Curling up with a Good Mystery

Ann Rule's book about Ted Bundy [pictured above] was absolutely gripping.

I love curling up with a book on a rainy night. Am about to sink deeper into Heart Full of Lies by Ann Rule, the fat paperback I picked up for free in the cabinet at Greenwich Point. The author, who writes about psychotic murderers, is a former Seattle policewoman and served on the U.S. Justice Department task force that set up an FBI program to track and trap serial killers.

Rule's true-crime tales are hard to put down. Ironically, while working as an editorial assistant at Woman's Day Magazine in the 1980s, I answered the phone and it was Ann Rule on the other end, a little bit annoyed because my boss and the powers that be had not yet gotten back to her about a manuscript she wrote. I'm not sure exactly what it was about, but must have had to do with her career as a policewoman?

At the time, I hadn't read her books, or would have wanted to fawn over her.

Rule's Small Sacrifices [clever title about a woman who killed her own children] is unforgettable. But by far, her most chilling story is The Stranger Beside Me, about serial killer Ted Bundy. I remember reading it in my apartment in Ocean Grove, on the Jersey Shore. I lived alone, and my muslin curtains were blowing, the plain white shades flapping in the wind. I took a nap and had a nightmare about Ted Bundy walking in. It was so realistic that it was terrifying. Most haunting of all, Ted Bundy had been a friend and coworker* of Rule's.

Tonight I won't be worried. I have H., Figgy and Sug to fall back on. My little nine-pound ball of fur would scare anyone off. And, just in case, there's a security guard [Frank] at the front desk.

Before I say good night, can I say something? It feels funny to post a photo of a horrible criminal who killed so many lovely young women on a blog called Truth and Beauty. But reading a good book is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a beautiful thing. And maybe bringing ugliness to light can somehow make us thankful for the beauty [and safety] that surrounds us all the time--if we're lucky.


*Per Wikipedia: As part of his course of studies in psychology, Bundy worked as a night-shift volunteer at Seattle's Suicide Hot Line, a suicide crisis center that served the greater Seattle metropolitan and suburban areas. He worked alongside former Seattle police officer and then-fledgling crime writer Ann Rule. I ask you, how creepy is that?