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If You Really Loved Me
There was only one way to please her father: Murder his wife....
David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity -- revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. A complex and often dangerous investigation suggested a horrifying scenario: Was the seemingly bland David Brown really a stone-cold killer who convinced his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him? A man who turned young women into his own personal slaves, who collected nearly $1 million in insurance money, and married his dead wife's teenage sister, David Brown was a sociopath who would stop at nothing...a deadly charmer who almost got away with everything.
David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity -- revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. A complex and often dangerous investigation suggested a horrifying scenario: Was the seemingly bland David Brown really a stone-cold killer who convinced his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him? A man who turned young women into his own personal slaves, who collected nearly $1 million in insurance money, and married his dead wife's teenage sister, David Brown was a sociopath who would stop at nothing...a deadly charmer who almost got away with everything.
604 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 15, 1991
2,337 people are currently reading
9,923 people want to read
About the author
Ann Rule
117Ìýbooks4,335ÌýfollowersAnn Rule was a popular American true crime writer. Raised in a law enforcement and criminal justice system environment, she grew up wanting to work in law enforcement herself. She was a former Seattle Policewoman and was well educated in psychology and criminology.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ author Leslie Rule.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ author Leslie Rule.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 467 reviews
February 26, 2022
This is one of my favorite true crime books by Ann Rule even though it doesn't sound right to say favorite about a true life crime. The crimes that were committed were so heinous and unbelievable that you wanted to believe it was a bad fiction murder story. The story is so captivating I couldn't put the book down for long, I had to know more of this murderous creature, I don't even want to call him a man! He ruined so many lives and to all those involved, the dastardly deeds were all done in the name of love. What a pathetic animal he was and is if he's still alive. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true crime books or anyone who wants to see how vulnerable children can be to an obscene predator who manipulated their young minds by telling them how much he loved them when they didn't have a proper male role model in their lives to fill the void in their hearts!
This book is so well written and draws you into the world of a devious monster that appeared so normal to the people on the outside.
This book is so well written and draws you into the world of a devious monster that appeared so normal to the people on the outside.
January 4, 2022
David Brown is never going to win any parenting awards. In fact if you look up world's worst father his picture would there amongst the crowd. This is the true crime case of a father that manipulated his fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, into murdering his wife. Cinnamon held this secret even after being sentenced to 24 years in prison. Her two lawyers know Cinnamon is protecting someone so they begin to dig further. They undercover a web of lies, betrayal, and a man that will use the women in his life for his financial gain.
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September 3, 2023
'To build - or in this instance, to rebuild - a murder case, prosecutors and detectives seek to prove motive, means, and MO (modus operandi), the three vital Ms of murder.'
'If you really loved me' is the convoluted true crime story of David Brown who turned young women into his own personal murder weapons by manipulation, obsession, greed, lust, narcissism, deceit, seduction and abuse of power of others. His antisocial behavior is a means to purefying himself of his actions, a cunning, manipulative, exploitative, attention-seeking hypochondriac with a touch of Dorian Gray. Me, me and me - his superficial charm, persuasiveness and excessive flattery are his ways of controlling others, lying for personal gain.
This case is a bizarre document of heinous crimes - a book about crimes and punishments. It's a nearly perfect murder brilliantly investigated where Ann Rule gives the reader an insightful look into the diabolical criminal mind. My true crime obsession offers a way to unravel the darker aspects of human nature. Fresh spilled blood veils the body until the truth can be discovered. It's a riveting case, bone- chilling, and a tour of cruel destitution. I relished reading this book, it's actual proof of what human beings are capable of without ever thinking about consesequences of their actions, having no remorse at all. So depraved, it felt like fiction instead of non-fiction. A hell of a bookish journey!
'If you really loved me' is the convoluted true crime story of David Brown who turned young women into his own personal murder weapons by manipulation, obsession, greed, lust, narcissism, deceit, seduction and abuse of power of others. His antisocial behavior is a means to purefying himself of his actions, a cunning, manipulative, exploitative, attention-seeking hypochondriac with a touch of Dorian Gray. Me, me and me - his superficial charm, persuasiveness and excessive flattery are his ways of controlling others, lying for personal gain.
