Rating: 
Summary: Hardly a "Nice Southern Family"
Review: I have just finished the book, and although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have to disagree with Ann Rule's description of the characters as people from fine, southern families. These are and were common, low class, trashy people. They would be less than "nobodys" in any town, much less an old southern town. The story was intriguing, but misleading. These people would be the equivolent of "Jerry Springer" guests. Since when does a military background characterize one as "fine?" If you readers could see the actual locations in which these events took place, now AND then, it would not be hard to understand my point. And what "refined, Southern family" has multiple women bearing children out of wedlock before the age of 15? Puuuullleaze! The people depicted in this book are common trash, which is fine. But let's not mistake people who own a few horses and who purchase some land in an undesirable location as lovely.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious at best
Review: I have read many of Ann Rule's books and found them all compelling, informative and fascinating, except for this one. The story seemed to drag on and on, and could've easily been condensed into 20 pages and included in one of her Crime File Volumes instead. I carried this book around for over a month and only got 1/2 way through it before I skipped through the last of it and then gave it to my sister. Without having said anything to her, she said she found it incredibly boring, not a typical Ann Rule book, almost as if she hadn't written it. She gave it to a friend, another fan, who in turn was also very disappointed, and never finished it so... Sorry to say I would NOT recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Too weird NOT to be true.
Review: If someone had given me "Everything She Ever Wanted" disguised as fiction, I probably would have found it too improbable to enjoy. Ann Rule is up to her usual fine form in this tale of a southern belle who truly believed herself to be the center of the universe and would do everything--including murder--to get what she wanted. The least satisfying aspect of the book was insufficient explanation (to me) for how Pat Allanson was able to get so many otherwise intelligent and reasonable adults to go along with, or at least turn a blind eye to, her schemes and shenanigans. The included photographs are an important adjunct to the text--you have to see the changes in Pat to believe them.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything She Ever Wanted
Review: If you are intrigued by human behavior and particularly abnormal human behavior, and abnormal machinations of the human psyche, and unreasonable motivations, this book if for you. I could not put it down. I was enthralled by how a human, Pat Taylor, could act so deviantly and so selfishly (and these are understatements!). She is absolutely UNRELENTING in her self-gratification and manipulation. She has no conscience and this is what makes the story so enticing. Her sociopathic manipulations are in a league of their own; and the repercussions of her actions are catastrophic and far reaching and totally destroy two families. Unless you read this book, you can't imagine how bad a human can be. There is also an element of a murder mystery. I couldn't wait till the end to find out the real details of the double murder.
Rating:
Summary: A steel magnolia!
Review: Pat Allanson liked to think of herself as a modern day Scarlett O'Hara, and it's true that she and Scarlett did share some characteristics - seductiveness, flirtatiousness and charm, but Pat had none of Scarlett's extraordinary strength or backbone. Instead, she was, and remains, a self centred sociopath who would do anything and destroy anybody who obstructed her from gaining whatever she wanted. Fifteen years of her husband Tom's life, her daughter's health, and for her victims, precious time with their loved ones were sacrificed to the greed of this antisocial woman, who, thanks to her too kind upbringing and lack of parental discipline, thought that she was entitled to "everything she ever wanted" without once thinking about the repercussions of her actions on other people. If this story was to be presented as fiction, it would be dismissed as being the product of an author's sick and twisted imagination, but Ann Rule proves in this extraordinary book that it is not imaginations which are sick and twisted, but what truly IS twisted, sick and utterly incomprehensible is the malignant mind of a sociopath.
Rating:
Summary: DAUGHTER SUSAN WRINGS THE (SOUTHERN) BELLE!
