The Stranger Beside Me
By
Ann Rule
1980 • 512 pages
Ratings29
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings29
Average rating3.8
There are actually two stories here: one describes the gradual disintegration of a seemingly normal, affable, brilliant man into a sexual psychopath so evil, so methodical in his vicious killings, that one wonders if he was at all human. The other story is that of Ann Rule herself, a decent, hard-working, middle-aged mother of four who meets and befriends a nice young man working beside her in a crisis clinic. A man she regards as a younger brother; a man she views as a close and trusted friend. The slow but inexorable realization on Rule's part that this man is in fact an unspeakably violent serial killer is as painful to read as it was for her to experience.
Each victim is described in terms of such respect and such anguish that even a family member, I think, can feel that his or her daughter has been given a chance to shine, a chance to be more than a victim, more than a nameless number (8th girl killed, and so forth). The poignancy of these girls' very human preoccupations and lives serves to outline the contrasting horror in even more detail. That is why Rule does not have to defile the victims with intricate detail. The contrast between their young lives and their terrible deaths is enough in itself.
Reviews with the most likes.
Fascinating book. What a crazy perspective this author had of Ted Bundy.
Ann Rule has a unique perspective having known Ted Bundy AND being a seasoned true crime writer, and this combination gives The Stranger Beside Me something no other true crime book has. While it may be lengthy at times and suffers from the addition of multiple “end” chapters, it's a must read for any true crime buff.
I pretty much said all I needed to say about this book through the status updates I gave while reading it. It feels like it took forever to finish reading this book. While there were a few interesting parts, for the most part, the book just seemed to drag by. It got tiresome reading about her conflict over Bundy's guilt and the bits and pieces of her personal life. She came across as being too sympathetic toward Bundy and did not give nearly enough information about the victims. It ticked me off at one point in the book when she went to Florida and said that “Ted could never go home again.” Well, neither could his victims - what about them? I love reading Ann Rule's books, but this one was a disappointment, because she just came across as a “Ted groupie” to me, except toward the very end when she finally stated her opinion on his guilt.
