Category Archives: Non-Fiction

#TrueCrime #Audio #Family #murder – If You Really Love Me by Ann Rule

There was only one way to please her father: Murder his wife….

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. A complex and often dangerous investigation suggested a horrifying scenario: Was the seemingly bland David Brown really a stone-cold killer who convinced his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him? A man who turned young women into his own personal slaves, who collected nearly $1 million in insurance money, and married his dead wife’s teenage sister, David Brown was a sociopath who would stop at nothing…a deadly charmer who almost got away with everything.

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Review by Twinsie Angie

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If You Really Love Me by Ann Rule

I purchased audio,

I am a huge podcast listener.  I love true crime.  I am also an avid audio book listener.  Well one day I had credits to burn, and no books were really hitting my interest.  Then I scrolled and BOOM this book!!  I have heard this story told on a podcast I love…HELLO Morbid is the Bees Knees if you are a podcast fan!!

So this book is not the full story from what I have been told.  It’s a shorter version but it hits all the highlights.  Essentially all you need to know is David is an awful man who manipulates all the women in his life.  He is a POS and don’t feel sorry for him.  I al so wanna say I get he groomed his wife’s sister AKA his NEXT WIFE but I don’t feel as bad for her but am glad she opened her eyes to him.

Cinnamon is the biggest victim in the whole med. This is a 14 year old girl who took the fall for her father because “If you really love me” you will do this for me…ya know kill my wife/your step mom.

The whole story is sad and tragic but Ann did a great job narrating it for the listener.  Ann takes us through the murder, trial and subsequent changes to the story for all the players involved.

Ann 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.

#TrueCrime #audio #Crime #Horror #adult #SerialKiller – The Stranger Beside Me : Ted Bundy : The Shocking Inside Story by Ann Rule

Utterly unique in its astonishing intimacy, as jarringly frightening as when it first appeared, Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me defies our expectation that we would surely know if a monster lived among us, worked alongside of us, appeared as one of us. With a slow chill that intensifies with each heart-pounding page, Rule describes her dawning awareness that Ted Bundy, her sensitive coworker on a crisis hotline, was one of the most prolific serial killers in America. He would confess to killing at least thirty-six young women from coast to coast, and was eventually executed for three of those cases. Drawing from their correspondence that endured until shortly before Bundy’s death, and striking a seamless balance between her deeply personal perspective and her role as a crime reporter on the hunt for a savage serial killer — the brilliant and charismatic Bundy, the man she thought she knew — Rule changed the course of true-crime literature with this unforgettable chronicle.

Goodreads

Amazon

Review by Twinsie Angie

I purchased audio,

I am a huge podcast listener.  I love true crime.  I am also an avid audio book listener.  Well one day I had credits to burn, and no books were really hitting my interest.  Then I scrolled and BOOM this book!!  I have always wanted to read its sooooo here we go.

Now from what I understand the audio is not the full book Ann wrote but it hits all the highlights of the Ted Bundy timelines.  I admit hearing the author herself TELL the story made me want to listen all the more.

I really can’t say this story added any more detail to the horror that is Bundy but hearing her tell how this monster was someone she considered a friend was interesting.  Hearing her day how she was conflicted that this “Ted” can’t be HER Ted also made me feel for her as a person.  She too was swindled by the con man that is Ted Bundy.

Ann 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.

#TrueCrime #Audio #Podcast – RedHanded, An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick.

RedHanded: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes a Killer Tick

2021 Listeners’ Choice British Podcast Awards Winner


Based off Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala’s popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded explores real-life true crime cases to help answer once and for all if a killer is born or made.

After meeting at a house party in London, where they discovered a mutual obsession for all things true crime, Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire drunkenly promised to one day start their own murder podcast. Six weeks later they ordered their first microphones and the rest is history. From the hosts of the hit podcast RedHanded (dubbed by Anna Paquin as her “all- time favorite true crime podcast”), Bala and Maguire have amassed a cult following of “spooky bitches.”

What is it about killers, cults, and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? Do we find these stories endlessly and equally compelling and frightening, because they hold up a mirror to society’s failings and to the horrors that we humans are capable of? RedHanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics.

With their trademark humor, research on real-life cases, and unflinching analysis of what makes a criminal, Bala and Maguire take you through what drives the most extreme of human behavior to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick?

