Practice to Deceive

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive... Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)With her experience and expertise in true crime writing/reporting Ann Rule skillfully weaves a complex storyline beginning with murder, and behind this scene, family tragedy, lies, greed, and betrayal masked in the beauty behind a "femme fatal": in her latest book "Practice to Deceive".In 2003, I remember reading about the shocking shooting death of Russel Douglas days after Christmas in the Seattle Times. He was found shot to death December 26, 2003 in his SUV in an isolated area on Whidbey Island, located across the Puget Sound from Seattle. When Sheriff detectives went to inform his widow Brenna that the father of their two small children was found shot dead, she readily spoke to them, admitted she had been separated from her husband, answered questions etc. Her indifference and lack of emotion, trashing his character, (some allegations were later unproven) immediately raised their suspicion. Later, she would only speak to detectives in the presence of her attorney.Ann Rule further explains the connection between Brenna Douglas and Peggy Sue Stackhouse Thomas. Thomas was a beautician that rented a chair in Douglas "B's Beauty Salon", and Douglas rented Thomas house. The Stackhouse family was one of the two larger families on Whidbey with a total of 9 children, Thomas was the youngest, doted on, believed to be favored and indulged by her parents over the other kids. The Stackhouse family also had terrible tragedy in their background, with the 1963 murder of Thomas father first wife Mary Ellen, leaving him a widower with 6 small children. Following the murder, he was reassigned to Whidbey Island Naval Station, where he married Doris Alton, Thomas's mother. Tragedy struck again years later, when Thomas's half-brother Rob was shot to death while attempting to break-up a fight.The history of tragedy couldn't help but influence the Stackhouse family, especially impacting Thomas in a most negative way. Thomas always excelled at whatever she did. Becoming a star basketball player in high school, joining the military she became an aircraft mechanic, mother of two daughters, later a beauty queen, beautician, entrepreneur, limousine chauffer where she met and was briefly married to her third multi-millionaire husband Mark Allen. After a beautiful lavish wedding ceremony/reception, Allen generously giving thousands in gifts to her family and friends, was promptly dumped by Peggy Sue after she acquired material goods/assets for herself. Jim Huden, a married man who she had a passionate affair in prior years, seemingly had been forgotten entirely.There were no motives, no weapon found, no leads or evidence in the Douglas murder case until detectives appealed to the public for any information relating to the case. Startling new information was discovered, linking Jim Huden and Peggy Sue Thomas to Douglas's murder. It would take Sheriff's detective Mark Plumberg's unrelenting pursuit of over ten years to bring this case to justice in February 2013. Many pages of excellent photographs are featured.Ann Rule wrote this story with the co-operation of many friends, families, and authorities connected with this case. She has written 33 books since the 1970's when she wrote "The Stranger Beside Me" about her relationship with the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. Rule meets her readers frequently in the Seattle area at book signings. I have met her twice and have several signed books. A former Seattle police officer, Rule is a certified instructor and lectures in law enforcement and forensic science, she lives in Seattle, Washington.

I, too, am an "ARF" (Ann Rule fan), and have almost every book she has written. She is my favorite true crime writer. "Practice to Deceive" would not rate high as one of my favorites, however. In several of her past books, she draws you to the victim (many people who are AR's detractor's say this is a huge negative and consider it biased writing), making the reader see the real person underneath-flaws and all-was so much more than just an tragic homicide statistic (eg: Every Breath You Take, Too Late to Say Goodbye, In The Still of the Night, And Never Let Her Go, etc.) Strangely enough, I often finish an Ann Rule book thinking: "I wish I had known him or her.". To me, that speaks volumes of a truly masterful yet eloquent author. Hard to put into proper words, but "Practice to Deceive" left me with none of that. I could understand well enough, but at times I was having to go back and re-read previous paragraphs to follow the line of the story. It didn't pull me in and draw me along, and left me feeling a bit flat. For the first time ever, I was...well, somewhat bored with the the entire group: victim, investigators, friends, family, suspects-the whole lot! I suppose that was because this victim had really no one who spoke up or out for him to tell his side to make the reader see the living person he was. There was more colorful and interesting, even bizarre, background on Peggy Sue and Jim than Russ Douglas! Sorry, Ann.Of all of Ann Rule's books dealing with victims and their surviving loved ones, I think the woman I relate to and admire most, wishing I knew personally (and regret that I don't) is Barb Thompson (Ronda Reynold's mother=In The Still of The Night). I have on my bucket list: "Buy one of Barb Thompson's foals!" :)