This case is a bizarre document of heinous crimes - a book about crimes and punishments. It's a nearly perfect murder brilliantly investigated where Ann Rule gives the reader an insightful look into the diabolical criminal mind. My true crime obsession offers a way to unravel the darker aspects of human nature. Fresh spilled blood veils the body until the truth can be discovered. It's a riveting case, bone- chilling, and a tour of cruel destitution. I relished reading this book, it's actual proof of what human beings are capable of without ever thinking about consesequences of their actions, having no remorse at all. So depraved, it felt like fiction instead of non-fiction. A hell of a bookish journey!
August 21, 2010
This is a first-rate offering from Ann Rule's "golden era" of the 1980s, in which she was a) tremendously prolific; b) tremendously comprehensive; and c) showed tremendously discerning taste in subject matter.
The story: Talented but erratic ne'er-do-well David Brown lives in Southern California with three women � his wife, his teen daughter and his wife's teen sister. Using every tool in the sociopath's kit, he induces one to kill the other and take the blame so he can conduct a sick affair with the remaining female. Investigators know there's something wrong about Brown, and about the crime, but the clever puppeteer manages to stay beyond the law for several years through sleight-of-hand and sickening manipulation of both children. The children are they key to justice � and their own salvation. But will they turn it?
Rule tells this tale with the right balance of detail, detachment and keen insight, letting each character establish themselves without trying to make her readers prejudge them (as she sometimes does in later books). This is pure storytelling here, without the soapy philosophizing and heavy-handed moralizing that also marked much of Rule's later output. The old cliche applies here � this was a true can't-put-it-down page-turner. And another cliche comes to mind as well � you can't make this stuff up. The bizarre, remorseless, heinous things David Brown does in real life would have a fiction reader rolling their eyes in disbelief. But i t all really happened.
You will be appalled, shocked, pleased that justice prevailed ... and ultimately enlightened about the ways in which sociopaths work their malignant evils in the naive and trusting among us. And for this window into that necessary knowledge � and several others like it during a 15-year period of remarkable productivity � Ann Rule rightfully earned her place among the greats of nonfiction narrative crime-writing. She not only entertains, she does us a remarkable service.
The story: Talented but erratic ne'er-do-well David Brown lives in Southern California with three women � his wife, his teen daughter and his wife's teen sister. Using every tool in the sociopath's kit, he induces one to kill the other and take the blame so he can conduct a sick affair with the remaining female. Investigators know there's something wrong about Brown, and about the crime, but the clever puppeteer manages to stay beyond the law for several years through sleight-of-hand and sickening manipulation of both children. The children are they key to justice � and their own salvation. But will they turn it?
Rule tells this tale with the right balance of detail, detachment and keen insight, letting each character establish themselves without trying to make her readers prejudge them (as she sometimes does in later books). This is pure storytelling here, without the soapy philosophizing and heavy-handed moralizing that also marked much of Rule's later output. The old cliche applies here � this was a true can't-put-it-down page-turner. And another cliche comes to mind as well � you can't make this stuff up. The bizarre, remorseless, heinous things David Brown does in real life would have a fiction reader rolling their eyes in disbelief. But i t all really happened.
You will be appalled, shocked, pleased that justice prevailed ... and ultimately enlightened about the ways in which sociopaths work their malignant evils in the naive and trusting among us. And for this window into that necessary knowledge � and several others like it during a 15-year period of remarkable productivity � Ann Rule rightfully earned her place among the greats of nonfiction narrative crime-writing. She not only entertains, she does us a remarkable service.
August 22, 2019
*** some spoilers within ***
This crime story is about the murder of a young mother in 1985 by her step-daughter who was then only 14 years old. She was sent to juvenile prison. The investigators at the crime scene felt that there was a wolf lurking in the background orchestrating these events. In this case it was David Arnold Brown, the husband of the murdered woman and the father of the young female murderer.
The more the detectives probed, the more they found this family and household very dysfunctional. After a few years of imprisonment, the step-daughter decided to spill the beans and outline the goings on that led to the murder of her step-mother in this most peculiar family.
It is a good detective story and shows well how the intuition and persistence of the investigators finally revealed the truth behind this murder.
