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The Stranger Beside Me: The Shocking True Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Ann Rule (Author), Lorelei King (Narrator), Simon & Schuster Audio (Publisher)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 12,879 ratings
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Ann Rule was working on the biggest story of her career, tracking the trail of victims left by a brutal serial killer. Little did this future best-selling author know that the savage slayer she was hunting was the young man she counted among her closest friends.

Everyone's picture of a natural winner, Ted Bundy was a bright, charming, and handsome man with a promising future as an attorney. But on January 24, 1989 Bundy was executed for the murders of three young women - and had confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more women from coast to coast. Ann Rule, who kept in constant contact with Bundy throughout the investigation, tells his story as no other person can, capturing the essence of his magnetic power, unholy compulsion, and demonic double life.

Available for the first time on audio, this shocking true story is an unforgettable listening experience. In an emotional reading, Rule tells us about Ted Bundy - the man she thought she really knew...the stranger beside her.

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  1. Listening Length
    18 hours and 29 minutes
  2. Author
    Ann Rule
  3. Narrator
    Lorelei King
  4. Audible release date
    March 23, 2012
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster Audio
  7. ASIN
    B007NVDZGA
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 18 hours and 29 minutes
Author Ann Rule
Narrator Lorelei King
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date March 23, 2012
Publisher Simon & Schuster Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B007NVDZGA
Best Sellers Rank #4,239 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#10 in Serial Killers True Crime
#29 in Crime & Criminal Biographies
#36 in Serial Killers True Accounts

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
12,879 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book well-written and easy to follow. They appreciate the insightful material and the author's thorough research. The emotional content is described as heartfelt, poignant, and haunting. Many readers describe the book as a great account of Ted Bundy from personal knowledge. However, some feel the story is repetitive and boring.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more
ReadabilityWriting qualityInsightEmotional contentBook reviewSuspensefulPacingStory quality
650 customers mention "Readability"647 positive3 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and informative. They describe it as a complete novel that is well-written and recommend it. The author is described as masterful and did an excellent job of capturing the story.

"...I most highly recommend this extraordinary book. It was originally written in 1980, updated a few times...." Read more

"...describes the situations, easy to follow along and makes everything really interesting!" Read more

"...However, having said that, I enjoyed reading this book...." Read more

"...They would work side by side for many, many nights. Ted was charming, well-educated, and showed a remarkable ability to keep suicidal people who..." Read more

331 customers mention "Writing quality"280 positive51 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book good. They say it's a well-written first-hand account of the Ted Bundy murders. The language is crisp and precise, never predictable. Readers appreciate the author's honest and straightforward narrative in a jargon-free way.

"...but no gruesome ones, and it's a big book, at 551 pages, every word relevant. It's a disturbing book and one that should be read." Read more

"I love how the author describes the situations, easy to follow along and makes everything really interesting!" Read more

"...have written books about Ted Bundy, but thanks to Ann Rule's superb writing skills, experience with serial killer cases and genuine insight into the..." Read more

"...to write these true crime novels in such a way that the layman can understand and follow but she still uses the police and detective crime jargon...." Read more

212 customers mention "Insight"212 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and well-researched. They appreciate the author's knowledge and experience in covering the case. The book provides an interesting perspective and a powerful study of the human psyche. Readers also mention that the book provides updates and new facts.

"...qualified when it came to criminals, and I very much appreciated how honest and humble she was at admitting that she, like so many others, had been..." Read more

"...what it was like to know Bundy from different viewpoints and provided great insight into how people are not always what they seem." Read more

"...skills, experience with serial killer cases and genuine insight into the criminal mind The Stranger Beside Me is definitely among the best of all of..." Read more

"...I think she was incredibly honest in her eventual evaluation of ‘what’ he was, the consummate manipulator until the very end, and quite frankly the..." Read more

47 customers mention "Emotional content"33 positive14 negative

Customers find the book heartfelt and emotional, with empathy for the victims and their families. The author's voice is poignant and haunting as she describes them. They appreciate the good balance of honoring the victims while detailing the crimes. Readers describe the story as fascinating, remorseful, and tragic.

