Thomas Capano was a powerful man in Delaware. The golden child of a respected immigrant family, he had everything most people could ever hope for: money, a family he adored, widespread respect and admiration. His former lover Anne Marie Fahey was never that lucky. Her youth was a seemingly endless string of heartbreak, disappointment, and misery. Somehow, though, she managed to get through it all--her mother's death, abuse from her alcoholic father, devastating poverty--and make a niche for herself as a trusted secretary to Delaware's governor. Thirty years old, she had a whole new life ahead of her. She'd met a young man whom she hoped to someday marry and start a family with, and she finally seemed able to put her past behind her.

But Thomas Capano did not want to be put behind anyone. It was his sheer arrogance--the arrogance that couldn't accept rejection, that couldn't fathom being caught and convicted--that killed Anne Marie Fahey, and Ann Rule's telling of Fahey's story reveals the mind of a true monster. Capano's narcissism prevented him from feeling anything for anyone but himself, but the gripping narrative of And Never Let Her Go is surely the story that Fahey and her family would have wanted to be told. --Lisa Higgins


From Publishers Weekly
Most people like to think they recognize evil when they see it. But as this gripping story of a 1996 Delaware murder makes clear, most people are wrong. Much more than the profile of a handsome, insidious killer and the young woman he murdered, true-crime veteran Rule's latest is also the story of three close-knit families and how 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey's death strengthened or destroyed them. When Fahey, the scheduling secretary for Governor Thomas Carper, was reported missing, her relationship with the older, married Capano was known only to a tiny handful of close friends. A prominent lawyer from a powerful local family, Capano had served as a political adviser to local and state officials. But he also had less savory attributes, many revealed during the investigation into Fahey's disappearance and his subsequent murder trial. Fahey was the only woman Capano murdered, but she certainly wasn't his only victim. Both the Faheys and Debby McIntyre, Capano's mistress of 18 years, trusted Rule enough to share details of their lives. Rule (Bitter Harvest, etc.) doesn't betray that trust, nor does she shortchange the Capano family. All those involved emerge as real people whose lives are circumscribed by experience. When Capano's brothers turned state's evidence, revealing their parts in helping dispose of Fahey's body, Capano accused McIntyre of the murder. His ruthlessness, the constancy of the Fahey family and the Capanos' loyalty to Tom (who's now on Delaware's death row) become, in Rule's capable hands, the raw material for a modern-day tragedy. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Shocking events led to Delaware's 1999 "trial of the century," which crime writer Rule (Bitter Harvest) investigates. Beyond murder and detection, she explores the participants' minds and personalities. She focuses on pretty Anne Marie Fahey, a 30-year-old single woman with poverty and unhappiness in her past but who as secretary to the governor always smiled. When she vanished, law enforcers discovered her three-year affair with a wealthy married man, Thomas Capano, who at 43 was handsome, unsmiling, and fierce when crossed. Suspicion builds with clues such as a missing gun registered to Capano's main mistress; his purchase of a large plastic cooler, set adrift at sea; his rug and sofa, dumped by his shady brothers; and, finally, two murder contracts. Reader Melissa Leo's lovely, methodical voice underplays dramatic scenes; even a joyous phrase, "It was a good time," carries gloom. A worthy addition to general collections and for true crime fans.-Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
The events of the Tom Capano-Anne Marie Fahey case are not unusual. A philandering, self-centered man has relationships with women who are easily controlled. He seduces them, provides the gentle concern they crave and, once caught, demeans them until their self-esteem is gone, leaving them completely dependent upon him. Sadly, this scenario happens all too often. This time, the result is a brutal murder. Because the principals were prominent in Delaware politics, the story attracted media attention. Rule handles the sensational details crisply, professionally, and with a storyteller's flair. Narrator Laura Hicks provides exactly the reading Rule's book demands, keeping listeners riveted. She manages to maintain interest through necessary passages of mundane exposition. Some of her pronunciations are suspect, but with her pleasing voice, Hicks gives a balanced, nonjudgmental performance. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
In June_ 1996, Anne Marie Fahey, a 30-year-old secretary to the governor of Delaware, disappeared and was reported missing by her family. In the weeks that followed, a charming, successful, and well-connected attorney, Tom Capano, was charged with her murder. Rule, a former detective with a flair for the behind-the-scenes work of criminal investigations, tells the riveting story of the three-year secret affair between Fahey and Capano and a cruel obsession that led to murder. Capano was 17 years older than Fahey, a married man, and part of a prominent local family. Fahey was an insecure young woman, an anorexic, raised by an abusive father after her mother died when she was a child. Rule uses interviews, court transcripts, diaries, and e-mail correspondence to render a compassionate portrayal of the victim and a chilling portrayal of her killer. Rule is masterful at conveying the small-town atmosphere of Wilmington, the close connections between individuals, families, friends, and business associates. She details the separate lives of Fahey and Capano, their relationship, the investigation into Fahey's disappearance, and the eventual murder charge levied against Capano. Rule recounts Capano's bizarre machinations to free himself while awaiting trial in prison. He uses jailhouse acquaintances to plot to influence and even murder potential witnesses against him, unaware that his confidants have informed prosecutors in an effort to improve their own circumstances. This is a true page-turner, a compelling rendering of a crime committed by a deeply troubled, egotistical sociopath. Vanessa Bush


Review
The State (Columbia, SC) Compelling...Ann Rule leaves nary a stone unturned in her examination of the Fahey case....One feels as if one knows the victim and her slayer.