The father and husband, David Arnold Brown, eventually paid the price and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990. He died of natural causes in jail in 2014. He was a real piece of work and we get a stunning psychological portrayal of this manipulator and liar.
This crime story is about the murder of a young mother in 1985 by her step-daughter who was then only 14 years old. She was sent to juvenile prison. The investigators at the crime scene felt that there was a wolf lurking in the background orchestrating these events. In this case it was David Arnold Brown, the husband of the murdered woman and the father of the young female murderer.
The more the detectives probed, the more they found this family and household very dysfunctional. After a few years of imprisonment, the step-daughter decided to spill the beans and outline the goings on that led to the murder of her step-mother in this most peculiar family.
It is a good detective story and shows well how the intuition and persistence of the investigators finally revealed the truth behind this murder.
The father and husband, David Arnold Brown, eventually paid the price and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990. He died of natural causes in jail in 2014. He was a real piece of work and we get a stunning psychological portrayal of this manipulator and liar.
February 12, 2025
I have read all of Ann Rule’s books, and she was one of my favorite authors ever ! It’s hard to write true crime because it’s also sad â€�. This was all before Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ so every now and then I see a book pop up. I go ahead and add it.
March 1, 2021
I remember watching the Lifetime movie for this when I was a kid and becoming quite fascinated with Clancy Brown's voice. At the time I didn't realize that the movie was based on a true story. "If You Really Loved Me" by Ann Rule shows how David Brown was able to manipulate his 14 year old daughter (Cinnamon) and his wife's teenage sister (Patti) in a plot that would ultimately end in Linda Brown's death.
I think what gets me most about true crime books is that you have to wonder sometimes how can people be this awful to another person and you shake your head at the evidence that comes out via the investigators, forensics, and witnesses.
I think the thing that gets me the most is that I thought that David Brown was very much a predator of children and it's terrible that was glossed over in a way by a lot of people that should have had some warning signs going off when a 20 year old guy was hanging out with pre-teens. I just can't imagine something going on like that today and one one saying a word.
I have read Ann Rule's books before so they can get formulaic after a while. She tends to start with the crime for the most part and then jumps back to victim and murders beginnings. She adds in details from witnesses she talked to or even from the court cases she has sat in and gleaned from testimony. Then shes does this all over again with the police and those in the prosecution office and sometimes with the defense. Sometimes some of the detail tends to overwhelm you if you don't know exactly what she is talking about, but I found that she tries to break her writing down so a layman can follow.
What made this book so fascinating and what I can't recall if they showed in the Lifetime tv movie was that when David Brown gets sent to jail and is held for bail he digs his hole even deeper. You have to wonder about this man's intelligence when you read about what his plans were for getting out of the trouble he was in.
She apparently updated this book at some point, cause there were several "endings" so to speak where she explains what happened to David Brown, Cinnamon Brown, Patti Bailey, and other people we are introduced to in this book.
I think what gets me most about true crime books is that you have to wonder sometimes how can people be this awful to another person and you shake your head at the evidence that comes out via the investigators, forensics, and witnesses.
I think the thing that gets me the most is that I thought that David Brown was very much a predator of children and it's terrible that was glossed over in a way by a lot of people that should have had some warning signs going off when a 20 year old guy was hanging out with pre-teens. I just can't imagine something going on like that today and one one saying a word.
I have read Ann Rule's books before so they can get formulaic after a while. She tends to start with the crime for the most part and then jumps back to victim and murders beginnings. She adds in details from witnesses she talked to or even from the court cases she has sat in and gleaned from testimony. Then shes does this all over again with the police and those in the prosecution office and sometimes with the defense. Sometimes some of the detail tends to overwhelm you if you don't know exactly what she is talking about, but I found that she tries to break her writing down so a layman can follow.
What made this book so fascinating and what I can't recall if they showed in the Lifetime tv movie was that when David Brown gets sent to jail and is held for bail he digs his hole even deeper. You have to wonder about this man's intelligence when you read about what his plans were for getting out of the trouble he was in.
She apparently updated this book at some point, cause there were several "endings" so to speak where she explains what happened to David Brown, Cinnamon Brown, Patti Bailey, and other people we are introduced to in this book.
