Ann Rule is an ex-law enforcement official who pens true crime books retelling criminal investigations from her standpoint. Her 2010 novel “In the Still of the Night: The Strange Death of Ronda Reynolds and Her Mother’s Unceasing Quest for the Truth” tells the true story of a mother’s journey to have the word “suicide” taken off of her daughter’s death certificate.
In December 1998, Ronda Reynolds’s body was discovered in her Toledeo, Wash. home, with a gunshot wound to her head. However, the real mystery is whether or not her death was suicide.
This book offers a side of the story that may come off as biased at first, as the author clearly has her own thoughts on the victim’s manner of death. But what else can be expected? If there was no position taken, then the book would be a flavorless report on law enforcement incompetence and biases.
Investigators had presumptions about the deceased from the very start of the case — not due to the visual evidence, but due to a verbal suggestion from a questionable source. The case was tainted and ego was placed in front of justice for a victim who had no defense other than her mother’s perseverance.
The focus is not simply on the fact that Ronda died. Rather, the entire novel paints one huge question, “Who done it?”, and unfolds the answer before the reader’s eyes. The resolution of the story — that is, the ruling on the death certificate — doesn’t lead to an ideal ending, but it does leave the reader with some sense of satisfaction.
A mother’s anger at the poor investigative work is vividly depicted by the author, and thus, felt by the reader. An investigator’s shock at how poorly the evidence was preserved becomes the reader’s outrage, because readers have no power to change it and are left mentally screaming at the actions of unsympathetic law enforcement officials.
This book does not wait for the reader to place his or her detective hat on; instead, it forces it on and straps it on tight, like a football helmet. The plot leaves the reader questioning not what evidence is missing, but where further investigation could lead. It implores the reader to join the mother’s fight for more answers.
Feel free to disagree with Rule’s suspicions as to who is the best suspect; she has cast her readers as the case’s jury. Could it be a financially desperate second husband, a hateful stepson, a clingy self-proclaimed best friend or the drug addicted ex-wife of the second husband? Can we trust every conversation that the deceased’s mother reports?
A bevy of questions can be formulated, but one cannot complain that the author hasn’t placed her readers in a perfect position to delve into the investigative world of a true tragedy.
