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In 1971 Ann Rule volunteered on night shifts at a Seattle suicide crisis hotline. Beside her on the phones was a psychology student from the University of Washington called Ted Bundy, whom she thought kind and empathetic. She was already writing about real crimes for True Detective magazine under the name Andy Stack. Bundy was arrested in 1975 and later identified as a serial killer, and The Stranger Beside Me, published under her own name in 1980, told the story of a writer who had befriended the man she was writing about. Over the next three decades she published more than thirty books, from Small Sacrifices (1987), about Diane Downs, to Green River, Running Red (2004) and Practice to Deceive (2013). She died in July 2015, aged 83. The ten writers below share her territory: real crimes, often against women, told through the people closest to them, and the uneasy question of what a writer owes the victims.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · True crime · Cases told through the people closest to them · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
The closest matches to Ann Rule are Michelle McNamara, whose I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) tracks the Golden State Killer, Robert Kolker, whose Lost Girls (2013) puts the murdered women at the centre, and Joe McGinniss, whose Fatal Vision (1983), like The Stranger Beside Me, began with a writer who believed the man he was writing about. Further down is the book that asks whether that kind of writing can ever be fair.
10 authors like Ann Rule
Where to start if you loved Ann Rule
If you want another story of the man nobody suspected, read Michelle McNamara.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: the search for the Golden State Killer.
If you want the victims first, read Robert Kolker.
Lost Girls: five women, and the families who would not stop asking.
If you want where the genre started, read Truman Capote.
In Cold Blood: one Kansas family, two killers, six years of research.
If you want to question the whole genre, read Janet Malcolm.
The Journalist and the Murderer: what a writer owes the person she writes about.
If you have only read The Stranger Beside Me, try Rule's Small Sacrifices (1987).
Her book on Diane Downs, who shot her three children in Oregon in 1983; it was filmed for television in 1989 with Farrah Fawcett.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Ann Rule
Who writes like Ann Rule?
Michelle McNamara, Robert Kolker and Joe McGinniss write the same kind of close, case-based true crime. Gordon Burn and Kate Summerscale do it in Britain, and Emmanuel Carrère in France.
What should I read after The Stranger Beside Me?
Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) and Joe McGinniss's Fatal Vision (1983). For a different view of the genre, read Janet Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer (1990).
Did Ann Rule really know Ted Bundy?
Yes. In 1971 they worked together at a Seattle suicide crisis hotline, where she was a volunteer and he was a psychology student. He was arrested in 1975, and The Stranger Beside Me appeared in 1980.
Which Ann Rule book should I read first?
The Stranger Beside Me (1980) is the obvious start. Small Sacrifices (1987) and Green River, Running Red (2004), about the Green River Killer, are the next two to read.
Is Ann Rule like Truman Capote?
Both reconstruct real murders through the people involved. Capote's In Cold Blood (1966) is a novelist's book with some invented scenes; Rule came to books from writing for True Detective magazine.
Is there a biography of Ann Rule?
Yes. Cathy Scott's First Lady of Murder was published by WildBlue Press in 2026.
Sources
- Ann Rule — Wikipedia
- The Journalist and the Murderer — Wikipedia
- Joe McGinniss — Wikipedia
- First Lady of Murder — WildBlue Press
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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