Lightning never strikes twice

Considered to be America's top true-crime writer, Ann Rule writes in depth about the kind of people most of us hope to never meet in this lifetime lest we end up in the next. Perhaps her fascination with murderers has much to do with an episode in the early 1970s when, while working at a Seattle crisis clinic, her friend and co-worker was none other than Ted Bundy, later found to be involved in the serial killing of at least 30 women (a life experience she later penned down in her best-selling The Stranger Beside Me).

The opening lines of Too Late to Say Goodbye throw us bang in the middle of a crime scene. Sirens pierce the December chill. Jenn Corbin is found dead by her seven-year-old son, Dalton, who rushes to a neighbour's house announcing that, "Daddy shot my mommy," even though in reality, he had not witnessed anything except the escalating rows between his parents. Initially, the police investigations point to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head as being the cause of death, although detective Marcus Head is not totally convinced, and neither is Jenn's family. For why would a loving mother and a woman eager to begin a new life commit suicide? As the story unfolds, the façade of the idyllic Corbin family dissolves, leaving behind the shocking reality of a failed marriage and an imminent divorce.

We are soon faced with yet another revelation: 14 years earlier, Dolly Hearn, who was Dr Bart Corbin's former girlfriend, died in similar circumstances. One suicide can perhaps be explained, but the odds of two women linked romantically to the same man taking their own lives are as remote as being struck twice by lightning and living to tell the story. However, there is a lot of distance to cover between knowing that a crime has occurred and proving it beyond any reasonable doubt, as the investigators find out for themselves.

Ms Rule successfully knits together the story of these two women, which inevitably leads to frequent slides up and down the time scale. Still, Ms Rule manages to make the transition smooth enough so that readers seldom have to refer back to previous chapters to refresh their memory. However, what is immediately striking in Ms Rule's style is her ability to take on a systematic approach to a crime. She manages to take the intricate set of events surrounding the crime and weave them into a well-structured, flowing narrative. This straightforward approach affords the inclusion of just enough detail to keep the reader interested. Ms Rule presents us with interviews, police reports, forensic and scientific results, as well as ample biographical detail, which help enhance the narrative.

She tackles the crime from three points of view, namely those of the offender, the victims and the law enforcement system. It is here that we can appreciate the writer's dedication, which translates into months of interviews and research in order to explore the reasons behind the criminal behaviour. Ms Rule goes back to the main characters' early childhood, exploring their family and relationships in an attempt to find an explanation for their behaviour. Yet even as she describes the perpetrators of crimes, she never loses sight of their and their victims' families: Ms Rule manages to convey the victims sympathetically, and their stories are told with great empathy and sensitivity, even when delving into the most intimate of details.

The author makes this absorbing true crime account read like a work of fiction, and will leave readers turning pages to uncover the story of an absorbing crime that almost went unsolved had it not been for the most useful tools a detective might have: luck and perseverance.

• Mr Mallia is a science graduate, currently reading for Doctor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Malta. Although he has been taught that laughter is the best medicine, he still thinks that a good book is a much better drug.

• The review copy of this title was supplied by ARCO - Allied Retail and Commercial Co. Ltd.