"...With a clinical eye, she describes the crimes, but she shows much compassion for the victims...." Read more

"...The story is blunt, bleak, and makes no effort to explain the crimes...." Read more

"...find that the author tended, occasionally, to be repetitive and overly introspective...." Read more

"...I feel she did a good job at honoring the victims while also trying to explain her complicated emotions to what had seemed like a good friend...." Read more

36 customers mention "Book review"36 positive0 negative

Customers find the book about Ted Bundy insightful and personal. It provides a detailed look at the serial killer's life from childhood to his crimes. Readers appreciate the author's honest and frank portrayal of Ted. The book is based on true accounts and details from the author's own relationship with Ted.

"...The book is based on true accounts of Ted Bundy, and details from early childhood to his demise." Read more

"I am really enjoying this book about Ted Bundy...." Read more

"This is by far the best book ever written about Ted Bundy. I don't just mean about his crimes I mean about his character...." Read more

"This is the major book on Ted Bundy by a top true crime author who actually knew Bundy personally...." Read more

172 customers mention "Suspenseful"120 positive52 negative

Customers have mixed reactions about the book. Some find it chilling and gripping, with rich details about Ted Bundy's activities and horrific crimes. Others find the descriptions graphic and disturbing.

"...There are pictures but no gruesome ones, and it's a big book, at 551 pages, every word relevant. It's a disturbing book and one that should be read." Read more

"...This is a story of a madman. But it is also the story of a friendship strong enough to make the deeds of this serial killer unfathomable to someone..." Read more

"...This is a haunting and extraordinarily disturbing book - often difficult to read. Yet, I also found it difficult to put down...." Read more

"...Bundy, but thanks to Ann Rule's superb writing skills, experience with serial killer cases and genuine insight into the criminal mind The Stranger..." Read more

48 customers mention "Pacing"20 positive28 negative

Customers have different views on the pacing of the book. Some find it fast-paced and insightful, with vivid portraits of the characters. Others feel the first half drags on and the ending seems excessively long.

"...The first half of the book is slow because it mostly deals with Ann’s background with Bundy and what she knew of his life as it intersected with her..." Read more

"...THE STRANGER BESIDE ME is very, very well written, well structured, fast paced, and flows smoothly...." Read more

"...book was an interesting and riveting read, although it tended to go on forever toward the end...." Read more

"...the various investigations (she doesn't dwell on lurid details), and draws fast, vivid portraits of the women Bundy killed and does a powerful job..." Read more

45 customers mention "Story quality"0 positive45 negative

Customers find the story repetitive and boring. They feel the multiple updates to the story are not well integrated, making it tiresome and lackluster. The story is also described as dark and dreary.

"...I did find that the author tended, occasionally, to be repetitive and overly introspective...." Read more

"...and while I appreciate the fact it was read by the author, the story itself was 'Meh at best...." Read more

"...This is a dreadful story and some things are difficult to read. I learned a LOT from this book...." Read more

"...For such a famous case, the book was quite lackluster, and did not hold my attention...." Read more

📖
5 out of 5 stars
📖
Fascinating.Ted Bundy was executed very shortly before I was born and although I’ve been a fan of true crime and all of the fine-line details since childhood, Ted Bundy and his crimes never really caught my attention until I watched “The Ted Bundy Tapes” on Netflix.Now I want to hear about him from every angle. Every person who has given an opinion in some way or written some form of documentation in accordance with Bundy and his crimes, I want to find.It will forever boggle my mind how a person as intelligent, handsome and (sometimes) charismatic could work at a crisis call center to help save people’s lives yet a switch flipped inside of him to make him take lives as well.This book is great! It left me hanging on a few things that I wanted to find more about (i.e. stating that Ted was a “necrophile” but never actually said a single thing to support that claim otherwise.)I’ll definitely read again though!
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Monique D
    5.0 out of 5 stars Positively riveting
    Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    True crime stories are not my usual fare; I had read precisely one before this book. But THE STRANGER BESIDE ME was on sale, and while I had heard of Ted Bundy - who hasn't! - I realised I knew nothing beyond the fact that he was a notorious serial killer. It was an opportunity I couldn't afford to miss. I had also read many good things about Ann Rule, which turn out to be all true: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME is an amazing book.