Review: Pat Allenson was undoubtably a sociopath. No two ways about it. From a child she exhibited demanding, ruthless behavior. Her maternal grandmother adored her and placed Pat's interests and needs over her own large brood. Pat was indulged to the point of excess. When Pat was 5, her mother married a career army officer named Clifford Radcliffe. Pat, resentful of having to leave the charmed life her grandmother gave her and share any part of the limelight with her half-brother, Kent, was forced to move out of state and move into a new lifestyle. In true sociopathic form, Pat, like the proverbial rat, could survive just about anywhere. Radcliffe's career took the family to different countries where they were warmly received. Pat, blessed with physical attractiveness, used this to charm people into indulging her. Kent, on the other hand was a gentle, mild mannered boy. A hearing loss in infancy appeared to exacerbate his shyness. He was easily eclipsed and dominated by his bullying sister. Never able to find peace with himself, he committed suicide in 1966. Pat married at age 15 and had three children. Like her mother, she married a career officer whose assignments led to distant travel. Pat's oldest child Susan remembers that when she was 4, Pat crushed her hand while the family was in the Phillippines. This incident seemed to set the tone for Susan's future relationship with Pat. She did not want to see Pat when her hand was injured and this sentiment seemed to remain consistent throughout their lives together. Pat's middle child, Debbie, appeared to be her mother's daughter. A child bride, Debbie would later embark on a series of affairs, become involved in prostitution and work with Pat in drugging and robbing elderly patients. Ron, Pat's youngest child seemed most like his uncle Kent. Never able to find his place, he became a drifter and had a series of unsatisfactory relationships. In 1980 he eventually had a daughter named Ashlynne who was the apple of Pat's mother's eye. History repeated itself. Pat's maternal grandmother adored her. Ashlynne's maternal grandmother adored her. Pat resented her mother lavishing love on Ashlynne. To compensate for this, she showered gifts upon Susan's children. A Southern Belle wannabe, Pat remarried a very gentle man named Tom Allenson. They had a "Gone With the Wind" themed wedding and Tom appeared to care very deeply about his new wife. He, too, had some disastrous marriages and was crushed at having no way to contact his children. Pat, ever the seductress, devised newer and more frightening methods to command center stage. A possible victim of "Munchausen's Syndrome," she inflicted deep wounds on her body, reinfected one to the point she had to be hospitalized and sought ways to make people care about her. She resented the attention and time her grandchildren required and saw them as intrusions. She was especially antagonistic towards Ashlynne. Pat was a ruthless sociopath who would stop at nothing to secure her goal. Susan's third child, Adam, was seen as a threat by Pat. She extended the hostility she felt for Ashlynne to Adam. She kept Susan drugged and poisoned and refused to let Susan have Adam. She insisted on keeping the mother and child apart, knowing full well how miserable she was making them. Susan finally recovers and bravely blows the whistle on Pat. Having served jail time for a previous murder attempt, Pat once again entered the system. She had quite a resume -- doll maker, seamstress, gifted in the art of presenting genteel Southern charm (a real steel magnolia) thief and a murderer. This Southern Belle was Arsenic and Old Lace personified. It would be interesting to see an update on Susan and her family and Debbie and her daughter as well as Ron and Ashlynne. One can only hope this family was able to heal after Susan bravely did the right thing. Hats off to Susan!
Rating:
Summary: wicked, wicked woman!
Review: Pat Taylor Allanson suffered from Munchausen's, Munchausen's by proxy, narcissistic and histrionic personality disorder, as is obviously displayed in the book, though her doctors diagnosed her with other things at the time. She's four star performer! The sad thing is, her family practically trained her to believe that she was more important than anybody else, since she was a baby. She never learned to accept the word "no" and never really moved beyond a toddler's jealous dependance on her mother. This failed serial killer, who may have tried to kill her own daughter, is out now; a free woman. Anne Rule makes this book a real page turner. Every time you think Pat can't go any lower, she does. Had she gone legit, she could have really had "everything she ever wanted," she was so talented, but she chose a path of evil.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating Ann Rule story of the ultimate sociopath
Review: The most horrific, conniving, controlling, murderous, childish, sick person I have ever read about. Ann Rule is excellent in plotting the story of a truly heinous pathetic soul as Pat. Her enabling, sad parents and family members are to also be responsible for allowing such appalling behavior to continue. Pat would destroy anyone who was in her way, including her own children and grandchildren. There was absolutely no one who was exempt. The pain caused to her own parents was another devious act. She would keep her imprisoned husband from his only family; she would keep a small son from his sick mother (Pat's daughter); she would keep a dying old man from his beloved wife. etc. After serving prison time, and released, it was shocking to learn that she would include one of her daughters into her life of crime and deceit AGAIN. But fortunately, one daughter had the tenacity and courage to report her back to authorities. Family members become enablers and someone should have stopped her long ago, before innocent people are hurt.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty Is As Beauty Does
Review: The very best of Ann Rule. This story is amazingly bizarre - and is made even further outrageous when other "socially elite" family members join in her collusions. Ann Rule got me hooked on this genre of serial killer, - the delicate southern belle with a sharp mind, a great big gracious smile, and an icy, stone-cold heart.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty Is As Beauty Does
Review: The very best of Ann Rule. This story is amazingly bizarre - and is made even further outrageous when other "socially elite" family members join in her collusions. Ann Rule got me hooked on this genre of serial killer, - the delicate southern belle with a sharp mind, a great big gracious smile, and an icy, stone-cold heart.
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