Overview

Joined in a romantic love that most people only ever dream about, Pat Taylor's marriage to Tom Allanson was all she ever wanted. Both came from fine Southern families, and both longed to recreate for themselves a plantation where they would raise horses, grow roses, and move with grace and style in the highest social circles of Atlanta; in short, to be the Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler of their time. But scarcely two months later, their perfect world had erupted into family hatreds, terror, bloodshed and murder, The beautiful estate was mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom Allanson stood accused of the brutal slaying of his own mother and father. Before the terrifying truth about the perpetrator was revealed, other innocent victims were to suffer attempts on their lives as intricate family loyalties and cruel, obsessive jealousies were played out.

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Reviews

'No writer in America has ever probed the dark heart of a killer so deeply' - Edna Buchanan 'Master of the true-crime genre' - CHICAGO TRIBUNE 'Ann Rule is the undisputed master crime writer of the eighties and nineties- no one does it better.' John Saul 'The tale chills the rerader to the bone and makes one wonder how anyone can be so wicked and get away with it for so long.' JERSEY EVENING POST

Here, as in Small Sacrifices (1987), Rule (If You Really Loved Me, 1991, etc.) recreates the compelling story of a woman hellbent on gratification and devoid of conscience. No one is allowed to hinder Patricia Allanson's determination to become a mid-20th-century Scarlett O'Hara, complete with a heavily mortgaged Tara and an adoring Rhett. Raised by her socially ambitious mother and spit-and-polish Army colonel stepfather, Pat demands constant attention and unqualified love. Married early to an Army sergeant by whom she has three children, she eventually tires of her GI existence and sets off to find wealth and excitement. Pat soon gets engaged to Tom Allanson, a gentle giant six years her junior; at their wedding, the couple are dressed as Margaret Mitchell's hero and heroine. Tom's family disapproves of his new wife's flamboyant ways, and the situation between his family and hers - exacerbated by Pat's unsubstantiated complaints of sexual harassment by her father-in-law - becomes increasingly violent until the elder Allansons are murdered and Tom is accused of the killings. Pat insists on directing the defense; Tom is convicted and sentenced to life. Pat then turns her attention to Tom's remaining family, ingratiating herself with his invalid grandparents. When she's certain that their wills name her as a major beneficiary, she begins lacing their food with arsenic. But before she can kill them, she's caught - and does eight years for attempted murder. Released and apparently reformed, she's hired as a practical nurse by a rich Atlanta couple. The aged pair soon sickens; the husband dies, and Pat is convicted of attempted murder and theft. Today, she's serving time. Rule climaxes her narrative with a moving interview with the now-released Tom, and with stunning suggestions of how Pat engineered the killing of her husband's parents. A headlong plunge into the depths of a sociopathic mind, told with a master's hand. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Ann Rule is one of the foremost true crime authors and lecturers in the United States. A former policewoman in Seattle, she shot to prominence with her 2-million-copy-selling THE STRANGER BESIDE ME, an account of her relationship with serial killer Ted Bundy.

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