A Tangled Web

April 10, 2020

Rule (Coast to Coast Ghosts: True Stories of Hauntings Across America) carries on the true crime traditions of her mother, the late best-selling author Anne Rule, to deliver an engrossing, bizarre tale of stolen identities that moved between the real and digital spheres. In 2012, a 37-year-old mother named Cari Farver disappeared. Farver's family, friends, and employer received text messages stating that she was taking off and giving custody of her young son to her mother; suspicious, Cari's mother reported her missing. What followed was an investigation into cyberstalking that encompassed years of digital threats, punctuated by real-world violence. Rule's descriptions of the many digital platforms involved and the tactics used to investigate the case can be overwhelming, but she successfully untangles the details and offers in-depth looks into the lives and backgrounds of key figures. She handles sensational elements with care and writes with compassion for the victims. VERDICT A deft, fascinating true crime story of obsession for fans of the genre as well as those who enjoyed John Bloom and Jim Atkinson's Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs.--Kate Bellody, SUNY New Paltz

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2020
Leslie Rule was only 17 when she began working as a photographer and assistant to her mother, prolific true-crime writer Ann Rule. Now a best-selling author herself, her first foray into her mother's genre is an investigation into a bizarre story of jealousy and stalking in the heart of the Midwest. The real people behind online dating profiles are often not whom they seem, but for recently single father of two, Dave Kroupa, one woman's misrepresentation led to years of harassment via text, email, and social media, impacting almost every aspect of his life. When a short but budding romance ends with Cari Farver's disappearance, Dave and her family are baffled by her sudden departure and an apparent change in personality, including rampant cyberstalking of Dave and his girlfriend, Liz Golyar. Rule's pedantic descriptions of technology are distracting, but the story is intriguing, as is Rule's telling. She moves beyond the sensational aspects to investigate the lives, families, and histories of everyone involved, from Dave, Cari, and Liz to the law-enforcement officials involved in unknotting this "tangled" case.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)