Book Description
The shattering crime story that shocked the nation: the Thomas Capano murder case On a June evening in 1996, 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, secretary to the governor of Delaware, vanished without a trace following a restaurant rendezvous with her secret lover of more than two years: Thomas Capano. One of Wilmington's most prominent and respected figures, a millionaire attorney and former state prosecutor, "Tommy" was a charming, softspoken family man. But in the weeks and months that followed Fahey's disappearance, investigators would gradually uncover the shocking truth: Capano was a steely manipulator driven by power and greed -- and capable of brutal murder. In a riveting narrative expertly documented by probing interviews, diary entries, and e-mail correspondence, and with superb insight into the twisted motivations of a killer, Ann Rule chronicles a real-life drama of Shakespearian proportions: ambitions fall, love turns to obsession, family names are tainted, the façade of success crumbles -- and a beautiful but vulnerable young woman pays the ultimate price in a convoluted and deadly relationship.


Download Description
From the "New York Times" #1 bestselling author of "Bitter Harvest" comes the heartbreaking story of Anne Marie Fahey, a doomed young woman hopelessly trapped in a web of politics, sex, and murder by a charming, successful--yet murderous--lover.


About the Author
Ann Rule is a former Seattle policewoman and the author of sixteen New York Times bestsellers, including six Crime Files volumes: 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; 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

On June 27, 1996, thirty-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, who was the scheduling secretary for the governor of Delaware, had dinner with a man she had been having a secret affair with for more than two years. "Tommy" Capano, forty-seven, was perhaps the most politically powerful man in Wilmington. Son of a wealthy contractor, former state prosecutor, partner in a prestigious law firm, advisor to governors and mayors, Tom Capano had a soft-spoken and considerate manner that endeared him to many. Although recently estranged from his wife, he was a devoted father to his four beautiful young daughters, the trusted son of his widowed mother, and the backbone of his extended family. But sometime after 9:15 that night when Anne Marie and Tom left a Philadelphia restaurant, something terrible happened to Anne Marie. It would be forty-eight hours before her brothers and sisters realized that she had disappeared entirely. Ann Rule traces the lives of both Fahey and Capano as she discloses the intimate details of their ill-fated bonding.

SYNOPSIS

The widely acclaimed queen of true crime and author of 15 New York Times bestsellers turns her sharp eye to the high-profile case of Anne Marie Fahey, the beautiful secretary of the governor of Delaware, who was brutally murdered by Thomas Capano, a charismatic, politically connected lawyer 17 years her senior -- who was once her trusted confidant and lover. Uncover the real truth behind the headlines with And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer, and find out what drove a narcissistic killer to the high extremes of degradation, cruelty, and violence.

With penetrating insight and access to all the principal players -- the investigators and the prosecutors, as well as the multivolume court transcripts -- Ann Rule traces the lives of both Fahey and Capano, uncovering long-buried demons. Rule tracks the investigation from Fahey's disappearance to Capano's last days in court. Capano testified against his defense attorney's protests and blamed the murder on his mistress Debby MacIntryre. To no avail, however: He was found guilty and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Riveting and chilling, And Never Let Her Go probes the depths of an unfathomable tragedy and presents an unsettling close-up of the confident face of evil.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Most people like to think they recognize evil when they see it. But as this gripping story of a 1996 Delaware murder makes clear, most people are wrong. Much more than the profile of a handsome, insidious killer and the young woman he murdered, true-crime veteran Rule's latest is also the story of three close-knit families and how 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey's death strengthened or destroyed them. When Fahey, the scheduling secretary for Governor Thomas Carper, was reported missing, her relationship with the older, married Capano was known only to a tiny handful of close friends. A prominent lawyer from a powerful local family, Capano had served as a political adviser to local and state officials. But he also had less savory attributes, many revealed during the investigation into Fahey's disappearance and his subsequent murder trial. Fahey was the only woman Capano murdered, but she certainly wasn't his only victim. Both the Faheys and Debby McIntyre, Capano's mistress of 18 years, trusted Rule enough to share details of their lives. Rule (Bitter Harvest, etc.) doesn't betray that trust, nor does she shortchange the Capano family. All those involved emerge as real people whose lives are circumscribed by experience. When Capano's brothers turned state's evidence, revealing their parts in helping dispose of Fahey's body, Capano accused McIntyre of the murder. His ruthlessness, the constancy of the Fahey family and the Capanos' loyalty to Tom (who's now on Delaware's death row) become, in Rule's capable hands, the raw material for a modern-day tragedy. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Shocking events led to Delaware's 1999 "trial of the century," which crime writer Rule (Bitter Harvest) investigates. Beyond murder and detection, she explores the participants' minds and personalities. She focuses on pretty Anne Marie Fahey, a 30-year-old single woman with poverty and unhappiness in her past but who as secretary to the governor always smiled. When she vanished, law enforcers discovered her three-year affair with a wealthy married man, Thomas Capano, who at 43 was handsome, unsmiling, and fierce when crossed. Suspicion builds with clues such as a missing gun registered to Capano's main mistress; his purchase of a large plastic cooler, set adrift at sea; his rug and sofa, dumped by his shady brothers; and, finally, two murder contracts. Reader Melissa Leo's lovely, methodical voice underplays dramatic scenes; even a joyous phrase, "It was a good time," carries gloom. A worthy addition to general collections and for true crime fans.--Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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