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Dead by Sunset

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About this listen

 From bestselling author Ann Rule comes the true story of Bradly Morris Cunningham, the handsome and successful entrereneur who married five different women and destroyed each of them.

The author of eight New York Times bestsellers, Ann Rule first won nationwide acclaim with The Stranger Beside Me, about serial killer Ted Bundy. Her Crime Files volumes, based on fascinating case histories, have assured her reputation as our premier chronicler of crime. Now the former Seattle policewoman brings us the horrific account of a charismatic man adored by beautiful and brilliant women who always gave him what he wanted...sex, money, and even their very lives.

When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare...

In this gripping account of Cheryl's murder, Ann Rule takes us from Brad's troubled boyhood to one of the most bizarre trials in legal history, uncovering multiple marriages, financial manipulations, infidelities, and monstrous acts of harassment and revenge along the way. Dead By Sunset is Ann Rule at her riveting best. Abductions, Kidnapping & Missing Persons Genre Fiction Murder Psychological True Crime
All stars
Most relevant
well written and highly engaging right through. I was invested in the story and characters right up until the end.

great book!

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The story was a little to long and left me a little bored but interesting, narration was good

drama

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The story - another beguiling sociopathic narcissist controls and bullies all the women in his life and can't cope when one by one they break away, ultimately leading to him killing the mother of three of his children - is engrossing. Bradly Morris Cunningham is a fascinating study for anyone interested in personality disorders, with his inflated ego and underlying hatred of women. Even today, in the face of all contrary evidence he proclaims his innocence from his jail cell, continuing to blame the whole world as conspiring against him. Ann Rule does a great job of recreating the case but at times the audiobook suffers from too much detail - things are repeated, life histories of peripheral characters are delved into in detail and so on. The book could have actually been improved by some serious editing.

That said, that wasn't my biggest bugbear about this book. It was actually the narrator. Richard Ferrone is fine with his deep rolling voice... until he has to narrate something a female would have said. Then he breaks into a prim falsetto which makes even the most intelligent character (for example his fifth wife, with the pseudonym of Sara Gordon, was a senior doctor, while the murdered ex-wife was a much revered attorney) sound like a ditzy schoolgirl. I simply can't bear to hear it again so won't be buying any of his other narrations.

Fascinating though not without faults

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It seems that Cunningham’s nature is the source of his guilt as far as Ms Rule is concerned. The fact he may have been a nasty piece of work doesn’t mean he was guilty. I was presented with scant evidence as to his guilt other than circumstantial. The hatred by women who once benefited from him seemed to have been the bet the writer could come up with. Yes, he probably did the crime, but the evidence and the vindictive nature of politics is self evident in this book.

Incredibly biased

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.