Rating: 
Summary: First Rate True Crime!!
Review: Ted Bundy was a FREAK and this book provides a haunting, graphic, vivid, up-close account of the man and his crimes. What makes the book particularly insightful is Ann Rule's personal friendship with Ted Bundy, which lasted for years, both before he was a suspect in the crimes and while he was killing. I really got the sense from this book that what made Bundy so scary was the fact that he seemed so NORMAL. His evil was extremely insidious to the extent that Ann Rule even refused to believe for years that he could have committed the crimes he was suspected of. This is one of the greatest True Crime works I've ever read, second only to Small Sacrifices, and in my opinion it's an even better read than Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, just because the accounting was so up-close and personal. A MUST READ for anyone interested in True Crime or serial killers.
Rating: 
Summary: Ann - Hello! Your Friend Was Demon!
Review: Why Ann Rule spends the majority of her book giving the Beast from Hell the benefit of the doubt, I'm still trying to figure out. I'm sure she's not another hopelessly devoted Bundy Groupie. Maybe she's just being politically correct. Perhaps he's like one of her own sons. Whatever her reason, she gives new meaning to the concept "loyal friend". Satanic minds like Ted Bundy's are masters of deception and they know their enemies and "friends" better than these naive people know themselves. Their reason for living is to draw nourishment from other people - mostly women - dead or alive. And use it to satisfy their own evil appetites. And they're good at it. Rarely are they without a steady supply of clueless women to spoon feed them with affection and forgiveness. But when sharp-eyed, perceptive pros (like seasoned law enforcement officials) catch these Bundy types off guard, their cool-guy masks fall off and they lose it. That's when they scramble to summon a gullible woman, eager to run their errands and send cash donations. Ann's Bundy story is supported with provable facts and she tells it well. In the end, she can no longer deny that he's a criminal of the lowest order, but I wonder - does that old nagging doubt about his guilt still creep in when she's looking somewhere else? Well, at least the book had a happy ending.
Rating:
Summary: The Stranger Beside Me
Review: I don't want to give the story away, well anymore than you already know. The story took place in Washington, where I live. I found this book very interesting and it kept me in suspense. I never knew the real story...I was too young when this was happening and I found it very interesting to learn about Ted Bundy's life and the unfortunate victims.
Rating:
Summary: Ann's best
Review: The best true crime books (like IN COLD BLOOD) are less about the act itself and more about the lives and times of the victims. And the victims should never be forgotten, nor defined soley as those who lost their lives. This book expands the circle of victims to make the reader ache for everyone Bundy touched -- the dead girls themselves, the mothers and friends who must somehow accept the unacceptable, the dedicated but frustrated law enforcement officers who feel helpless to stop the carnage, even the officers of the court who must defend the indefensible ... Ann breathes life into them all. Then there's the havoc Bundy brought to his supporters. Ann, Meg, Stephanie, Sharon, his mother ... they all loved him, cried for him and fought for him until the evidence of his guilt became too overwhelming and repellent. And then these women had to live with the "what if's." (What if I'd realized earlier that the "Ted killer" was my Ted? Could I have saved lives? Was there something I did that made him slaughter lovely, promising young women -- girls like me or my daughters?) He may not have strangled, maimed or wiped these women off the face of the earth, but he left them battered and bruised emotionally. It's one of the measures of what a monster he was that he didn't seem to notice, understand or care what his evil compulsion did to those who loved him. Ms. Rule makes their (and her own) plight so understandable, so human, that you feel you are walking in their shoes. By the end of the book, you count these women among Bundy's victims, too. Ms. Rule is not the writer Capote is -- there's no poetry here, and her prose never reaches the level of art you'll find on any page of IN COLD BLOOD. But her personal involvement and gift for observation make this book a classic of the genre, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Must read this edition...
Review: This book will keep you wondering until the end whether or not they got the right guy... I, like Ann Rule, did not want to believe that this man could commit these heinous crimes. That is why I believe that readers MUST read the 2000 version (Bundy was executed in 1989) as it includes some VERY important updates at the end of the book. A very well-written book. The reader can feel Ms. Rule's pain as she struggles with coming to terms that this seemingly incredible man is really a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This was my second Ann Rule book and it will not be my last! I was looking for something creepy yet interesting to read and I found it all in this book. I couldn't put it down for a week. If you like to read true cases this is the book for you, no doubt.
