Synopses & Reviews
In perhaps the most profound character portrait she has ever drawn, America's bestselling true-crime writer, Ann Rule, asks, Can the female really be deadlier than the male? In
Heart Full of Lies, she answers that question in one of her most intriguing tales ever -- a riveting story of seduction, betrayal, and murder.
Liysa and Chris Northon seemed the epitome of idyllic lovers when they married on a moonlit beach in Hawaii. Their friends admired the romantic couple: Chris -- tall, athletic, handsome with a thatch of blond hair, a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines -- and Liysa -- attractive, charismatic, seductive, an acclaimed surf photographer, with a tanned, perfect body. Their son, Bjorn, looked just like his dad, and they were raising Liysa's son by a previous marriage. They had beautiful homes on the mainland and in Hawaii.
But it wasn't long before Chris saw a side of Liysa that he hadn't glimpsed before. Nothing was quite enough for her -- she wanted more money, more property, and a future that included fame as a Hollywood screenwriter. She complained to her closest friends that her husband was a heavy drinker who beat her. The marriage seemed to be unraveling, but Chris struggled to hold it together, afraid he'd be separated from Bjorn and from Liysa's son, Papako. And then the worst happened.
On a sunny morning in October 2000, Chris Northon lay dead in a sleeping bag at a campsite beside a pristine river, while his wife drove four hours to a friend's house, sobbing inconsolably. She appeared to have been beaten, and had a black eye and bruises on her knee. Was Chris's death a tragic accident or a deliberate homicide? Was Liysa involved? Questions arose that made Oregon State detectives suspicious, yet her family and friends stood staunchly by her, incredulous that anybody would ask such questions.
Ann Rule became involved with the mystery of Chris's death when one of his fellow pilots at Hawaiian Airlines contacted her, and only later did she learn that the ranking Oregon State Police investigator had thought of her to tell this bizarre story. A book that leads the reader from Hawaii to the Northwest to Hollywood, Heart Full of Lies is an extraordinary character study as well as a brilliant investigative report that will keep you enthralled to the very last page.
Review
"Rule has done an impressive amount of research to reconstruct the history of Liysa's crime....[I]f the author's prose is somewhat flat, the fascinating and perplexing drama should be more than enough to keep most readers turning pages." Publishers Weekly
Review
"This time Rule's account is marred by too much background on tangential figures in the drama and by a narrative that lacks the tautness of many of her other books, but the case itself remains fascinating and strange. Not her best, but good enough to engage her many fans." Booklist
Synopsis
Liysa Northon was stunningly attractive and charming, with a core of loyal supporters who refused to believe she could be guilty of a horrendous crime--in this case, the cold-blooded execution of her handsome husband, Chris. With firsthand testimony from the Northon's friends and family, this brilliant investigative work travels from Hawaii to Texas to Hollywood as it tracks the remorseless steps of a woman who used the many men who loved her as stepping stones to wealth and fame.
About the Author
Ann Rule is the author of nineteen
New York Times national bestsellers, all of them still in print. A former Seattle police officer, she knows the crime scene firsthand. She is a certified instructor for police training seminars, and lectures frequently to law enforcement, prosecutors, and forensic science organizations, including the FBI. For more than two decades, she has been an active advocate for victims of violent crime. She has also testified before U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittees on victims' rights and on serial murder in America, and was a civilian adviser to the VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) task force that set up a computer program to track and trap serial killers. Ann Rule lives near Seattle, Washington. She can be contacted through her web page at www.annrules.com.