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Saving Annie: The Complete Series
A New True Crime Series From The New York Times Bestselling Author Of Monster And No Stone Unturned
In March 2009, pretty, vivacious Rhonda Casto plunged to her death from a 300-foot cliff in the Oregon woods. The only witness, Stephen Nichols, the father of her nine-month-old baby, Annie, told police investigators she slipped and fell.
Yet, Nichols’ story didn’t quite mesh with the facts. And some of his other actions raised suspicions as well, including just days after her death trying to collect on a million-dollar life insurance policy he’d taken out on his unemployed, 23-year-old girlfriend four months earlier. What had begun with a 911 call to report an accident, quickly turned into a homicide investigation.
However, in part due to lackluster police work, the case grew cold. Then in 2011, Dardie Robinson, a tenacious investigator with a Portland law firm began digging into the circumstances surrounding Rhonda's death. The law firm represented Rhonda’s mother, who believed that Nichols, 34 at the time, had murdered her daughter. She wanted to prevent him from gaining custody of Annie and the life insurance money.
What Robinson discovered, including an attempt by Nichols to throw his first wife off a high-rise balcony in China, as well as sexual abuse allegations with Rhonda's underaged sister, convinced her that Rhonda’s death was no accident. So began her six-year battle to ‘save Annie’ from her own father and find justice for Rhonda.
In the meantime, a parallel investigation into the case by co-authors Steve Jackson, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, and private investigator Tom McCallum, posed the same questions. What really happened to Rhonda Casto on that cold, rainy afternoon on the Eagle Creek trail? And what would become of her child?
In March 2009, pretty, vivacious Rhonda Casto plunged to her death from a 300-foot cliff in the Oregon woods. The only witness, Stephen Nichols, the father of her nine-month-old baby, Annie, told police investigators she slipped and fell.
Yet, Nichols’ story didn’t quite mesh with the facts. And some of his other actions raised suspicions as well, including just days after her death trying to collect on a million-dollar life insurance policy he’d taken out on his unemployed, 23-year-old girlfriend four months earlier. What had begun with a 911 call to report an accident, quickly turned into a homicide investigation.
However, in part due to lackluster police work, the case grew cold. Then in 2011, Dardie Robinson, a tenacious investigator with a Portland law firm began digging into the circumstances surrounding Rhonda's death. The law firm represented Rhonda’s mother, who believed that Nichols, 34 at the time, had murdered her daughter. She wanted to prevent him from gaining custody of Annie and the life insurance money.
What Robinson discovered, including an attempt by Nichols to throw his first wife off a high-rise balcony in China, as well as sexual abuse allegations with Rhonda's underaged sister, convinced her that Rhonda’s death was no accident. So began her six-year battle to ‘save Annie’ from her own father and find justice for Rhonda.
In the meantime, a parallel investigation into the case by co-authors Steve Jackson, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, and private investigator Tom McCallum, posed the same questions. What really happened to Rhonda Casto on that cold, rainy afternoon on the Eagle Creek trail? And what would become of her child?
136 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 12, 2019
33 people want to read
About the author
Steve Jackson
19 books209 followers“He writes with both muscle and heart”—New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Steve Jackson has written ten non-fiction books in true crime, history and biography genres; he has also written fourteen crime fiction thrillers for the long-running and Times bestselling "Butch Karp Series" in collaboration with former New York assistant district attorney Robert K. Tanenbaum.
He is currently in the process of writing three more contracted non-fiction books: ALL SECURE (Hachette), FINDING ANASTASIA (Potomac) and SAVING ANNIE (WildBlue Press), as well as working on a sequel to his bestseller NO STONE UNTURNED. He is also finishing a novel, ISLAND OF WOMEN. The publishers of his previous books include: HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Pinnacle, Atrium, De Capo, and WildBlue Press.
Steve is also the co-owner of indie publisher WildBlue Press (wildbluepress.com) with partner Michael Cordova. As of July 2018, WildBlue Press will have published more than 75 books by fifty authors in true crime, crime fiction, romance, history, current events, memoir and business genres after less than four years in business. Many of these books have become award-winning bestsellers, and several have been optioned for film and television productions.
