Movie-star handsome, suave, and successful, Alan Blackthorne is also a sadistic sociopath. In this true-crime reportage, Ann Rule peels away the layers of Alan's geneology, following him through an abusive childhood that teaches him the power of pain. As he enters adulthood, she details his tastes for cross-dressing and sadomasochistic bondage with either sex, as well as his megalomaniacal drive for success at any price. When his third ex-wife, Sheile, is found savagely murdered, even Alan's daughters suspect their father. Kate Fleming's performance turns Rule's meticulous plot into something more than a voyeuristic peek into someone else's miseries. Her warm, cultured tones are hypnotic, never prurient. Under Fleming's controlled presentation, a scene of Sheila's blood-spattered quadruplets huddled around their mother's body goes beyond the mawkish to take on a dignified pathos.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2003
Duration: 23 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Sound Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The events of the Tom Capano-Anne Marie Fahey case are not unusual. A philandering, self-centered man has relationships with women who are easily controlled. He seduces them, provides the gentle concern they crave and, once caught, demeans them until their self-esteem is gone, leaving them completely dependent upon him. Sadly, this scenario happens all too often. This time, the result is a brutal murder. Because the principals were prominent in Delaware politics, the story attracted media attention. Rule handles the sensational details crisply, professionally, and with a storyteller's flair. Narrator Laura Hicks provides exactly the reading Rule's book demands, keeping listeners riveted. She manages to maintain interest through necessary passages of mundane exposition. Some of her pronunciations are suspect, but with her pleasing voice, Hicks gives a balanced, nonjudgmental performance.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2003
Duration: 21 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America/ Sound Library
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Is this book for burglars, or those who fear them? It's a little hard to tell, which is a problem. Another is that it is more a padded blog or magazine piece than an audiobook with a coherent thesis. While much of the material is interesting the first time you hear it, the second and third times tend to pall, as do lists of things like shapes of lockpicks we will never see or care about. Scott Aiello, so good at fiction, here gets in the way as he tries to breathe drama into material that has no emotional content, and overplays any hint of wit or irony, as if he were performing a snarky SNL skit instead of letting the listener hear what's there.
Pub Date: April 5, 2016
Duration: 8 hrs
DD ISBN: 9781524702212
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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