Review: Stranger Beside Me

Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Unlike other Ann Rule books I have listened to, I find this one harder to review. I knew prior to starting it that she had been a co-worker and friend to Ted Bundy at the time he started his path to being a notorious serial killer. And I was, of course, familiar with Ted Bundy but listening to this book made me realize just how little I actually knew about his killing spree.

I can't imagine what it would be like to discover the person whose criminal acts you have been commissioned to write a book about is your friend; as she said (paraphrased), that's not even something Hollywood scriptwriters come up with. I felt as though part of the book was her trying to process that shock - that in some respects she wrote this book not only because it was her job to do so but as a therapeutic tool, especially since there were a couple of places in which she still indicated an uncertainty he killed as many woman as he was accused and convicted of.

That being said, the audiobook version I listened to was abridged so I'm not sure how much was left out. The gist of it was there, enough so that I'm considering watching the Netflix series to see that perspective, but not enough to read the abridged version.

Overall, an interesting, first hand account of Bundy's reign of terror from someone who had a ringside seat into his life, but I've liked other books of hers better.

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