The company is rapidly expanding both the number of authors and titles, and will be moving into other genres in the Summer and Fall of 2018.
His first non-fiction book, MONSTER, a true crime, was published in October 1998 and within two weeks became a New York Times bestseller. In 2003, his World War II dramatic narrative, LUCKY LADY, received The Colorado Book Award, best biography/history, from the Colorado Center for the Book; Lucky Lady was also the runner-up that year for the Admiral Samuel Morrison Naval History Award.
In June 2013, Jackson joined forensic investigative team NecroSearch International (the group featured in NO STONE UNTURNED) searching for the remains of the Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov in Perm, Russia as part of his research for an upcoming dramatic narrative history FINDING ANASTASIA.
Honored with NecroSearch membership in 2014, he and the team returned to Russia to continue the search in 2015, 2016, 2017 and will return to conclude their search in June 2018.
Born in 1955, Jackson grew up in Hawaii and Colorado. He graduated in 1979 from Colorado State University with a BA in Journalism.
A newspaper journalist for 25 years, he worked in locales as varied as Montana, Hawaii, Guam, Micronesia, Indonesia, Indiana, Washington D.C., Florida, Oregon and Colorado. During his career with newspapers, he received numerous national and regional awards for feature writing and investigative reporting.
Outside of writing, his interests include backpacking, fly fishing, skiing, guitar, reading, softball, music, wine, beer and spending time with his family and friends.
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Steve Jackson has written ten non-fiction books in true crime, history and biography genres; he has also written fourteen crime fiction thrillers for the long-running and Times bestselling "Butch Karp Series" in collaboration with former New York assistant district attorney Robert K. Tanenbaum.
He is currently in the process of writing three more contracted non-fiction books: ALL SECURE (Hachette), FINDING ANASTASIA (Potomac) and SAVING ANNIE (WildBlue Press), as well as working on a sequel to his bestseller NO STONE UNTURNED. He is also finishing a novel, ISLAND OF WOMEN. The publishers of his previous books include: HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Pinnacle, Atrium, De Capo, and WildBlue Press.
Steve is also the co-owner of indie publisher WildBlue Press (wildbluepress.com) with partner Michael Cordova. As of July 2018, WildBlue Press will have published more than 75 books by fifty authors in true crime, crime fiction, romance, history, current events, memoir and business genres after less than four years in business. Many of these books have become award-winning bestsellers, and several have been optioned for film and television productions.
The company is rapidly expanding both the number of authors and titles, and will be moving into other genres in the Summer and Fall of 2018.
His first non-fiction book, MONSTER, a true crime, was published in October 1998 and within two weeks became a New York Times bestseller. In 2003, his World War II dramatic narrative, LUCKY LADY, received The Colorado Book Award, best biography/history, from the Colorado Center for the Book; Lucky Lady was also the runner-up that year for the Admiral Samuel Morrison Naval History Award.
In June 2013, Jackson joined forensic investigative team NecroSearch International (the group featured in NO STONE UNTURNED) searching for the remains of the Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov in Perm, Russia as part of his research for an upcoming dramatic narrative history FINDING ANASTASIA.
Honored with NecroSearch membership in 2014, he and the team returned to Russia to continue the search in 2015, 2016, 2017 and will return to conclude their search in June 2018.
Born in 1955, Jackson grew up in Hawaii and Colorado. He graduated in 1979 from Colorado State University with a BA in Journalism.
A newspaper journalist for 25 years, he worked in locales as varied as Montana, Hawaii, Guam, Micronesia, Indonesia, Indiana, Washington D.C., Florida, Oregon and Colorado. During his career with newspapers, he received numerous national and regional awards for feature writing and investigative reporting.
Outside of writing, his interests include backpacking, fly fishing, skiing, guitar, reading, softball, music, wine, beer and spending time with his family and friends.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 17, 2023
As expected, another great book from Steve Jackson, along with Tom McCallum. The storyline written very nicely. Very hard to put down. Easy to read. I really loved it and would recommend it
Displaying 1 of 1 review