January 12, 2023
This book really earned a 4.5 rating from me as one of her better works, the topic and people explored in great detail.
As always, Ann Rule wants to warn us all about the monsters out there and in our lives, and this sordid story about abused and neglected children serves to remind us that the people next door may not be at all what they seem.
As always, Ann Rule wants to warn us all about the monsters out there and in our lives, and this sordid story about abused and neglected children serves to remind us that the people next door may not be at all what they seem.
June 18, 2009
Ann Rule's "If You Really Loved Me" is the sad, sick, twisted story of David Brown, who loved power, prestige and money so much that he was willing to manipulate his teenage daughter into killing his young wife, in order that he might collect insurance money on his dead wife, buy a nicer, larger home and conveniently marry HER younger sister (his sister-in-law). David Brown has got to be one of the most despicable individuals Ms. Rule has ever written about - - not only did he instigate the murder of his wife (whom he had been involved with since she was a young teenager) but his original plan had his daughter dying from a "suicide" after the crime, he molested his wife's younger sister for years, before marrying her to insure her silence and thought nothing of leaving his baby daughter by his murdered wife without a mother. That's not even mentioning his complete denial of his child by his wife's younger sister.
This book excellently reports the crime, the investigation, probes David Brown's background and the eventual trial.
A real gem for true crime buffs, it's Ann Rule at her best.
This book excellently reports the crime, the investigation, probes David Brown's background and the eventual trial.
A real gem for true crime buffs, it's Ann Rule at her best.
Read
June 6, 2023I don't give star ratings to true crime - but this one was pretty incredible. Ann Rule, the queen of true crime, manages to do such detailed research, yet she is never dull. You get all of it, and still want more. I started listening to this not realizing I had seen a movie on this crime back in the 80s or 90s so I kinda knew the story. Watch yourselves ladies, there are terrible con men out there who begin grooming so early you aren't even aware.
January 20, 2016
David Brown is one of the most sadistic evil characters I have ever read about. As mentioned in the book he was worse than well known killers like Manson because he looked so normal yet wielded so much power. The story begins simply enough. Police are called to a house and discover a woman shot in her bedroom. Her name is Linda Brown, she is married to David Brown. They live with David's daughter Cinnamon, Linda's sister Patti, and their baby (Linda and David's) Krystal. David was out at the time of the shooting, Patti in shock and Cinnamon has vanished. Later found hiding in a dog house after a failed suicide attempt Cinnamon is brought in to the police station where she confesses to killing her stepmother. She is eventually convicted and sent to a juvenile prison. End of story, or so it would seem. But something does not ring true and two determined investigators begin digging deeper. They find some disturbing things. As the story unravels, the true David Brown is revealed. Not the charming, man, successful businessman, loving father, but a manipulative, cold calculating man who will turn in anyone in order to save himself. Even locked behind bars David proves to be a dangerous man, plotting to destroy those who were after him, but in the end it turns out to be his down fall. A truly chilling tale. Even with the afterward at the end I still wonder about how the young girls in David's life have managed to survive, if they received counselling or therapy for what they were put through and if they were ever able to pick up the pieces of their lives and live normally again. The fact that he continues to reach out to one of the girls from prison tells me they might not have. But throughout the story despite the evil twisted world of David Brown, we see there is human kindness and some good people even in the most unusual places. Included are the tireless investigators and DA, a career criminal member of a biker gang who turned out to be more charming and compassionate and one of the most beloved people to come out of this story. It's a long read, but worth it to make sure that justice is truly served in the end. But I feel I will always be left wondering about the lives of the three young girls most affected by this man and his crimes, Cinnamon, Patti and Krystal.
June 6, 2013
One of Ann Rule's best. The true story of David Brown, 36, a wealthy computer whiz and psychopath, who persuades his 16-year-old sister-in-law, Patti (whom he’d started grooming for sex from the age of 11) and his 14-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, to rid him of his 22-year-old 5th wife, Linda, mother of baby Krystal. (Supposedly Linda was insisting that he get rid of the two teenagers, who'd lived with them for several years; actually Linda dead was worth a million dollars in insurance proceeds.) As juveniles, he assures them, they would receive only a slap on the wrist. When Patti backs out at the last minute, Cinnamon does the deed, then accidentally survives an ‘attempted� suicide that was meant to kill her. After she recovers, she is tried and convicted of her step-mother’s murder.
