Every Breath You Take

A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder

By: Ann Rule

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 20 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

America’s number one true-crime writer fulfills a murder victim’s desperate plea with this shattering New York Times best seller.

“If anything ever happens to me...find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story.”

In perhaps the first true-crime book written at the victim's request, Ann Rule untangles a web of lies and brutality that culminated in the murder of Sheila Blackthorne Bellush - a woman Rule never met, but whose shocking story she now chronicles with compassion, exacting detail, and unvarnished candor. 

Although happily ensconced in a loving second marriage and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila never truly escaped the vicious enslavement of her ex-husband, multimillionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer - and a violent, controlling sociopath who subjected Sheila to unthinkable abuse in their marriage and terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge.

©2002 Ann Rule. Originally published in hardcover in 2001 by The Free Press. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

reader

The reader does a good job IF you set the speed on 1.10. The story is good.

Difficult to finish

Very draggy and over loaded with Court Transcripts. I thought this awful story would never end.

Good book

Good narration. Long story with lots of detail of characters and plot. Good pace on the performance and narrators telling of the murder.

no ending

this book lacks an addendum. Allen had died in prison so one would expect an update.

I love Ann Rule books

Overall a good book and worth the listen! Thought they didn’t quite pronounce the town of Boerne right, it is more like BURN nee! Lived in Texas for years and thought they could have researched that better.

How Can Some BE SO HATEFUL?

I'd gotten a glimpse of this story due to living in TX during these years yet has No Idea how Truly Horrible People Can Be. Tho fascinated by all the details also dazed by the fact the innocent really get little respect.

Pulls you in

Great story telling from the first chapter. The pace of the book is great. the story is heart wrenching but a must read.

Well done but court transcripts drag on

Well done Ann Rule is great as ever stocked full of forensic and human character details. She def brings this memorable tragic story to life. Cons are that Ann Rule, as usual, is a bit one dimensional and moralistic about the minor characters dividing all those even peripherally involved into broad strokes of good and Evil.

The narrator was really good EXCEPT for she made every witness who responded “yes” or “no” during cross examination as if a question mark at the end. Every single witness on every single statement. Did X happen? … No?! Or Yes?! This began to grate on my nerves but overall great book

Yet another book of superfluous religion packed in

Normally these would be well written, informative, and captivating books. Unfortunately, this is just another book packed with FAR too much religion! There's absolutely no reason to include so many gods, demons, spirits, ghosts, etc., into a book, especially since no such things exist! Somehow Ann Rule finds every single religious murder victim/family member in the country! There's no way that she can say that every single person in every single book she writes prays as much as she says they do!
After having listened to a few of her books, I can no longer handle the superfluous religious references sure packs into her books!
It's already ridiculous that in this day in age, people still believe such nonsense, but for these people to not even recognize the irony in the fact that the very same magic sky fairy they're asking for favors is the very same magic sky fairy that allowed their family member to be slaughtered in the first place is just too ridiculous!!

Ann Rule covers everything

She does not leave anything out. I felt like I was in the courtroom. I felt for the children especially the two eldest daughters which are actually older than me, even though I’m closer to Sheila’s age currently.