Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder
And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 12)
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Narrated by:
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Laural Merlington
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Written by:
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Ann Rule
About this listen
Real-life murder. Real-life mystery. In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 best-selling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase? Even the most devoted true-crime listener won't predict the outcome of these truly baffling cases until the conclusions revealed in Ann Rule's marvelously insightful narrative. An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars... A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument - but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a collection you won't be able to stop listening to.
©2008 Ann Rule (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.You may also enjoy...
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good as usual
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Loni Ann, Cynthia, Lauren, Cheryl, and Sara seemed to have it all - beauty, wealth, children, and a husband who they believed to be this perfect man - Brad Cunningham. He was handsome, charismatic, and mysterious. They adored him and tried to give him all he wanted. But he wanted everything: sex, money, and it seemed, their very lives. How long would it take before he finally got what he deserved?
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I couldn't wait for it to finish.
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An idyllic Hawaiian wedding held the promise of a wonderful future for handsome, athletic Chris Northon, an airline pilot, a confirmed bachelor-turned-devoted family man; and Liysa, an acclaimed surf photographer, loving mother, and aspiring Hollywood screenwriter. But few, including Chris, had seen Liysa's other side - her controlling behavior and dark moods, her insatiable hunger for money and property. And no one anticipated the fatal outcome of a family camping trip in an Oregon forest.
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long , full of details. The story continues today
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Why would a man kill his lover's husband and then his wife, the woman who fought successfully to have him paroled from prison? Why would he risk arrest by kidnapping the child of another woman who adored him? Because they were... Worth More Dead....
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Performance
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"A Rose for Her Grave" - the principal story of this collection - vividly recreates the cautionary tale of Randy Roth, a misogynistic sociopath from the Pacific Northwest whose rage was directed primarily at women and children. Addicted to his own greed, Roth exercised a powerful aura of control over his victims, using his ability to charm and boyish good looks to lower their defenses. By the time they saw the reality of the madness in his eyes, it was usually too late.
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Love Anne Rule!
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Overall
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Performance
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good as usual
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-04-11
Written by: Ann Rule
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A Fever in the Heart: And Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 3
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fever in the Heart dissects an explosive triangle that led to obsession and murder in a small town in the northwest of America. Ann Rule reveals the story of an alluring wife and the two men desperate for her love; a story with a bizarre and deadly twist that no one could have suspected. In this and several other riveting true-crime cases from her personal files, Ann Rule masterfully probes the delusions of the criminal mind, the fateful circumstances and the unrelenting investigative forces at work in the aftermath of murder.
Written by: Ann Rule
-
Dead by Sunset
- Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer?
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 20 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loni Ann, Cynthia, Lauren, Cheryl, and Sara seemed to have it all - beauty, wealth, children, and a husband who they believed to be this perfect man - Brad Cunningham. He was handsome, charismatic, and mysterious. They adored him and tried to give him all he wanted. But he wanted everything: sex, money, and it seemed, their very lives. How long would it take before he finally got what he deserved?
-
-
I couldn't wait for it to finish.
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Written by: Ann Rule
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Heart Full of Lies
- A True Story of Desire and Death
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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-
-
long , full of details. The story continues today
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Written by: Ann Rule
-
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- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why would a man kill his lover's husband and then his wife, the woman who fought successfully to have him paroled from prison? Why would he risk arrest by kidnapping the child of another woman who adored him? Because they were... Worth More Dead....
Written by: Ann Rule
-
A Rose for Her Grave - and Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 1
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"A Rose for Her Grave" - the principal story of this collection - vividly recreates the cautionary tale of Randy Roth, a misogynistic sociopath from the Pacific Northwest whose rage was directed primarily at women and children. Addicted to his own greed, Roth exercised a powerful aura of control over his victims, using his ability to charm and boyish good looks to lower their defenses. By the time they saw the reality of the madness in his eyes, it was usually too late.
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Love Anne Rule!
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Are They Blind?
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Jerry Harris was a self-made California millionaire who, at age forty-four, had it all: booming businesses, yachts, a mansion, a beautiful wife, and a voice to rival Elvis. No one who knew this well-liked, generous man could make sense of his sudden disappearance one autumn night. On a final phone call to his brother from his Mercedes, Jerry breathed a muffled oath - then the line went dead. For Jerry's wife, Susan, it was just the beginning of an unwavering, eight-year search for the truth behind her husband's vanishing.
