Too Late to Say Goodbye

Ann Rule is one of the best living chroniclers of deathly crime. She has her own shelf in this reviewer's TrueCrime Bookcase. But Best True Crime writer ever = Truman Capote (with a lotta help from his friend Nelle Harper Lee*)  In Cold Blood . *See  Infamous  and  Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee Is this Ann's best work?No.That distinction, in her very distinguished career in the True Crime genre, goes to  Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder . But a not-her-best Ann Rule is better than almost all the rest of the writers in this genre. Ann started in this grizzly biz by happenstance - she was working, just the cozy two of them, on an all-night helpline with a nice, bright, good looking young man. Imagine her surprise when that nice Ted Bundy - Yes, THAT Ted Bundy, was exposed as serial rapist/slayer. So she wrote a book about  The Stranger Beside Me (Revised and Updated): 20th Anniversary - and she and we, the readers, found she had a knack for it.So, Ann's settled in to a routine - a full-length in-detail book and a "summary collection" of crimes that didn't make it to full book, every year. It's become a formulaic forensic science. In the big books, we learn about the crime. We learn the bios of the victim, the perp, and the Law & Order folk involved. Here - the bio of the vicitmS (with an eerie similarity in the crimes - albeit about 15 years apart.) Kind of like Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegone, where "the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average," Rule's interviewees are all described as beautiful and handsome and Einstein-intelligent. This reviewer has speculated previously that this must be Ann's way of compensating them for their time spent with her and enticing future potential interviewees regarding crimes as yet to be reported by Rule. The reader is able to view these folk in the center photo pages to judge for her/him self. Which gets us to:Owen's Ann Rule:Unless you are the kind of reader who reads the last chapter/denouement of murder mysteries First, do not peek at those photos in the middle of the book until the Law & Order folk have got their man/woman - lest it ruin it all for you.Which gets me to one of my peeves - and why I'm not going to do it here:I HATE it when reviewers tell you everything that the author is going to tell you in the book - what then is the point of purchasing it?!?So, like I said several paragraphs ago, it's another fine entre in the Ann Rule oeuvre.To borrow a phrase from another Internet purveyor: Buy It Now!/TundraVision, Amazon TrueCrime Reviewer

I was very close to giving it five stars, because this is a really engaging, hard-to-put-down book. The killer is a true lowlife, and I found myself absolutely detesting him, which tells me the author did a great job of portraying him as the ugly soul he is. My heart went out to the two women he killed and the families who loved them - and the two young boys. The only frustrating part of the book for me was that Jenn was so stuck on her internet love - this isn't frustrating for me in the sense that I don't understand why she felt as she did because I do, and who could blame her? The part that WAS frustrating, though, was that this person was not who he said he was, deeply deceived her, and she continued to hold on to the hope that they might live together. They had never met! It was hard because Bart was such vermin, and the last thing you wanted to see was someone mistreating her again. BUT, that was the only frustration I had and that was that she didn't get rid of that person asap once the deception was revealed. Excellent read. And I got a VERY good feeling of karma at the end of it!! Rest in peace Dolly and Jenn.

With so many positive reviews, there is no need for a lengthy review of "Too Late to Say Goodbye". There is a special feature here: TLTSG features not one but two murders. One is set in eastern Georgia, near Augusta, the other in an Atlanta exurb. The suspected perp is a young semi-successful dentist, Bart Corbin. Corbin is one of those guys readers may instantly dislike. AR is at her best here. The suspense is maintained far into the text. The authoress ably portrays both the careful investigation by the Georgia Law plus the pain felt by the two victimized families. This reviewer has railed about excessive verbiage in other true crime stories but no "sharp blue pencil" is needed here. The length is just about right. AR had a lot of material to deal with. As the header states, Ann fans should simply pounce on that "Add to Cart" button. New readers should be pleased but could always sample shorter AR works like "The I5 Killer" or "The Want Ad Killer" before proceeding. TLTSG is definitely one of the authoress' better efforts. That infamous "Ann Rule Rule" is definitely in effect here: The back cover and those centerfold photos divulge all. Skip them until the finish. The pictures do however, personalize the two tragic victims. How sad that these young women met their senseless demise as they did.

All I can say is this book is truly an A+ effort and one of the finest from the Queen of True Crime - Ann Rule. No other author in this genre does what she does - making nonfiction read so smoothly just like a novel.The story here is very disturbing. How she finds these cases is amazing. But her intense, thorough research is obvious as the book is so meticulously written with no detail spared. And the people are all three dimensional and become very real. It's as if you are experiencing all this with them.This book is in no way gratuitous. I think it is important to see that evil does exist - not to glorify it - but to try to see in some way where it comes from and what triggers it. This book does that. It also warns us all to always be careful in our daily lives.Anne Rule is the best and brings true crime to an art form. I always treasure her full length novels. I understand they come out infrequently for she spends years doing the research.Give yourself the gift of quality writing and buy this exemplary book.

Another home run for Ann Rule! I felt I knew the characters when I was done reading this story. Quick read. Searched out the movie when I was finished. You won’t be disappointed.

Great book, if you love true crime you’ll love all Ann Rule’s books. I’m not much of a reader but any Ann Rule book I have read I couldn’t put it down 👍😊

Histoire vraie et intrigeante sur un homme qui se venge sur les femmes qui veulent l'abondonner. Deux femmes, deux histoires pareilles, qui par leur analogie sont finalement éclaircies. Ann Ruhe est une écrivaine qui cherche à comprendre les comportements déviants et criminels.

All Ann Rule books are winners. she knows how to write true crime stories. Love her books!

Ann Rules again.

Good book.