The latest from respected true crime veteran Rule (And Never Let Her Go, etc.) walks readers through the tortured
life and ugly murder of Sheila Bellush, a woman relentlessly pursued by her sexually obsessed ex-husband, Allen
Van Houte. The crime scene is horrific: Bellush lies dead in the kitchen while her toddler quadruplets are left
to walk naked through her blood. Bellush had long warned close friends that she feared her ex-husband's reprisals
and went so far as to request "if I'm not here... find Ann Rule and have her write my story." Rule, in classic
form, meticulously re-creates the prosaic lives of her characters, charting one woman's pleasantly humdrum
existence undermined by a man bent on making a fortune though defaulting on bank loans and pedestrian cons, such
as swindling family members. After he lured Bellush into his world of sexual play, she left him, and he hired
a man to kill her. The subsequent fallout included a complex and lengthy inquiry by investigators. There are no
surprises here for the reader, though some may enjoy Rule's examination of Van Houte's manipulative and predatory
nature.

Download File Size:197.52 MB

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