Goodreads

Review by Twinsie Angie

I purchased this audio book.
Shut up!! I love these ladies. Each chapter was like a mini podcast episode. WE cover so many interesting topics. Any true crime fan should be jumping on to listen to the in depth research about many interesting topics in the true crime world. I love love love the chapter on Mommy Issues!!! But of course, the Cult chapter made me super stoked.
The fact the ladies are the narrators also was genius!! I mean again I listened to a chapter a day. It fed my true crime brain.

Hannah thought she was going to be an actor, then like many she was a teacher and then like not so many, she wound up co hosting the smash hit true crime podcast RedHanded. Podcasting was made for Hannah, as a dyslexic devourer of audio-books and as a lover of stories. On a whim Hannah studied Social Anthropology at SOAS, because she thought it would make her sound interesting.

She was right.

Luckily, it also lent her an anthropological appetite to understand why people do what they do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suruthi has always been an independent, overachiever – whether she was a 3 year old with loose laces because she refused to let anyone tie them, or a 5 year old who had just moved to the UK – and could write perfect cursive with fountain pen, but couldn’t speak a word of English.

She graduated from The University of Birmingham with a BSc and an MSc in Economics, and after quickly becoming disillusioned with the world of finance she went into the relentlessly tiring world of events. After a year out travelling she met Hannah – and RedHanded was born.

#REVIEW – Out of the Shadows: A Memoir by Timea Nagy & Shannon Moroney

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An unforgettable story of an ordinary woman in astonishing circumstances who defies the odds.


Timea Nagy was twenty years old when she answered a newspaper ad in Budapest, Hungary, calling for young women to work as babysitters and housekeepers in Canada. Hired by what seemed like a legitimate recruitment agency, Timea left her home believing she would earn good money to send back to her family. What she didn’t know was that she’d been lured by a ring of international human traffickers–and her life would never again be the same.

Upon her arrival in Toronto, she was forced into sex labour in some of the city’s seediest nightclubs, starved and controlled by her agents, and brainwashed to believe she was to blame for her situation. The only way she’d be free was when her debt was paid–but, no matter how hard she worked, that debt seemed only to go up, not down.

Out of the Shadows is a gripping, heartbreaking and eye-opening journey deep into the underworld of human trafficking and the sex trade, told in riveting detail by one brave survivor. At once tragic and powerfully redemptive, Timea Nagy’s story will stay with you long after you’ve read the last page.
I seriously have no words. Living in Ontario, I knew a lot of the streets mentioned, having been to Toronto more times than I count. I knew about the trafficking issues but I had no idea just how bad it was. Timea’s story was beyond brave. She’s fearless and strong even though I’m sure at times, she probably doesn’t feel that way. Even now. What she went through was heartbreaking but how she came out on top at the end, had me emotional. This story, Timea’s story, will forever be burned into my heart as one of the most powerful stories I’ve ever read. Timea, I know you’ll never read this but thank you for telling your story. I’m not a victim/survivor of any sort of trauma but I felt for these girls and boys. All different ages, it just shows that it doesn’t matter what sex you are. And really, age doesn’t matter either. Timea answered a babysitting ad to leave Hungary and come to Toronto, thinking she would be safe and she wasn’t. At all. Just a warning, there are triggers in this book, so please read with caution. While reading, every time something bad happened to Timea, I kept thinking that she couldn’t catch a break. I’m happy she was able to mend some past relationships and that she was able to find happiness of her ownself after years and years of living in darkness. If you’re working with human trafficking victims or going to school having to do with scary and very real issue, I highly recommend reading this book.

#REVIEW – The Hospital by Barbara O’Hare

A shocking expose of the appalling abuse and experimentation carried out on vulnerable children at Aston Hall Hospital, Derbyshire, in the 60s and 70s.
These books based on true events are way scarier than the horror movies I watch. Knowing the evil vile things that happened in these books, actually happened to someone in real life, is bothersome to say the least. So when 2020 happened, I went through a kick of reading non-fiction books. While they’re well written, I feel almost weird saying that they’re “good” because honestly, what part of the story is even remotely considered to be perceived as “good”? These stories hit me in a different spot somewhere deep inside me, than romance does. Knowing that some poor child/teen/adult went through these awful things, makes me want to befriend them and tuck them safely into my arms. The Hospital is no different. Barbara wasn’t wanted. You see that right away. Which is horrible by the way. She ends up being sent to “The Hospital” and spends months going through “treatment”. I tried understanding what exactly happened during these treatment sessions as it wasn’t exactly clear at first. But with all the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen, my assumptions were unfortunately correct. Barbara eventually makes it out of The Hospital but every time I thought something good was about to happen and she finally had her freedom, something worse came about. If you like non-fiction books and need a change, definitely pick this one up.