    What makes this book extraordinary is that Ann Rule knew Bundy personally before he was accused of any crime. Starting in 1971, for three years, they manned the phones at the Seattle Crisis Clinic, where they took calls from depressed people. The Ted Bundy Ann Rule knew then was a nice man, whom she considered a friend, and she was stunned when she heard about the crimes, and there was a Ted Bundy she knew nothing about. I find it admirable how Ms. Rule managed to remain objective; it must have been extremely difficult to do. Leave your prejudices at the door; Ms. Rule was competent and qualified when it came to criminals, and I very much appreciated how honest and humble she was at admitting that she, like so many others, had been duped by a charismatic and consummate psychopath. And this makes for an exceptionally compelling read.

    Ms. Rule writes clearly, reports the facts without embellishing or judging. She also interviewed and interacted with countless people involved in the Ted Bundy investigation; she was also qualified to evaluate the case. THE STRANGER BESIDE ME is very, very well written, well structured, fast paced, and flows smoothly. I love how she could report those facts, relate the gory details without being sensationalistic, but not dispassionately. With a clinical eye, she describes the crimes, but she shows much compassion for the victims. The crimes are horrifying, but what I felt was not disgust but sadness and grief for those innocent women. At one point, I almost cried.

    With her insight and knowledge, we get an insider's look at how psychopaths operate, how they can so thoroughly fool people, even those close to them. Ted Bundy was handsome, incredibly cunning and "lucky" beyond belief, and also horribly perverted. Why women flocked to him even after he was accused of all those terrible crimes, after he admitted to the murders and worse, completely baffles me. What's most interesting is that Ann Rule had agreed to write the book about "the Ted killings" before he was caught, before she knew that the Ted she had worked and the sadistic serial killer were one and the same. And she does share how difficult it was.

    I most highly recommend this extraordinary book. It was originally written in 1980, updated a few times. There are pictures but no gruesome ones, and it's a big book, at 551 pages, every word relevant. It's a disturbing book and one that should be read.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Paula V
    5.0 out of 5 stars Such a great book!
    Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I love how the author describes the situations, easy to follow along and makes everything really interesting!
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  • Taylor
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
    Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    I think that this is a great book overall. My biggest qualms with it were some of the punctuation and spelling errors, and sometimes she went on some irrelevant topics. Ann Rule's vocabulary is quite verbose, so if you don't have a broad vocabulary, this book can be harder to read without having to look up words every other sentence in the dictionary. However, having said that, I enjoyed reading this book. I felt she perfectly described the deceit capable from men like Bundy, and how the way he is perceived to be is not really how he is. I felt this book creates a greater picture of what it was like to know Bundy from different viewpoints and provided great insight into how people are not always what they seem.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Raven
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ted Bundy: By Someone Who Knew Him As a Friend...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

    Truth is always stranger than anything anyone could dream up…

    Ann Rule makes her living writing about true crime. When women began to disappear in Washington State and Oregon, Ann was asked to write a novel about the disappearances, one that would make the public aware of the case, in a effort to smoke out the perpetrator.

    At the time, Ann took this as simply one more assignment; one more story that she could research, write, and above all get paid. Ann was a mother of four, recently divorced, and her writing skills financed her little family’s needs. The amount she would get for writing this novel was much needed. Little did she know how it would all turn out.

    By now almost everyone in the United States and in many other parts of the world knows the name Ted Bundy. He is known to have slain up to thirty-six young women in at least five states, and is suspected to have killed far more. The world knows him as a psychopath who never showed any remorse for what he had done. He was narcissistic, smart, an escape artist, an man who engaged in necrophilia and a man who played games with the law until the day he was executed over the number of women he killed and where the remains were located.

