- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Free Press (Oct 7 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743202988
- ISBN-13: 978-0743202985
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #683,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Former Seattle police officer and crime author Rule (Small Sacrifices; Dead by Sunset, etc.) knows a good drama when she finds one: it involves love, betrayal, greed and violence. In the story of Liysa Northon, a woman who murdered her third husband, Chris Northon, in order to collect his insurance money, Rule has found a real-life soap opera. In the fall of 2000, Liysa convinced Chris to go on a camping trip with her and their small son in the remote forests of Oregon. But the idyllic vacation didn't last long; Liysa would later admit to ending her husband's life by shooting him in the head in an act of "self-defense." From where she sits today (in an Oregon state prison), she still professes to have shot Chris only in innocence and fear-emotions she said were caused by her years as a victim of domestic violence. But according to her husband's parents and other sources, Liysa is a manipulative sociopath who spent years crafting a public façade of abuse persuasive enough to justify the cold-blooded murder of her husband. Rule has done an impressive amount of research to reconstruct the history of Liysa's crime and the stories of the main people involved, interviewing dozens of police officers, investigators and private citizens across the country. And if the author's prose is somewhat flat, the fascinating and perplexing drama should be more than enough to keep most readers turning pages.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Rule is the former Seattle cop whose next-phone neighbor on a suicide hot line was Ted Bundy; her wrenching account of how she slowly learned that the wonderful guy next to her was an accomplished serial killer became the best-selling Stranger beside Me (1980) and led Rule away from police work and into full-time true-crime writing. You can still see the cop in Rule: she interrogates witnesses, tracks down inconsistencies in stories, slogs through victims' letters and e-mails, analyzes forensic evidence, attends trials. The sheer weight of her investigative technique places her at the forefront of true-crime writers, some of whom substitute sensationalism for evidentiary rigor. In this, Rule's twenty-second book, she examines an Oregon murder in which both the murderer and the murdered were regarded as out-and-out victims by their relatives and friends. In the fall of 2000, an undersheriff's end-of-season check of a remote campground yields the discovery of an abandoned car and a sleeping bag with a shotgunned man inside. His wife, Liysa Northon, claims that she was long a victim of domestic abuse and shot him to protect her and their small child. Rule constructs an examination of character as well as evidence here, because the case hangs on the believability of the beautiful and charming widow. This time Rule's account is marred by too much background on tangential figures in the drama and by a narrative that lacks the tautness of many of her other books, but the case itself remains fascinating and strange. Not her best, but good enough to engage her many fans. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THE MOUNTAINS and high plains of extreme northeastern Oregon are so far from well-traveled freeways that even most Oregonians have never been to this wilderness area where the sky seems close enough to touch. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE MOUNTAINS and high plains of extreme northeastern Oregon are so far from well-traveled freeways that even most Oregonians have never been to this wilderness area where the sky seems close enough to touch. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't buy this book -- bad bad writing,
By bcd "avid reader" (West Union, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (Hardcover)
Oh, my. The story might have been a good one, but the writing is awful. How awful? .Paragraphs don't hang together, chapters don't hang together. It's repetitive. "For all intents and purposes..." used at least three times. Ms. Rule's writing is stilted and has no flow. Moreover, the story wasn't developed in a suspenseful manner, though it could have been. I never read Ann Rule before and I won't again. Can't believe she's a best-selling writer. It was a waste of my money.
2.0 out of 5 stars
bookfull of lies,
By Darla Sherwood (spokane, washington USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (Hardcover)
This book is overall written very well, however I thought a "true crime" book was supposed to contain mostly factual information. I am a family member (a first cousin) to Liysa Northon and I found 95% of the "facts" to be appalling and incorrect. I believe this author should at least donate a portion of her sales from this book to the victims of domestic violence charity.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE BEST LAID PLANS OFTEN GO AWRY...,
By
This review is from: Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the story of a disturbed woman, Liysa Northon who, through pure greed, self-interest, and an inflated sense of self, premeditatedly killed her husband, Chris, whom she no longer loved. She then claimed to have been a battered woman who killed her husband in self-defense. Unfortunately for her, as the evidence showed, nothing could have been further from the truth. Liysa Northon began laying the groundwork for her husband's murder well in advance of its actual commission.While she was successful in killing her husband, she ultimately was not successful in beating the rap. Liysa Northon simply was not as smart as she thought she was. Compelling forensic evidence and the massive amount of lies that she told came back to bite her on the butt. She was, however, fortunate to have been offered a remarkably favorable plea bargain during the course of her trial, which plea deal, not surprisingly, she took. Ultimately, she was hoisted by her own petard. As a career prosecutor, I applaud the investigators and the prosecutor in this case for their efforts in unraveling the web of lies with which Liysa Northon hoped to ensnare the gullible and go on her merry way. My heart goes out to the family of Chris Northon and to the children involved for what this unprincipled, selfish, and possibly mentally ill woman has put them through. As for Ms. Northon, I hope that when she is released from prison, she will not seek to make her children's lives a living hell. Ann Rule is truly the doyenne of the true crime genre. Once again, she has taken a true crime and brought it vividly to life for the reader. In order to do so, the author interviewed many of those named in the book. It should be noted, however, that Liysa Northon declined to be interviewed. So, her friends and family really should not complain about her portrayal in the book. Moreover, the author's analysis of the people and events in the book is interesting and well-thought out. All in all, this is a well-researched, well-written true crime book. Those who enjoy this genre will like this book a great deal.
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