I am really torn on rating this book. This book was a quick and interesting read - Ann Rule excels at suspenseful yet concise narrative. So, in that regard, I'd give this book four stars. It's not as good as some of Rule's other books (specifically "Stranger Beside Me" or "Everything She Ever Wanted"), but it's still engrossing in terms of pace and intrigue.My bigger issue with this book is the author's biased commentary. Peggy Sue (one of the central characters in the book) was already unlikeable without additional commentary by Rule. (SPOILER ALERT) Rule writes, "It was almost as if she had her own 'bucket list,' and setting up and getting away with murder was high on that list." There were other comments like that in the book - purely speculative and frankly not really all that believable. This particular character seemed primarily motivated by money, so the "bucket list" comment was just weird. Also, Rule honed in on Peggy Sue as the mastermind behind the crime. She was definitely involved, but I thought Rule focused her vitriol on Peggy Sue and not on Jim Huden, the idiot who actually pulled the trigger. Rule seems to blame Peggy Sue for being conniving and persuasive without putting enough responsibility on the man who let another person convince him to commit murder. In fact, Rule even suggests that Huden would never have killed had it not been for Peggy Sue's influence. That may or may not be true, but Huden had previously admitted that he wanted the chance to get even with his late stepfather by physically confronting someone who was similarly abusive. So it is unclear whether Peggy Sue is as cunning as she is made out to be in this book or if she was already dealing with a loose cannon who wasn't hard to persuade. I am certainly not defending Peggy Sue, but I think the author's hatred for the criminals in this case is unevenly distributed, and that was consistent throughout the book. That, plus the fact that the story isn't among the best Ann Rule has written about, is why I ultimately settled on giving this book three stars.

I've read the majority of Ann Rule's single story books and would have given them virtually without fail 4 sometimes verging on 5 stars. However this one almost felt like it had been written by someone else. Although as far as I read there was the usual accuracy of detail it felt that much of the book was tenuously connected to the main story and was merely there to flesh out a pretty skimpy story. I gave up halfway through as it was clearly not to improve by that stage.Usually Rule's books are comfortingly lengthy but also bereft of any extraneous story padding.Maybe she was too ill by the time she wrote this to make it one of her usually finely polished quality or maybe because it was about a location dear to heart she was intent on fashioning a book set there even though the crime chosen could not be spun out to full book length. Whatever the case it remains the only real blemish on her career as one who always sat comfortably at the very top table of the true crime milieu.Now I've ploughed through it right to the end - I was going to leave it but was in the rare situation of not having any other books at hand - I just thought I'd add this. As others have commented this does not make me think of a good reader performing very much under par for whatever reason but more has me thinking she may have done the spade work but was not up to writing it up and this was done by a ghost writer. The whole style has nothing in common with Rule's usual way of writing and if another writer was indeed engaged it would have been far better if it had been published under another name with her name merely mentioned as having had input. This would have prevented any tarnishing of her reputation right at the end of her career.

I'm sad to say this, but Ann Rule is usually a guaranteed good read, but this book is.... only word I can think of is lazy! It's as though the book has stopped being written (which is possible as the murder and final court case spans 9-10 years), and some things are repeated as if the writer hasn't remembered that it's already there (for example, being told the name of a boat at least three times, and the fact that one of the suspects half sisters struggled with her own mothers death, this was repeated maybe four times).If you are expecting to find out about the suspects, which you usually do in a book, forget it. In my eyes it seems to be more about the unfortunate history of her father's first wife's murder, upbringing and her half siblings. It felt as though all of this info was only put in the book to "pack it out a bit" as the actual story could have (and probably should have) been put into a volume where each murder or case is covered in a couple of chapters.That said, still one of favourite real life murder writers and shall be buying another now after finishing this.Can't help but feeling very let down by this book, it think I could've got the same info from this book as if I'd gone onto the internet for ten minutes,

