother having been a communist way back in the day.
An iron and a knife will solve all my problems
The gory details we will not mention. We will not draw your attention to how the Goldmark family were killed. What purpose would it serve this close to Christmas? Take it from me, Rice had a chance to plead his case, lost, and he was then sentenced to death, reversed on appeal, and finally settled into a long stretch at Walla Walla Reformatory for the Maximally Deviant.
Dear reader, you will find a completely senseless act of homicide in this volume of Ann Rice's Crime Files. In fact, if you look hard enough, you might find more than one case of senseless murder. But the case involving David Lewis Rice is enough to turn you stomach several times over. It's difficult to read, to absorb, to process. You might ask yourself, "why am I bothering myself with this material?" and, frankly, I couldn't begin to justify it for you. In fact, we pay judges and lawyers very well to take care of this business. That's the advantage of being a middle-income person; the high paying job, so-called "glamour jobs" are in fact filled with filth, anxiety, and troubling situations.
Red Scare?
The Red Scare came and went, for the advantage of Richard Nixon in particular. Since Nixon had very little to recommend himself as a politician or as a human being, he used the Red Scare to drum up fear as a leverage for seeking elected office. Why he didn't retire to practice law I for one will never understand. Instead he chose a collision course with Fate and, like always, Fate had the last word. But back to the Red Scare. McCarthyism had long since exhausted itself in its famous last words: "Sir, have you no shame?" Not for David Lewis Rice. No sir. Having lost his job as a welder, he needed to focus on his grudge against society. That all came to a hear when Rice read/heard/listened to accounts of Goldmark's mother having been a communist way back in the day.
An iron and a knife will solve all my problems
The gory details we will not mention. We will not draw your attention to how the Goldmark family were killed. What purpose would it serve this close to Christmas? Take it from me, Rice had a chance to plead his case, lost, and he was then sentenced to death, reversed on appeal, and finally settled into a long stretch at Walla Walla Reformatory for the Maximally Deviant.
February 16, 2021
Ann Rule is a genius of our generation, a historian of the underreported, an advocate, a champion of women, victims, their families, a voice of the many, unnumbered missing.
I admire the author for her unrelenting search for the truth, her detective skills, and her inquisitive, digging dives into these case files. I enjoy her books because they read much like novels. She has a comfortable narrative, you can sit and get utterly lost without realizing it. Ann Rule never reads like non fiction.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and I am grateful that there is someone who keeps these stories alive- they are important, they are part of our history as a society, as human beings. She unravels a bitter truth that society as a whole has always turned away from- there are monsters out there, they are real, and they are taking our children, our moms, our sisters. The monsters are not only real, they are among us and we might never even recognize that they're wearing a mask.
I have a sense of gratitude that I found Ann Rule when I was a young women. The cases intrigued me, and they were so graphic, so shocking, that I was at first a bit surprised that someone could stomach researching and writing something like it. As I read on, and felt the concern and respect she had for the families, I realized that she might be the only person left to remember some of these girls. The police have SO many cold cases, so many women missing, murdered, lost, abused...gone.
Her books contain graphic details, but encompass the story as a whole, and as you are reading, you feel a certain depth of loss that you don't feel with a fictional story...These things really happened, these were people you could have met, these are people with surviving family sitting somewhere, still today, maybe thinking, wondering, why.
We might never know if justice was served or not, but she delivers the facts, the story, and we can ponder these things within our own humanity. Her books gave me a necessary awareness as a young woman of the reality of the world, of the severity of domestic violence as a leading cause of death.
I will always look up to Ann Rule for having the balls to document these cases that society barely admits exist. She has been an inspiration to me, and I hope that there people that will pick up the torch she left and keep it lit for the lost.
I admire the author for her unrelenting search for the truth, her detective skills, and her inquisitive, digging dives into these case files. I enjoy her books because they read much like novels. She has a comfortable narrative, you can sit and get utterly lost without realizing it. Ann Rule never reads like non fiction.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and I am grateful that there is someone who keeps these stories alive- they are important, they are part of our history as a society, as human beings. She unravels a bitter truth that society as a whole has always turned away from- there are monsters out there, they are real, and they are taking our children, our moms, our sisters. The monsters are not only real, they are among us and we might never even recognize that they're wearing a mask.
I have a sense of gratitude that I found Ann Rule when I was a young women. The cases intrigued me, and they were so graphic, so shocking, that I was at first a bit surprised that someone could stomach researching and writing something like it. As I read on, and felt the concern and respect she had for the families, I realized that she might be the only person left to remember some of these girls. The police have SO many cold cases, so many women missing, murdered, lost, abused...gone.
Her books contain graphic details, but encompass the story as a whole, and as you are reading, you feel a certain depth of loss that you don't feel with a fictional story...These things really happened, these were people you could have met, these are people with surviving family sitting somewhere, still today, maybe thinking, wondering, why.