David and Patti quickly forget about Cinnamon; they secretly marry and have another daughter. Five years down the road, incarcerated indefinitely in a prison for Young Offenders, Cinnamon, whose father is paying her little attention, learns about the new baby about the same time as one of the original investigators, never satisfied with the resolution of the case, contacts her � and Cinnamon gives him a more accurate account of the murder.
Eventually this leads to the arrest of David and Patti on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. While in custody, David will attempt to have the investigator, the prosecutor, and Patti murdered by a fellow inmate who's due for release, who will eventually give evidence against him. David is currently serving a life sentence (hopefully, until the despicable creep can rot in hell).
David and Patti quickly forget about Cinnamon; they secretly marry and have another daughter. Five years down the road, incarcerated indefinitely in a prison for Young Offenders, Cinnamon, whose father is paying her little attention, learns about the new baby about the same time as one of the original investigators, never satisfied with the resolution of the case, contacts her � and Cinnamon gives him a more accurate account of the murder.
Eventually this leads to the arrest of David and Patti on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. While in custody, David will attempt to have the investigator, the prosecutor, and Patti murdered by a fellow inmate who's due for release, who will eventually give evidence against him. David is currently serving a life sentence (hopefully, until the despicable creep can rot in hell).
September 6, 2020
David Brown, age 32, was a narcissistic sociopath who took out a huge amount of insurance on his 23-year-old third and fifth wife Linda, then convinced his impressionable 14-year-old daughter Cinnamon over a period of months that his wife wanted him dead and that Cinnamon must kill her stepmother to protect him. He enlisted Linda's 17-year-old sister Patti, who had been living with them since age 11, in the scheme. David had been molesting Patti since she moved in, and had groomed her and been sleeping with her, unknown to Linda. Now Patti was completely in love with David and viewed her sister as a rival. After forcing Cinnamon to take dozens of prescription painkillers and diuretics, which alone and in combination were highly toxic and potentially lethal, David insisted that Linda must be shot that night. A young girl like Cinnamon might not even have to do jail time, David told her. David then left the house and drove around for several hours, as Cinnamon shot Linda twice while she lay sleeping, with a gun Patti had given her. The gun got stuck in a pillow they were using as a silencer, and as Cinnamon and Patti tried to free it, it went off again in their bedroom, narrowly missing David and Linda’s infant, Krystal.
Cinnamon then crawled into a dog house in the back yard where she vomited repeatedly and lay nearly comatose until police found her the next day, still clutching the confession David had made her write. The vomiting saved her life. David had also suggested at one point that she might want to shoot herself in the head after shooting Linda � but only to injure herself. Maybe just nick the side of her head.
In the aftermath of the murder, David secretly married Patti. Patti gave birth to a daughter, but David refused to claim the baby as his own, claiming Patti had slept with some guy in the neighborhood, even though he was so controlling Patti never had a free moment to spend with another man.
Cinnamon confessed to shooting Linda, without mentioning David’s role in all of it, and received a sentence of 27 years to life. But an investigator in the D.A.'s office was convinced there was more to it and began to look into David Brown. Eventually Cinnamon, incarcerated in a juvenile facility, wore a wire as her father visited and got him to make incriminating statements. He was arrested, whereupon he hired a hit man to take out the investigator and prosecuting attorney. Unfortunately for him, the hit man was working for the prosecution and all of his conversations with David were recorded.
David was an eighth-grade dropout who had learned about computer data recovery working at Memorex, then started his own data recovery company and made a very good living. As he liked to tell it, embellishing generously, he had worked with NASA and the Defense Department to determine what killed the Challenger astronauts, had Pentagon connections, worked on the Stealth bomber, had helped with the "towering inferno" Los Angeles bank fire, had helped save more than a hundred lives in the MGM Grand hotel fire. He and Linda (a sometime employee) were supposedly so vital to the Coca-Cola Company that Coca-Cola insisted they never fly together. "I've been in almost every magazine you can name," claimed David.
