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Rating: 
Summary: curious but overall unengaging true crime stories...
Review: "A Fever In The Heart" is the third installment of Ann Rule's true crime files. Nearly all these true crime collections are a hodgepodge of stories, often unrelated, and too often unengaging. "A Fever In The Heart" is ranked firmly in the middle; it is neither terrible, nor very good.The main story is a curious one where "male bonding" takes an ugly turn. The devotion between a wrestling coach and his underlings go WAY behind the norm. This leads to a very unusual murder mystery. However Ann Rule doesn't bother to sweat the details as she has done in her better books; it has a Reader's Digest feel about it. And unfortunately, the half dozen or so other shorter stories which follow the main story are little more than gussied up police crime reports ... with relatively little literary merit. But why do fans (like myself) continue to read Ann Rule books? Quite simply, she has a very pleasent style to her prose. It's both folksy yet intelligent and compassionate. It's almost never a bad reading experience. Unfortunately most of these her "true crime files" are hastily constructed and are rarely as good as her more in-depth, beefy true crime works. Bottom line: very ordinary Ann Rule fodder. She has done much better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Marry in haste...
Review: Ex-cop and serial killer expert Ann Rule isn't a profound writer. She tells the same story over and over again with new victims and grisly variations on the way a human being can die. I suppose there's nothing profound about me either, since I read her stories. But it's a relief to know that no matter how badly my life is behaving, I'm profoundly better off than the victims of Rule's psychopaths.
The title story, "A Fever in the Heart" is 245 pages long, and the author admits she had a problem writing it, possibly because she was so close to one of the victims. My impression is that she also blames one of the other victims for causing the whole affair.
Briefly, two high school coaches are in love with the same woman, who marries one then divorces him and marries the second coach, then returns to husband #1 who is promptly murdered. It seems like a fairly straightforward case, since only coach #2 had a motive to kill coach #1. Then the prime suspect is also murdered.
"A Fever in the Heart" is an interesting mystery with good police-work, and sad, intricate relationships between the victims. However, I believe it is about 220 pages too long. Possibly because the author was so involved in the story, she tells it over and over again, each time in a slightly different way, but not different enough to hold my interest.
The other five cases included in this volume are as follows:
"The Highway Accident"--A man murders his wife and tries to make it look like an automobile accident.
"Murder without a Body"--"Oregon's last murder conviction in which the body was never found was in 1904." Then a lovely, young teacher disappears, leaving behind lots of blood but no corpse. The prosecutor decides to go ahead with the case, anyway.
"I'll Love You Forever"--Ann Rule found the murderer in this case so sinister that she changed her pen name so he wouldn't be able to find her. This is another sad story of a woman who marries a charming psychopath.
"Black Leather"--A murderer who trolls for young men, then tortures them to death gets his just reward on his own killing ground.
"Mirror Images"--Two convicts bond to the point where they take on the same alias. Both are sexual offenders who torture their victims, and both are on the loose way too long.
Rating:
Summary: Not that interesting
Review: Great Book I recommend it for anyone who likes true crime.
Rating: 
Summary: it's good
Review: I love Ann Rule's books, but the first time I tried it, I laid it down. Thankfully, I picked it back up, I was hooked. This is one of Ann's true crime files volumes. I really got swept up in the title story of a young man, his coach and mentor who got swept up in a love triangle involving the two men and the wife of the first man. It makes soap operas stink,(which I think they do anyway), The good guy takes poor coach into his home afer a divorce, and next thing you know, wifey leaves husband for coach. (No doubt for money and materials), then she wants hubby#1 back. Well, what follows is murder which benefits nobody but the wife, whom after one man is dead and the other in prison, proceeds to marry another poor fool. Ann sometimes tends to give too much credit to characters, (especially to looks), as she does in this case. This was an average woman who just knew how to play two men against each other, also involving others to make the murder happen. The other short stories are good, too, especially "The Highway Accident". If you are a Rule fan, of course, read it.
Rating: 
Summary: No Fever for me
Review: I'm fairly new to Ann Rule books, but had this been the first one I'd read, it probably would have been the last. The first story was so bogged down in unnecessary and boring details that it was extremely difficult to plow through. At about page 100, I began skipping a few pages at a time to see if it got better - it didn't. Certainly not up to her usual standard.
Rating: 
Summary: Another one from the heart
Review: My enthusiasm at reading another book by Ann Rule was well placed. Ms. Rule has an uncanny ability to transport me to the very spot she is writing about.All of a sudden I am in Yakima, Washington. I can smell the winter scents in the air as the tension mounts in this story of a romantic triangle that proved to be fatal.With an ease that Ms. Rule is well known for, I am swept along the story line. I follow her not knowing where she will take me, but trusting all will become clear. What is true skill on her part is that in the beginning the reader doesn't know who did what - only that this is a true life story of betrayal and eventually, murder.As the tension mounts even more, Ms. Rule delivers the details in a fashion akin to a balloon ride. Before I know it I am, unfortunately, finished with her story. My balloon landed and now I have to wait for her to write another. Ms. Rule writes with such thought and obvious deliberation that it is quite easy to trust her work will always be interesting and compelling.As long as she continues to write, she will stay on the top of my favorite author list
Rating:
Summary: horror and supence
Review: Once again Ann Rule, a great storyteller and writer on the horrific detail, tells a story on a perfect murder. So perfect that any detective can agree with. Theres no such thing as a perfect crime that are in all fictional mysteries. An experienced homicide detective investigates an unexplained death with only blood,and no body. An incredible story that sheds light on a marriage that seemed happy, but lead to a betrayal. Also the author of the story made it so exciting for a reader to read, like adding a serial killer in the story. This story is like a murder waiting to happen.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting cases, merely adequate writing
Review: This is the first Ann Rule book that I've read, although I've read quite a few other true crime books. Rule is a better writer than the average true-crime author; she is not, however, a particularly great writer overall. She does have a keen eye for interesting cases -- the title case, for example, is proof positive that truth can often be far stranger than fiction. However, that story (the longest in the collection) suffers because of Rule's poor structuring techniques. New characters are introduced halfway through the piece, and she puts the narrative in reverse to catch them up to the chronology of events. I could tell at least 100 pages before the end of the story the rudiments of what happened; Rule holds the sequence of events back as though it were a mystery. Ultimately, she sacrifices any real effort to get inside the heads of the victims, the criminals, or the survivors, in favor of dry recitations of days in court and redundant scene setting. I certainly won't forego checking out Rule's other books, but this one certainly doesn't match any hype she's been given.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This was my first ANN RULE ( I'm hooked ) Ann writes as if she were somewhere above watching the scene develop. You come to feel as if you knew these people. I was so caught up in the story....I drove to Yakima and retraced the route....then reread the book. Much of what Ann tells you can still be found today....even the people living in the house today are very friendly and were nice enough to let me look around and take pictures...maybe they did look at me as a strange duck as I drove away. After this adventure I am trying to do the same with all of her books. She writes in such detail as to make the areas come alive again...so many years later.
Rating:
Summary: I was knocked out by this book
Review: When I bought this book , I was in the used bookstore looking for a any true crime book I had yet to read (of which there are few). I am SOOO glad I bought this book. The story seemed soo far fetched had I not been in the true crime section when I bought it...I might have thought it a new fiction thriller! The charachters are well researched, and the details so crisp and vivid. I actually closed my eyes a few times imaginging the scene like I was there ! If you want a good book , that contains a few other stories about 'fevers in the heart' I'd HIGHLY suggest this book. You wont be disappointed...
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