Rating:
Summary: It's got to be the most bizarre true crime book ever written
Review: Ann Rule was Ted Bundy's friend..indeed she might have seen him for a time as little brother, replacing the one who tragically killed himself. I've read many a book on crime, but never has the author known the subject so well. It lends a fascinating and spooky feel to the narrative. The book is a bit long and can be a bit slow at points, but that is bound to happen when the last 100 pages or so are updates (from '86, '89, and '00). Nevertheless, the Bundy shown is the whole man. I think that is incredibly important. Some will argue that Bundy is strictly a monster and should not be humanized. I disagree. What makes Bundy (and those like him) so terrifying is their very humanity. And their ability to so easily destroy the humanity of others.
Rating:
Summary: A nightmare I asked for
Review: This is truly a remarkable work. Ann Rule has written both an in depth account of the Ted Bundy saga from an insiders point of view as well as her own remarkable story. Ann Rule and Ted Bundy worked together at a crisis center. The book is non-fiction that reads like a great novel. Rule follows Bundy with a history of his early childhood that gives insight to why he might have turned out like he did. The book also gives an account of how Bundy also viewed the world and how he tried to beat the death sentence. The reader is left an enigma of a highly intellignet and charming man who is also a psychopath. Rule also does a remarkable job of revealing to the reader how she originally believed Bundy to the conclusions that she was forced to realize that he was a murderer. I was left with the feeling that this book was painfull for her to write. Rule also tells a bit about her life and how she ended writing true crime. This book will leave you unsettled and you will not be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put It Down...
Review: The Stranger Beside Me was an excellent find! I would recommend it to anyone who wants an in-depth look into the real life of Ted Bundy. Ann Rule does a great job of giving the reader all of the facts and leaving the emotions up to you.
Rating:
Summary: I dare you to try to read just one page.
Review: With a very alive fascination with true crime studies I may be just a little biased. However, with that said this is one of my favorite books. Although this is not the best selling true crime book ever (if you want that then go for "Helter Skelter" the true story of the Manson Family murders) its subject is a man who I consider to have been far more dangerous and interesting then Charles Manson. This was not your wild eyed lunatic with swastikas, an X or other symbols that would indicate total madness carved into his forehead. Instead, Ted Bundy was a exceedingly polite, charming, attractive and intellegent man whose manners would have lead one to belive that his mother taught him right. His crimes took more cunning and premeditation than convincing misguided teenagers strung out on LSD to kill other human beings. For at least four years Ted Bundy roamed six states seducing normally wary young women to his car. Among his ruses was a carefully though out act in which he posed as a man with a broken leg. He would ask the girls to help him carry his books, once they were at his car the books dropped and before the girl had any time to think Bundy crashed them over the head with a tire iron he had already hidden near the car. Once unconscious the girls were driven to secluded spots, subjected to acts of unthinkable depravity and murdered. All of them, a total of at least 35, had lives filled with promise. Ann Rule's book tells the full story from a unique angle. She knew Bundy and his kindness long before the world knew Bundy and his crimes. She worked with him at a crisis clinic. As a former policewoman and aspiring true crime author she wrote articles about the mysterious "Ted" murders and began this book while working with Bundy. She shared her woes and joys alike with her friend, the caring and patient listener- Ted Bundy. While reading this book you will feel the confusion and terror of the unsuspecting cities, you will feel the frustration and indignation of the officers and detectives who delt with this case, you will feel the horror and pain of the victim's families and finally you will feel the shock of the author as she discovers that the man whose understanding and patience had talked the troubled out of suicide while working with her at the seatle crisis clinic was also a man who had taken delight in causing more pain and suffering than one could begin to imagine. Dark alleys will be avoided and daughters warned just one more time about talking to strangers by the readers of this book. With each page I turned I thought to myself "I really got my money from this one". If you take interest in the bizarre, the unusual or the mysterious you will think the same.
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