Whenever David was interviewed by investigators or Ann Rule, every lie he told would begin with "honest to God." He never took responsibility for anything; he blamed everything on someone else. It was always David who was the victim, always aggrieved. The truth was always what served him best in the moment.
It all seems so familiar, but I can't figure out why.......
Something over 3% of males and 1% of females are sociopaths, Rule writes in an Afterword.
These are people who cheat in business, who steal from us, who break our hearts and move on without looking back � and without remorse.
These are the politicians who ignore the rules, get caught, and appear on television to explain why the rules the rest of us live by were not meant for them. And if we do not believe them, they are genuinely shocked.
These are the “preachers� who solicit money in the name of God and spend it on themselves. Who break the commandments, while telling us not to. Caught, they cry real tears and beg for forgiveness. Forgiven, they do not change.
Cinnamon Brown spent seven years in a youth detention facility before being paroled. Patti Bailey Brown served a sentence in the same facility but was released before Cinnamon. David Brown received a life sentence in 1990. He had all sorts of physical ailments (in fact he’d told the girls he was too physically weak to kill Linda himself) and had been telling people for twenty years that he was dying of colon cancer. He did die finally in prison in 2014 at age 61 of natural causes.
Ann Rule drove to 12551 Ocean Breeze Drive, Garden Grove, CA to take a photo of the house where Linda had been murdered. This photo is reproduced in the book. What’s odd, Rule writes, is that Linda’s ghost apparently appears in the window of the house. The house was occupied by an Asian family with black hair, but a blonde woman in a dark jumper and white longsleeved blouse stands between the blinds and the window glass, arms crossed, looking down the street.
September 18, 2014
David Brown loved child brides. All six of his marriages were to emotionally weak and uneducated females. Most of them were 15 years old when David began having sex with them. No one seemed to think that odd. David had married Brenda, his first wife, when both were 17. Both had dropped out of school a year before, and she was pregnant with Cinnamon when they married. Number three and five, Linda (they were married twice) was only 23 when Cinnamon was 14, but both girls liked each other. David was so much smarter than both, and he cared for them with a tough, but wise guidance. After all, he was 40 by this time.
Cinnamon felt the pressure of competition for her father's love, but she didn't doubt that he loved her. After all, she was constantly grounded for the slightest infraction of normal household rules. She was expected to conform to the usual middle-class values. He was rich, respected, had a good job, a nice house, hot cars and gave his wife, child, and relatives anything they asked for.
Then one night, the police are called to the swanky home. Linda's sister Patti Bailey, 17 years old, with Linda and David's baby in her arms, and David know something bad has happened to Linda. They think they know that Linda is dead in her bed, although they are too frightened to look. They think they know who killed her - 14 year old Cinnamon.
The detectives have an open-and-shut case. Right?
Ann Rule writes brilliantly of a mystery that wasn't.
Cinnamon felt the pressure of competition for her father's love, but she didn't doubt that he loved her. After all, she was constantly grounded for the slightest infraction of normal household rules. She was expected to conform to the usual middle-class values. He was rich, respected, had a good job, a nice house, hot cars and gave his wife, child, and relatives anything they asked for.
Then one night, the police are called to the swanky home. Linda's sister Patti Bailey, 17 years old, with Linda and David's baby in her arms, and David know something bad has happened to Linda. They think they know that Linda is dead in her bed, although they are too frightened to look. They think they know who killed her - 14 year old Cinnamon.
The detectives have an open-and-shut case. Right?
Ann Rule writes brilliantly of a mystery that wasn't.
April 8, 2019
Mini Review: An excellent true crime novel! I have read so many of Ann Rule's novels and they truly never get old. She is a wonderful writer and adds all the pertinent facts for readers to fully grasp the case at hand. This one is extremely intriguing. I watched the movie on Lifetime ages ago about this case and have been patiently waiting for time to read the actual book. Well, I wasn't disappointed! I highly recommend it.
April 3, 2018
This book was very hard to put down!!! It is hard to imagine that a man did this to his own family!!! This is a great read!!
July 8, 2019
Fascinating and very tragic. Shows the depravity humans can stoop to---and the bravery of those to stand up to their tormentors.
