WAS SHE A SWEET SOUTHERN CHARMER?OR A COLD-BLOODED KILLER?For their wedding portrait, petite Pat Taylor and handsome Tom Allanson posed as Rhett and Scarlett. Both came from fine Southern families, and dreamed of the Tara-like plantation where they would grow roses, raise horses, and move in the genteel circles of Atlanta society. Less than two months later, their dream exploded in terror and murder: their beautiful home mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom was convicted of the brutal slaying of his mother and father.Pat's only brother had died in a puzzling suicide, her grandparents-in-law were poisoned with arsenic, and no one -- from her wealthy employers to her own children -- was safe when Pat Allanson didn't get her way. It took Georgia lawmen more than two decades to stop her for good -- if indeed they have.In this fascinating account, Ann Rule delivers a tour de force: a whirlwind of misguided love, denial, guilt, and passions out of control; a series of brilliantly manipulated crimes; the bizarre and horrifying tale of two families brought to ruin; and, at the center of it all, the heartless, supremely selfish sociopath whose evil hid behind soft words and gentle manners, but who destroyed -- without mercy -- those who loved her.

Ann Rule is a former Seattle policewoman and the author of twenty New York Times bestsellers, including eight Crime Files volumes: Last Dance, Last Chance; Empty Promises; A Rage to Kill; The End of the Dream; In the Name of Love; A Fever in the Heart; You Belong to Me; and A Rose for Her Grave. She is also the author of Every Breath You Take, the only true-crime book written at the request of the murder victim-a woman ensnared by the violent obsessions of her millionaire ex-husband; ...And Never Let Her Go, the nationally renowned case of deadly seducer Thomas Capano, which was made into a CBS miniseries; and Bitter Harvest, which unravels the shattering case of Debora Green, a doctor and loving mother driven to lethal acts of vengeance. Her other titles include the bestsellers If You Really Loved Me, Everything She Ever Wanted, Small Sacrifices, Dead by Sunset, The Want-Ad Killer, The I-5 Killer, Lust Killer, and her classic The Stranger Beside Me, the unnerving chronicle of Rule's dawning horror as she realized her friend and coworker, Ted Bundy, was a serial killer. She has also written a #1 New York Times bestselling novel, Possession. Ann Rule has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee and regularly presents seminars to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI Academy, as well as district attorneys and victim support groups. She served on the U.S. Justice Department task force that set up VI-CAP (the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program now in place at FBI headquarters) to track and trap serial killers. She lives near Seattle. For more information, visit her website at www.annrules.com.