Practice to Deceive

by Ann Rule

Overview

From “America’s best true-crime writer” (Kirkus Reviews) Ann Rule comes the New York Times bestselling mystery novel of drama, greed, sex, scandal, and murder on an eerie island in the Pacific Northwest.

Nestled in Puget Sound and accessible only by ferry, Whidbey Island is a gem off the coast of Washington State where life is insular and the island’s year-round residents tend to know one another’s business. But when the blood-drenched body of Russel Douglas is discovered the day after Christmas in his SUV, the whole island is shocked. No one can imagine who among them could plot such a cold-blooded crime. And like a cast of characters from a mystery novel, a host of Whidbey residents fall under suspicion.

Brenna Douglas was Russel’s estranged and soon-to-be-ex wife, who allowed him to come home for a Christmas visit with their children. Brenna often complained to her good friend Peggy Sue that Russel was physically and emotionally abusive. Married three times, Peggy Sue’s own life has been one of extremes: hers is a rags-to-riches-and-back-again tale. But in 2003, her love affair with married guitarist Jim Huden led the two Whidbey Island natives to pursue their ultimate dreams of wealth and privilege—even at the expense of human life.

Unravel the tangled web woven by Russel Douglas’s murder in Practice to Deceive, the newest heart pounding true-crime tour de force from Ann Rule.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416544630
Publisher:	Pocket Books
Publication date:	10/21/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	134,438
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Ann Rule wrote thirty-five New York Times bestsellers, all of them still in print. Her first bestseller was The Stranger Beside Me, about her personal relationship with infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. A former Seattle police officer, she used her firsthand expertise in all her books. For more than three decades, she was a powerful advocate for victims of violent crime. She lived near Seattle and passed away in 2015.

Hometown:

Seattle, Washington

Date of Birth:

October 22, 1935

Place of Birth:

Lowell, Michigan

Education:

Creative Writing Program, University of Washington

Editorial Reviews

2013-10-01
The reigning true-crime queen dips into the darker side of love and mayhem in her latest microscopic take on homicide. The day after Christmas 2003, Russ Douglas, a father of two who was separated from his hairdresser wife, Brenna, was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head in his car on Whidbey Island, Wash. But investigators couldn't find the gun, which made suicide an unlikely conclusion. In addition, Douglas' widow didn't seem too concerned with her husband's death. After digging around in Douglas' past, police found many contradictions. Eventually, their investigation led to an informant who tied individuals into the case who weren't even on police radar at the beginning. Rule (Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors, 2012, etc.) has written many successful true-crime books and has a following that is both devoted and legion. But in the past decade, the writer, who calls the Northwest U.S. home, has fished in her own waters so much that many of the quasi-local cases she covers are less than extraordinary. Although it received national publicity, the Whidbey case isn't particularly compelling, and the investigation, while dogged, isn't brilliant. While the crime's particulars might be fascinating to Whidbey residents and friends of the participants, in Rule's hands, they're underwhelming and dull. The author includes every minute case detail, including false leads, and a large portion of the book is based on background information that has little to do with the actual homicide--including a detailed description of the death of one of the participants' stepmothers, who died many years before the participant's birth. Rule's die-hard fans may be enamored, but other true-crime fans won't find much more than a yawn lurking between these pages.

Kirkus Reviews