Author Ann Rule recommends Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour

The renowned True Crime Author, Ann Rule, has recommended Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour on her official website recommended reading page.  Link:

Ann Rule's Official Home Page

I started reading Ann Rule's brilliant work in the 1990's (and have never stopped) and I learned so much from the cases Ann has worked. I thank Ann Rule and Dominick Dunne on Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour's acknowledgment page "just for writing the kind of books they write." (I was told that Dunne also had the opportunity to read GNGS just before he passed away.)
Especially through Ann Rule's work, I learned what is expected of good detectives, and also of ultimate justice a dedicated detective can help to achieve.

Ann Rule's body of work in the true crime genre clearly shows she has dedicated her life to a worthy cause, and although I don't have statistics or evidence of exactly how many SAVED lives Ann Rule might be responsible for, I suspect it is many! Her studied cases involve criminal convictions. The stories she presents,  in full length feature books and in her popular "volumes series" never cease to teach, to warn.
To choose a perfect one-word lesson from Ann Rule's work, I choose the word BEWARE. Last month, I finally found the time to read Ann Rule's Mortal Danger. Each true case presented in it still sends chills up and down my spine.

Many women (and sometimes men) just "never see it coming" and their lives are abruptly ended or marred forever, simply because they trusted someone they never dreamed would actually harm them. But Ann teaches us about warning signs, and we learn from her expertise that sociopathic personalities walk among us, and they spring from all walks of life. Sometimes culprits will befriend you, become your lover, marry you, and for any number of reasons, sometimes kill you.

One of Ann Rule's releases that stays with me is a high-profile case that occurred in my backyard -- title And Never Let Her Go is about the tragic Anne Marie Fahey murder. The case is still in the news in our parts, as Fahey's convicted killer was recently refused an appeal to his life imprisonment, no parole sentence.

When I worked at a national business magazine in the 90's, the Fahey disappearance case was prominent in the media, especially in the Northeast. Wilmington attorney, Thomas Capano, whose family owned a beach house near where I spent summer vacations in Cape May County, NJ, was convicted of shooting Anne Marie and disposing of her body in the Atlantic Ocean.

The editor of the magazine where I worked had attended college with Anne Marie, and told me about her memories of fun, college dorm days with Anne Marie. After college, Ann Marie landed a dream job as secretary for Governor Thomas Carper, of Delaware State. Anne Marie soon met prominent, married, Wilmington attorney, Thomas Capano, who pursued Anne Marie romantically and they began an affair. When Anne Marie ended the affair with Capano and started seeing a man she respected, a potential husband, Capano continued to vie for Anne Marie's affection. She reluctantly agreed to dine with Capano in Philadelphia "one last time" to stand by her choice to never resume the relationship with Capano. After dinner, Capano took Anne Marie to his house and shot her. Early the next morning, assisted by his brother, Thomas Capano dumped Anne Marie's body in the Atlantic Ocean, and her family yearned for years to learn the truth. Finally, due to good detective work, Thomas Capano's brother confessed the truth, and Thomas Capano was put away forever.

Ann's newest release, But I Trusted You and Other True Cases, is available next month, Novemeber 2009.

To have Ann Rule endorse Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour by listing it on her recommended reading page not only adds to my pride for my efforts to shine light on the details involving Natalie Wood's death, it also reminds me, as continued support often does, of Natalie Wood's cry from the grave: I am frightened to death of the water, especially of water that is deep and dark.