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Bitter Harvest
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Performance
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In this harrowing New York Times best seller, Ann Rule is at her masterful best as she winnows horrific truths from the ashes of what seemed like paradise in Prairie Village, Kansas. Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother who seemed to epitomize the dreams of the American heartland. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion.
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crazy story
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Written by: Ann Rule
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The End of the Dream: The Golden Boy Who Never Grew Up and Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 5
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- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They were best friends, four talented and charismatic young men who lived charmed lives among the evergreens of Washington state: Kevin, the artist; Steve, the sculptor; Scott, the nature lover and unabashed ladies' man; and Mark, the musician and poet. With their stunning good looks, whip-sharp minds, athletic bodies - and no lack of women who adored them - none of them seemed slated for disaster. But few knew the reality behind the leafy screen that surrounded Seven Cedars, Scott's woodland dream home....
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one of the weirdest crime cases, totally hooked
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-04-11
Written by: Ann Rule
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You Belong to Me
- And Other True Cases: Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 2
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- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A former Seattle policewoman, Ann Rule has extensive experience of violent crime and brings this knowledge to bear in this collection of fascinating case studies. You Belong to Me focuses on one of Florida's most shocking criminals - Tim Harris, the poster-perfect 'All-American' State Trooper who hid bizarre and fatal fantasies behind his badge of authority.
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Every Breath You Take
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Although happily ensconced in a loving second marriage and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila Blackthorne Bellush never truly escaped the enslavement of her ex-husband, multimillionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer - and a violent, controlling sociopath who terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge.
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Ann Rule is my favourite true crime author
- By Nana on 2023-09-17
Written by: Ann Rule
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If You Really Loved Me
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity—revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games.
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Good story, cringe narrator
- By LTRB on 2024-08-14
Written by: Ann Rule
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Green River, Running Red
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- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the most extraordinary journey Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than 49 young women. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young women were and who they might have become.
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Boring, confusing, repetitive
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Written by: Ann Rule
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But I Trusted You and Other True Cases
- Ann Rule's Crime Files, Book 14
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The most fatal mistake? Trust. It's the foundation of any enduring relationship between friends, lovers, spouses, and families. But when trust is placed in those who are not what they seem, the results can be deadly. Ann Rule, who famously chronicled her own shocking experience of unknowingly befriending a sociopath in The Stranger Beside Me, offers a riveting, all-new collection from her true-crime files, with the lethally shattered bonds of trust at the core of each blood-soaked account.
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Some Unique Stories I Never Heard Before
- By Raina Mermaid on 2020-03-04
Written by: Ann Rule
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And Never Let Her Go
- Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On June 27, 1996, 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, who was the scheduling secretary for the governor of Delaware, had dinner with a man she had been having a secret affair with for over two years. "Tommy" Capano, 47, was perhaps the most politically powerful man in Wilmington. Son of a wealthy contractor, former state prosecutor, partner in a prestigious law firm, advisor to governors and mayors, Tom had a soft-spoken, considerate manner, endearing him to many. But sometime after 9:15 that night when Anne Marie and Tom left a Philadelphia restaurant, something terrible happened to her.
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And Never Let Her Go, Great Read
- By L. Ford on 2023-02-22
Written by: Ann Rule
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Too Late to Say Goodbye
- Written by: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jenn Corbin appeared to have it all: two dear little boys, a posh home in one of the upscale suburbs of Atlanta, expensive cars, a plush houseboat, and a husband - Dr. Bart Corbin, a successful dentist - who was tall, handsome, and brilliant. But gradually, their seemingly idyllic life together began to crumble. Bart was distraught and Jenn seemed disenchanted. Then, just a few weeks before Christmas 2004, Jenn was found dead with a bullet in her head, an apparent suicide....
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Another good one. I like the narrator.
- By Friendly Mum on 2022-09-29
Written by: Ann Rule
What listeners say about Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Product Princess
- 2021-01-17
brilliant
loved this compilation of true stories. this author captures both the victims view and the perpitrator
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Overall
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Performance
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- Raina Mermaid
- 2020-03-04
I'm Addicted to These
I binge listen to these anthologies, they're so interesting and the cases are obscure and often I haven't heard anything about them before. Ann Rule does such a great job researching, and drawing modern-day parallels for older cases.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Anita
- 2018-10-13
Dated cases
The cases were pretty good but they were very old. Otherwise, not a bad read. I'll be looking for more Ann Rule books. Hopefully they'll be more current.
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