Ann Rule is, of course, the undisputed queen of true crime - but it has been some years since she has written a full length crime book. Although I have enjoyed her true crime 'files', it is good to have another more in depth read. This book begins on Whidbey Island, Washington. Home to sixty thousand residents, the island is a popular holiday resort and also houses a huge duty station for naval personnel. Much of the island is idyllic and the crime rate low.Two days after Christmas on 2003, a man's body was found in a car. The body had a single gunshot and was thought, initially, to be a possible suicide - as the holiday period is difficult for many. However, it was quickly established to be a homicide and the man identified as Russel Douglas. Russ has been visiting his estranged wife and two children for the holidays and, when the detectives visit her to inform her of the murder, they were surprised at her lack of reaction. The reaction of Brenna Douglas was the first strange occurence in a long and difficult investigation which would take many years to come to a conclusion.The author walks her readers through every step of the case - from the discovery of the body of Russ Douglas, through to a detailed description of every involved person, whether suspect or not, and asks who lured Russ to that isolated spot to kill him? All the way through the case, there were so many different opinions about the victim that the detectives felt they were dealing with more than one man. Hampered by a lack of evidence and a lack of motive, it would take years before some physical (rather than circumstantial) evidence would appear. This is Ann Rule at her best, with a detailed look at a crime and the tenacity of those involved in solving it to do so, against the odds. Lastly, I read the kindle version of this book and it had illustrations, which were exceptionally well presented for a kindle book. If you like true crime, then you will certainly appeciate this in depth look at a crime and its aftermath.

Another true crime story told superbly as usual by this author, who will be sadly missed. She's always been a big part of my own true crime library !! I will need to start collecting her collections now, instead, though I've always preferred the full-length cases. As usual she went deeply into this one, another I'd not heard of.I was left disappointed at the end, though, as the wife Brenna seemingly got away with any sort of involvement at all and she clearly had to have something to do with telling Peggy Sue all about Russel (whose name WAS spelt that way which irritated me throughout). Neither Peggy Sue nor her chap Jim knew Russel so someone else HAD to be involved. It saddens me they couldn't get anything on her. The punishment for Peggy Sue was not enough, either. Sometimes justice totally stinks.I felt sorry for Jimmie Stackhouse who lost so many people throughout his life. As Ann Rule stated, it became "Kennedyesque" and this was the perfect way to describe them......yet Jimmie just got on with things. Some of the men featured appeared to be total saps !! There was a mention of Peggy Sue flying to the Seattle area with one daughter whereas her fella' always said it was with both daughters. Not that it mattered in the scheme of things but I wondered why they differed here. I'm pleased the author allotted plenty of time to the Stackhouses as a family. It was so horribly tragic about Mary Ellen and the 6 kids and how things went. The girls' visit to their mum's grave, back to their old home and also to that parole hearing made me sniffy.....One of the biggest bitches in this story I thought was Peggy Sue's mother, Doris. No wonder she was such a callous, spoilt little cow. It was pretty amazing the amount of times Peggy Sue landed on her feet, though in reality it was on her back. Some men are soooooo easily led !!I saw a lot of reviewers weren't keen on this particular book by her but I don't really see it was written in any differing format to how she has always written so I don't really understand why it gets such a bashing, really.There WERE a couple of big old ouch moments where people's names were used in the wrong place or written differently. Russ' sister was Holly Hunziker or Holly Hunsicker depending on which part of the story you'd reached, which was careless, and then Jim supposedly went to Mark's apartment when it should've been Russel's !! We read about Jim attending Neil's memorial service in June 2002 when we're told he'd been married only 5 years yet Sue and Neil were supposedly married June 1987 ??? Someone got their dates wrong there. Plus, Jim couldn't have visited him in December 2003, either !! The maths was wrong as well when discussing Gilbert Thompson being close to 50 in 2002. He committed murder in 1963 aged 16 so by my mental arithmetic would be well over 50 !! Not that difficult to work this out to get it right. Though I WAS happy to see this author marked that awful thing Americans say, "drug," as an error. Thank goodness for that.As I say, I'll greatly miss this author. She's given me hours of entertainment for decades.

Love, love, love all of Ann Rule's books. She is one of the best true crime writers around. This story however was, in a way, quite pointless. I don't mean the actual book I mean the crime itself. The people who carried out the murder had no MO and it was all done on hear'say. I can imagine the family of the victim to be deeply distraught and robbed of a family member. (I won't give too much away) but the chapter about the Stackhouses was brilliant, so in depth. Rule went as far back in time as she could, and the whole life of Peggy Sue was captured. Makes you think that if that 17-year old boy hadn't done what he did then maybe none of this would have happened....