Sad and scary, but the story was put together decently enough. ( )

I remember watching the Lifetime movie for this when I was a kid and becoming quite fascinated with Clancy Brown's voice. At the time I didn't realize that the movie was based on a true story. "If You Really Loved Me" by Ann Rule shows how David Brown was able to manipulate his 14 year old daughter (Cinnamon) and his wife's teenage sister (Patti) in a plot that would ultimately end in Linda Brown's death.

I think what gets me most about true crime books is that you have to wonder sometimes how can people be this awful to another person and you shake your head at the evidence that comes out via the investigators, forensics, and witnesses.

I think the thing that gets me the most is that I thought that David Brown was very much a predator of children and it's terrible that was glossed over in a way by a lot of people that should have had some warning signs going off when a 20 year old guy was hanging out with pre-teens. I just can't imagine something going on like that today and one one saying a word.

I have read Ann Rule's books before so they can get formulaic after a while. She tends to start with the crime for the most part and then jumps back to victim and murders beginnings. She adds in details from witnesses she talked to or even from the court cases she has sat in and gleaned from testimony. Then shes does this all over again with the police and those in the prosecution office and sometimes with the defense. Sometimes some of the detail tends to overwhelm you if you don't know exactly what she is talking about, but I found that she tries to break her writing down so a layman can follow.

What made this book so fascinating and what I can't recall if they showed in the Lifetime tv movie was that when David Brown gets sent to jail and is held for bail he digs his hole even deeper. You have to wonder about this man's intelligence when you read about what his plans were for getting out of the trouble he was in.

She apparently updated this book at some point, cause there were several "endings" so to speak where she explains what happened to David Brown, Cinnamon Brown, Patti Bailey, and other people we are introduced to in this book.
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A 500 page book about crimes committed by one person. I thought I'd yawn my way through the last 200 pages, but not so. Ann has a knack for keeping the story interesting. ( )

I really enjoyed this book, well . . . as much as one can enjoy a story about a killer and manipulator. It was difficult for me to read about a father doing such terrible things to every member of his family, but that was also what kept me turning the pages.

Ann Rule can be repetitive in the way she tells her stories. I suppose she tries to write in some mystery and surprise, but it usually results in 20 pages that could have been covered in 5. However, that didn't bother me in this book . . . I guess the story overcame the verbose writing. ( )

I know I really liked reading this book. ( )