I've heard of Leslie Rule and her mother, Ann, but I've never read anything of theirs. After A Tangled Web, I think I will have to remedy that. In truth, while I find true crime fascinating, I've never read it as a genre. But this is an excellent example of it and I devoured it in two days. Ms. Rule writes with a beautiful narrative hand--this could be fiction. But it's scarier than anything that could have come out of the minds of the top horror writers, because the evil in this book is real.
It starts with Dave Kroupa, who is really not a nice guy. He treats the women in his life as disposable, including Amy, his longtime girlfriend and mother of his children, who he could never commit to. But he's up front about his intentions, so I guess there's that. Everything goes out of control when he meets Cari Farver and Liz Golyar in 2012. He's happy to date both (though Liz is a bit obsessive and I have no idea what would make him keep going back to her), but in November, Cari will disappear and Dave and Liz will be faced by a deranged stalker, replete with death threats, vandalism, thousands of texts/emails, and burned-down houses.
I don't want to give away the identities of the victims/perpetrators so as not to spoil the story, but I am blown away that the bad guy was able to get away with being so horrendous for so long. Maybe I've been reading too much crime fiction and watching too many Law & Order type shows, but I hope I'd notice if a creep of this magnitude came into my life. Though who really knows?
I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for more works by Ms. Rule. This was absolutely fantastic. Thank you to BookishFirst, Kensington Books and Leslie Rule for making this review copy available.
It starts with Dave Kroupa, who is really not a nice guy. He treats the women in his life as disposable, including Amy, his longtime girlfriend and mother of his children, who he could never commit to. But he's up front about his intentions, so I guess there's that. Everything goes out of control when he meets Cari Farver and Liz Golyar in 2012. He's happy to date both (though Liz is a bit obsessive and I have no idea what would make him keep going back to her), but in November, Cari will disappear and Dave and Liz will be faced by a deranged stalker, replete with death threats, vandalism, thousands of texts/emails, and burned-down houses.
I don't want to give away the identities of the victims/perpetrators so as not to spoil the story, but I am blown away that the bad guy was able to get away with being so horrendous for so long. Maybe I've been reading too much crime fiction and watching too many Law & Order type shows, but I hope I'd notice if a creep of this magnitude came into my life. Though who really knows?
I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for more works by Ms. Rule. This was absolutely fantastic. Thank you to BookishFirst, Kensington Books and Leslie Rule for making this review copy available.