From Publishers Weekly
Rule expertly portrays a millionaire computer genius who masterminded the murder of his wife by his 14-year-old daughter, and later, from his prison cell, unsuccessfully plotted three more killings. More than 100,000 hardcovers were sold of this title, which was a Literary Guild alternate in cloth. Photos. Author tour. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Best-selling true crime author Rule ( Small Sacrifices , NAL, 1987) tells the story of computer businessman David Brown, a "complete sociopath" who manipulated his 14-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, into murdering his 23-year-old wife in Orange County, California in 1985. Brown collected some $800,000 in insurance money and married his wife's 17-year-old sister while Cinnamon went to the reformatory. Despite her "confession," prosecuting investigator Jay Newell felt uneasy about Cinnamon's alleged vague and trivial motives. He continued to pursue the case and in 1990 Brown was convicted of masterminding his wife's murder. This lengthy account is generally engrossing, and it is recommended for public libraries.- Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., DavisCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
The New York Times Book Review A story of crime and punishment...bizarre enough to rivet anyone's attention.


Book Description
THERE WAS ONLY ONE WAY TO PLEASE HER FATHER: MURDER HIS WIFE.... Ann Rule's #1 bestselling true-crime masterpiece features compelling updates to the shattering case brilliantly chronicled in If You Really Loved Me. 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.


About the Author
Ann Rule is a former Seattle policewoman and the author of seventeen New York Times bestsellers, including seven Crime Files volumes: Empty Promises, A Rage to Kill, In the Name of Love, the #1 bestseller A Fever in the Heart, You Belong to Me, A Rose for Her Grave, and The End of the Dream; ...And Never Let Her Go, the nationally renowned case of deadly seducer Thomas Capano, which was made into a CBS miniseries; Bitter Harvest, the shattering case of Debora Green, a doctor and loving mother driven to lethal acts of vengeance; the #1 bestseller If You Really Loved Me, a chilling chronicle of a millionaire's murderous secret life; Everything She Ever Wanted, the terrifying story of a sociopathic Georgia belle and her fatal allure; Small Sacrifices, the horrific account of a woman's homicidal assault on her three young children; The Stranger Beside Me, the fascinating tale of Rule's dawning horror as she realized her friend and coworker, Ted Bundy, was a serial killer; the #1 New York Times bestseller Dead by Sunset, a nightmarish story of a charismatic man and the women who always gave him what he wanted -- sex, money, their very lives; The Want-Ad Killer; The I-Five Killer; The Lust Killer; and the #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. 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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

THERE WAS ONLY ONE WAY TO PLEASE HER FATHER: MURDER HIS WIFE....

Ann Rule's #1 bestselling true-crime masterpiece features compelling updates to the shattering case brilliantly chronicled in If You Really Loved Me.

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Rule, who scored a great success with Small Sacrifices , has triumphed again with this story of a millionaire computer expert seen as archetypal sociopath. In 1985 Southern Californian David Brown arranged, with the connivance of his 17-year-old sister-in-law, Patti, to have his daughter by his first marriage, 14-year-old Cinnamon, shoot and kill his 23-year-old wife, Linda. Apprehended, Cinnamon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 27-year term, keeping silent about the roles of her father, aged 32, and Patti in the murder. Eventually, however, she did implicate the pair, now-married, and they were arrested. From his jail cell Brown plotted the murders of Patti, the investigator and prosecutor on the case, but the convicts he enlisted to carry out his scheme betrayed him, bringing further charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Patti was placed in the custody of the California Youth Authority. In this vivid account, a monster to whom every other human being was a ``throwaway person'' is masterfully potrayed. Photos not seen by PW. 150,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; author tour. (May)

Library Journal