Gone Forever

A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal, and Murder

By: Diane Fanning

Narrated by: Jane Cramer

Susan McFarland watched, powerless, as her husband, Rick McFarland, went into a downhill spiral of get-rich-quick schemes, quirky shopping trips, and prescription-drug abuse. Susan, a rising star at a major corporation, finally had enough. When she decided to call it quits, Rick ended her life, leaving three young boys - ages 5, 8, and 11 - without a mother.

A two-month long search by law enforcement and volunteers found no trace of the missing woman. Rick knew where her charred body was but told his boys that their mother would be back - she just needed a break from them. What would the future hold for the three innocent boys caught up in the perfect storm of betrayal and murder?

Diane Fanning is the author of the Edgar Award finalist Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and a Deadly 16-Year-Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart. Her other works of true crime include the best seller Mommy's Little Girl, A Poisoned Passion, The Pastor's Wife, and Through the Window. She is also the author of the Lucinda Pierce Mysteries: The Trophy Exchange, Punish the Deed, Mistaken Identity, Twisted Reason, and False Front. She has been featured on 48 Hours, 20/20, Court TV, The Today Show and the Discovery Channel, and has been interviewed on dozens of radio stations coast to coast. Her books are sold throughout the English-speaking world, including the UK and Australia, and there are more than half a million copies in print. Before becoming a writer, Fanning worked in advertising, and she earned more than 70 Addy Awards.

©2006 Diane Fanning (P)2012 Diane Fanning

Very Good Audiobook

Another great TRUE CRIME book from this author! She does such good research and does a great job in conveying the lives of the people involved! Excellent narration. one of the best I've heard.

Amazing tension for such clear guilt.

This true crime book really stands out in several ways. There's barely a sense of whodunit and no lengthy trial. (I think there's more on the custody hearing after he's been convicted than his actual murder trial). The tension is all built around the back story and law enforcement's attempts at finding the body. That being said, it still draws you into the very strange and unsettling world of the moral and mental decline of Rick McFarland. Jane Cramer's narration is excellent. I really felt at times she was telling me about people she knew rather than a recounting of details amassed from newspapers and police reports and put in to a narrative. This is due to Diane Fanning's clearly empathetic writing paired with Jane's soft accents and almost Christopher Walken's like gait to some of Rick's words, particularly as he's spiraling downwards.

Interesting story

The author definitely gave life to Susan despite hers having been taken. It’s not a whodunit book which is fine. I appreciated that the narrator didn’t try to lower her voice when speaking something said by a man in the book. That seriously gets on my nerves. She was very frank narrating and I think she did a good job, though if you prefer to hear different voices from the narrator you’ll probably find it a little monotonous.

Very heartbreaking

What a very annoying and aggravating husband. So immature and pathetic. Constantly buying things. Not working. Yikes what weight that must of been.

HOW SAD SHE STAYED<br />

Domestic violence that ends the life of a beautiful, hard working loving mother of three.