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A Collection of Miscellaneous Cases

 Author: Ann Rule

Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors and Other True Cases is a very loosely themed collection composed mostly of cold cases and random rape / murder stories. The idea, ostensibly, is to focus on cases that hit close to home, but the reality is more of a hodge-podge of tales that fit more under a “miscellaneous” heading than anything else.

The first two chapters are novella length, taking up most of the real estate in the book. Neither, however, are especially satisfying, leaving more unanswered and speculated upon than revealed. The first chapter concentrates on the famous Powell family cases. Susan Cox Powell disappeared on December 6, 2009. Her body was never found, but suspicions steadily fell on her husband, Josh Powell, and his brother. While nothing was ever proved, Josh’s degenerating mental health led him to rig a bomb in his house that killed both himself and his two children. Rule opines on what really happened and talks about the signs of distress in the supposedly devout Mormon household.  The chapter focuses on the nature of toxic love and control, and all the signs that were missed, but nothing new is added to the case, and we’re ultimately left as we began: with speculations and ideas, but no real answers.

The second chapter, also novella length, is more of the same. It focuses on two strange deaths that occurred within 48 hours at a billionaire’s home in Coronado. Maxfield Shacknai, the billionaire’s son, died in a freak accident, falling from an indoor balcony. The trajectory of his fall, however, leaves many questions unanswered. Is it possible that this was an accident or did someone send the little boy on his scooter to his death? Two days later, Rebecca Zahau, the girlfriend and one of the few people in the house at the time of Max’s death, is found naked, bound by a rope, hanging from an outside balcony, clearly murdered. Are the deaths connected? If so, was it the same killer for both? Was one retribution and one accident? Were both planned? The answer, again, remains completely unknown and is honestly better addressed by Bailey Sarian’s Murder Mystery episode than Rule’s unnecessarily detailed, yet ultimately pointless, inclusion here.

Image by Sammy-Sander from Pixabay

These two stories, neither of which engender a true answer, but remain firmly in “cold case” territory, set the tone of this collection. The other six stories are outliers, and not even necessarily connected by the family or neighbor theme. Some are better than others, some solved, others cold, but there is no true unifying theme, and these stories are breezed through, despite the length and focus of the first two narratives.

In these remaining six stories, Rule covers (in order) the chilling story of Burle D. Bramhall and his wife, Olive, who were both murdered by a schizophrenic neighbor despite their goodness and philanthropy; the story of Rodger Peck, a serial arsonist; a serial rapist who is caught, serves his time, and after his time buys a gun, leaving readers chilled to think what he will do next; the Valentine’s Day murder of sixteen year old Dina Peterson and the suspicions of the police that focus on the boyfriend and on the neighborhood friend; an abusive relationship that turns, unsurprisingly, deadly; a serial rapist who tracks women on a mountain trail and turns out to be an AWOL army ranger; and finally, the case of a nine-year-old girl, captured, raped, and killed while running an errand.

Overall, this is a very so-so collection. It has a left-over feel, as though Rule took random essays with nowhere else to go and slammed them into a collection. Not my personal favorite. For a shortish collection of Rule works, I instead recommend Without Pity.

 

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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