We might never know if justice was served or not, but she delivers the facts, the story, and we can ponder these things within our own humanity. Her books gave me a necessary awareness as a young woman of the reality of the world, of the severity of domestic violence as a leading cause of death.
I will always look up to Ann Rule for having the balls to document these cases that society barely admits exist. She has been an inspiration to me, and I hope that there people that will pick up the torch she left and keep it lit for the lost.
March 27, 2019
I haven't read anything by Ann Rule in a very long time, so I decided to pick this up to listen to on the drive to and from work. It was fine. I've read some other reviews that mentioned that the main story was a bit to heavy on background information. I think that's in some ways true. There was a lot of time spent on things that happened in the lives of the Harris' before the major crime. But that said, it wouldn't have been as interesting a story without the background build up. I would have liked more information on the past of the victim though. I would have liked to have felt a little more invested in her.
The shorter stories that followed the main work were much better to me, perhaps because they weren't so background heavy. I would have liked to know a lot more about some of the cases, particularly the events in "Black Christmas." That feels like there was a much longer story behind it. I did also like that one of the shorter stories included something that was genuinely an accident. It was nice to have a reminder that sometimes bad things just happen without any nefarious influence.
Overall, it was mildly interesting and informative. It gave me a couple of cases to try and find some more books or articles about, though I am glad that I listened to it more passively rather than taking the time to sit down and actively read it.
The shorter stories that followed the main work were much better to me, perhaps because they weren't so background heavy. I would have liked to know a lot more about some of the cases, particularly the events in "Black Christmas." That feels like there was a much longer story behind it. I did also like that one of the shorter stories included something that was genuinely an accident. It was nice to have a reminder that sometimes bad things just happen without any nefarious influence.
Overall, it was mildly interesting and informative. It gave me a couple of cases to try and find some more books or articles about, though I am glad that I listened to it more passively rather than taking the time to sit down and actively read it.
January 14, 2018
For the headliner, the first half of the story was backstory - and way too much of it. It was boring reading. The back half of the story was enjoyable. Yes, the backstory was helpful in understanding what made the bad guy tick, but there really was far too much of it. The author misjudged what to tell and what to leave out. Unfortunately, she told way too much and it hurt the telling of the story. 'The Vanishing' is a lame trick that is played on the reader. Rule's intro says, "Stacy's story has an ending. No one of us who searched for her could ever have guessed what that ending would be. Of all the possibilities, the truth was one that no one ever considered." Oh, that is not a lie, but it is extremely misleading. I mean, it sounds intriguing, and hints at surprise. But be ready for a letdown when you find out what happened. If ever there was a story that does not belong in a book about true crime, this is one. Shame on Ann Rule and her publishers for including it in this anthology. The best story in the book is 'Black Christmas'. It is an outrageous crime to say the least.
May 9, 2021
3.5 stars
Tim Harris the highway patrolman is a classic case of looks aren’t everything. Although he was attractive and strong, he was also extremely selfish. He cheated on women and pitted them against each other. He invaded the privacy of others and proved to have an abusive strict. In the end, he committed a senseless crime on an innocent victim and affected the lives of dozens in Florida.
I enjoyed this installment by Ann Rule, I just thought the first “main crime” in volume one of this series was more fascinating. Plus, one of the shorter death stories in the end left readers with an unsatisfactory ending.
Tim Harris the highway patrolman is a classic case of looks aren’t everything. Although he was attractive and strong, he was also extremely selfish. He cheated on women and pitted them against each other. He invaded the privacy of others and proved to have an abusive strict. In the end, he committed a senseless crime on an innocent victim and affected the lives of dozens in Florida.
I enjoyed this installment by Ann Rule, I just thought the first “main crime” in volume one of this series was more fascinating. Plus, one of the shorter death stories in the end left readers with an unsatisfactory ending.
January 8, 2022
I don't think the writing is great, BUT the true-crime genre isn't necessarily about good writing and story telling, it's the lure of the crime and the investigation.
I really apprciate what Rule does, speaking in-depth about the victims and making them people, not just in order to emotionally manipulate the reader; this book does not sympathize with the killer, it does not blame the wife or mistress.
I listen to a few true crime podcasts, and only now does it feel like a concerted effort is made to honor the victim and focus the blame fully on the perpetrator. Rule was ahead of her time.
I really apprciate what Rule does, speaking in-depth about the victims and making them people, not just in order to emotionally manipulate the reader; this book does not sympathize with the killer, it does not blame the wife or mistress.
I listen to a few true crime podcasts, and only now does it feel like a concerted effort is made to honor the victim and focus the blame fully on the perpetrator. Rule was ahead of her time.
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