November 9, 2023
It's That Gut Feeling ....
Some people are ultra sensitive to that feeling they get about certain cases, certain people. Without that gut feeling, it seems a few good people shared, this case could easily have slipped through the cracks. Some people don't stop until they know the truth. The truth in this story took some time.
This is an old case and an excellent reminder of the sociopathic personality looks and acts like regular, normal people. They've learned emotions. It's still unbelievable that people can be horrible and treat their own family as though they are disposable.
"What was oddly disturbing were the prints that I received from the photo lab the next day. The home where Linda died was then occupied by an Asian family, all with jet black hair. But in my photographs, there was a blonde woman looking out the front window. Even that could probably be explained. But I realized that the Venetian blinds that kept the sun from blazing into the front room were only about three inches from the glass. The woman looking out the window was standing between the blinds and the window, and that wasn't possible."
Some people are ultra sensitive to that feeling they get about certain cases, certain people. Without that gut feeling, it seems a few good people shared, this case could easily have slipped through the cracks. Some people don't stop until they know the truth. The truth in this story took some time.
This is an old case and an excellent reminder of the sociopathic personality looks and acts like regular, normal people. They've learned emotions. It's still unbelievable that people can be horrible and treat their own family as though they are disposable.
"What was oddly disturbing were the prints that I received from the photo lab the next day. The home where Linda died was then occupied by an Asian family, all with jet black hair. But in my photographs, there was a blonde woman looking out the front window. Even that could probably be explained. But I realized that the Venetian blinds that kept the sun from blazing into the front room were only about three inches from the glass. The woman looking out the window was standing between the blinds and the window, and that wasn't possible."
June 3, 2020
David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity -- revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. A complex and often dangerous investigation suggested a horrifying scenario: Was the seemingly bland David Brown really a stone-cold killer who convinced his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him? A man who turned young women into his own personal slaves, who collected nearly $1 million in insurance money, and married his dead wife's teenage sister, David Brown was a sociopath who would stop at nothing...a deadly charmer who almost got away with everything.
March 26, 2010
This is a terribly sad story of one man who was able to manipulate three vulnerable women.
I read this book years ago and could only come away from it feeling terribly sad about the havoc Brown was able to create and his total lack of remorse for any of the women involved.
While I hardly ever feel sympathy for people who take the life of other people, I find Cinnamon to be almost as much of a victim as her step-mother.
Ann Rule was one of my automatic reads when I spent time reading this genre of book. Her writing seems concise and without analytical. Allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions concerning the facts she presents. While this was well written, it left me so sad that I had to step back and find something lighter to read for a while.
I read this book years ago and could only come away from it feeling terribly sad about the havoc Brown was able to create and his total lack of remorse for any of the women involved.
While I hardly ever feel sympathy for people who take the life of other people, I find Cinnamon to be almost as much of a victim as her step-mother.
Ann Rule was one of my automatic reads when I spent time reading this genre of book. Her writing seems concise and without analytical. Allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions concerning the facts she presents. While this was well written, it left me so sad that I had to step back and find something lighter to read for a while.
May 31, 2009
I know I really liked reading this book.
August 21, 2018
Interesting at first, but at 500 pages it just seemed to go on and on and on and on...
March 25, 2024
Jesus Christ�. I read Ann Rule’s Small Sacrifices first and that was a mistake. So many true crime books compared to Small Sacrifices lose every time.
David, the main perpetrator in this book, is just the worst. I can’t believe Rule wasted her time writing about this case. I DNF at 70%, but I should have stopped well before 50%.
I haven’t read a book that dragged on like this one did in a long time. Plus, the repeated sexual exploitation of minors just gets me every time. It is so incredibly difficult to read and David is a POS. He is the worst combination of money, power, self-consciousness, and the lack of true intelligence.
If you like reading books that should be 200-300 pages shorter than what it is and can stand to read about a man that exploits children, even those he considers his “daughter�, this is the book for you. Never rest in hell David.
David, the main perpetrator in this book, is just the worst. I can’t believe Rule wasted her time writing about this case. I DNF at 70%, but I should have stopped well before 50%.
