The book outlines the case of Sheila Blackthorne Bellush. At the time of her death, she was a 35 year old with six children in total. Two of those children belonged to her ex husband, Allen Blackthorne. The couple did not have an amicable divorce, and Mr. Blackthorne felt the need to stalk and harass her. As it turns out, he hired a private detective to track her down when she moved, and then planned to hire someone to beat her up. Jose Luis Del Toro was the actual perpetrator who shot Sheila in the face and slit her throat in front of her children. The conspirators all faced various charges, with her ex husband being handed two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole.

One quick note about this case: I looked up the case to see if there had been any changes since I was reading this well after the fact. Shortly after incarceration, Mr. Blackthorne was nearly beaten to death by a prison gang during an assault. (My person feeling on this is too bad he wasn't.) He wound up dying in prison in 2014, at the age of 59. (A lot longer than his ex wife was able to live.)

Ann Rule was very thorough in her research into this case. She presented the facts in a very comprehensive way. I appreciated the level of detail that went into the character development throughout the book and building the case. This was one of the better books that I have read by this author.