    But for Ann Rule all of this was a complication. Because Ann Rule knew Ted Bundy; and counted him as a friend. Then came the day when she began to realize that she didn’t know Ted Bundy at all.

    Ann worked a crisis hotline specializing in preventing suicides in 1971 when she met Ted Bundy for the first time. Ted was a student on a work-study program and Ann was a volunteer. They would work side by side for many, many nights. Ted was charming, well-educated, and showed a remarkable ability to keep suicidal people who called the hotline talking long enough for help to reach them. It is unknown how many lives he saved by working at the Seattle Crisis Center with Ann Rule. They became friends.

    Ann Rule could not know that the charming young man at the next desk was systematically killing and dumping the bodies of young women in both Washington and Oregon. The very picture of that type of person was so far removed from the man she knew it would have been impossible in her eyes.

    Later when Ted went to Utah to study law, Ann and Ted wrote letters back and forth. Meanwhile unknown to Ann, Ted was killing young women in Utah and Colorado. Ted’s arrest came as a total shock to her. She was sure it was all a mistake. Even after his first escape, she stood with him. And then Ted vanished into thin air.

    Escaping from jail in Colorado by cutting through the ceiling of his cell, Ted was hundreds of miles away by the time his escape was discovered. He eventually made his way to Florida, and then the demonic side of Ted broke all bounds. He tore through Flordia State Chi Omega sorority house, killing, maiming, and mutilating four students. He broke into a nearby apartment and maimed another young woman. Finally, he kidnapped, raped, and murdered twelve year old Kimberly Diane Leach, dumping the remains.

    This is a story of a madman. But it is also the story of a friendship strong enough to make the deeds of this serial killer unfathomable to someone who knew him better than almost anyone else. The story is blunt, bleak, and makes no effort to explain the crimes. It shows that Ted had another side that could and did form friendships.

    One cannot read this story and not feel the hurt Ann Rule went through as she began to realize her friend was in truth, only the stranger beside her at the crisis center.

    This book gets four out of five stars from me.

    Quoth the Raven…
    13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Skitty Princess
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of True Crime Writing
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    As I usually read about British true crime cases, I'd not read anything by Ann Rule before. However, after reading this wonderful book I understand why she is still renowned as a maestro of the genre almost a decade after she sadly passed away. Despite the appalling subject matter - which is dealt with sensitively - the writing is deeply humane, compassionate and insightful. I highly recommend anyone with an interest in the Ted Bundy case, or indeed true crime in general, to read this book. I will certainly now be reading more of Ann's books.
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  • Regina Decker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Super
    Reviewed in France on April 15, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Livraison rapide. Cela faisait longtemps que je voulais lire ce livre. Je l’ai dévoré en plusieurs soirs ;)
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  • Teresa Roper
    5.0 out of 5 stars Harsh
    Reviewed in Canada on March 14, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    A hard book to read, when you remember being in college when many of these girls were killed, I remember hearing about him, seeing the trial in the news. But this is the first book I have read by a person who knew him “ before “

    I feel for the author, I cannot imagine having known that man.

    A good, honest informative, non theatrical book.
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  • Ana Carolina de Aguiar Moreira
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ann Rule te prende da primeira à última página
    Reviewed in Brazil on February 15, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    A história é fascinante e o texto de Ann Rule irrepreensível! Fãs de histórias de crimes reais não conseguirão deixar o livro por nem um dia até finalizá-lo. A leitura é muito fluída e não te entedia nem por um minuto! Altamente recomendado.
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  • Alejandro
    5.0 out of 5 stars THE book on the bundy murders
    Reviewed in Mexico on July 20, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Amazing and deeply personal book of the bundy murders, youre not finishing this thinking the world's a better place but it's an amazing book, not for weak hearts or minds. Definitely not for under 15 and even i would say under 18.
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