I haven’t read a book that dragged on like this one did in a long time. Plus, the repeated sexual exploitation of minors just gets me every time. It is so incredibly difficult to read and David is a POS. He is the worst combination of money, power, self-consciousness, and the lack of true intelligence.
If you like reading books that should be 200-300 pages shorter than what it is and can stand to read about a man that exploits children, even those he considers his “daughter�, this is the book for you. Never rest in hell David.
February 7, 2022
I couldn't put it down. What a horrible, convoluted case .... a murder within a very peculiar family. A true case covered by the masterful Ann Rule, this one is many-faceted and provides a lot of food for thought. Really, I detested most of this family, with the exception of the troubled Cinnamon. Very well-rounded portrayal of defense and prosecutors. One investigator, even after making the arrest and getting a conviction, KNEW that something wasn't quite right about this case, and he pursued it for years, finally fingering two other conspirators (who pulled the trigger? And is that important?) A jailhouse plot to murder 2 important members of the prosecution team, and a couple double crossing snitches, adds to the intrigue.
A great read for us weirdos who inexplicably love true crime literature ... the most heinous, the better.
A great read for us weirdos who inexplicably love true crime literature ... the most heinous, the better.
May 12, 2019
This guy David Brown..was the ultimate in evil and a true sociopath. I have read so many books by Ann Rule but this is one of the most upsetting. What this one guy does to virtually every woman in his life is horrifying to read ab out. He was a master manipulator.
Rule writes really well. Everything is well researched and she spears the reader nothing. The brutality of this book stayed with me and made me really hope nobody meets or has, a David Brown in their life. 3.5 stars.
Rule writes really well. Everything is well researched and she spears the reader nothing. The brutality of this book stayed with me and made me really hope nobody meets or has, a David Brown in their life. 3.5 stars.
September 20, 2022
I felt this book was overly long and detailed and delved too deeply into each and every character. At times it was quite tedious. What held my interest was that I lived in Orange County, California at the time the murder took place and I had vague memories as to how everything ended. It was a truly bizarre and twisted story. If someone tried to write this up as fiction I’d toss it aside as preposterous.
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March 17, 2018Ann Rule was a badass.
This story is bananapants but so well told. Absolutely loved how the prosecutor and investigator couldn't let things go until they got the truth. Incredible, and super sad, true crime story.
This story is bananapants but so well told. Absolutely loved how the prosecutor and investigator couldn't let things go until they got the truth. Incredible, and super sad, true crime story.
March 7, 2016
Stopped reading on 249. so many details that it just dragged on and on for me.
May 5, 2024
This book was kinda slow and all over the place, but an interesting case nonetheless.
March 10, 2021
What a strange and while ride this was. I have very very vague memories of watching a lifetime movie about this case. I was familiar with the part where Cinnamon (honestly, who names their child Cinnamon??? Lol) was the one to kill Linda, Patti was brainwashed into believing she and David were in love, and David orchestrating the whole murder thing. I didn't realize just how much deeper this all went.
Finally when David is arrested, and you think he can't get any worse, he does indeed get worse by trying to hire a man to kill the people he blames for his incarceration. Not only that, but to maintain even after his life sentence that he loved Linda and had nothing to do with the murder blows my mind.
This is my first Anne Rule book, and I'll be honest when I say the length of this scared me. I do think this could have been at least 150 pages shorter than it was. There were a lot of personal details of each and every person in this book given that could have been left out that wouldn't have hindered the knowledge the book gives. It's for that reason that I took a star off this rating, but other than that, I really enjoyed this and I'm open to reading more from Anne Rule in the future.
Finally when David is arrested, and you think he can't get any worse, he does indeed get worse by trying to hire a man to kill the people he blames for his incarceration. Not only that, but to maintain even after his life sentence that he loved Linda and had nothing to do with the murder blows my mind.
This is my first Anne Rule book, and I'll be honest when I say the length of this scared me. I do think this could have been at least 150 pages shorter than it was. There were a lot of personal details of each and every person in this book given that could have been left out that wouldn't have hindered the knowledge the book gives. It's for that reason that I took a star off this rating, but other than that, I really enjoyed this and I'm open to reading more from Anne Rule in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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