Another winner from Kathryn Casey

As prolific and powerful as Ann Rule, Kathryn Casey cannot produce anything but fascinating and heartbreaking true crime books. Evil Beside Her is no exception. My heart goes out to Linda Bergstrom, an amazing intrepid heroine you will never forget. Unputdownable. You will not regret picking up this book! ( )

Not as good as I hoped it would be.
It felt like the author was constantly making excuses why the rapist wife stayed with her husband all those years and that started to get old very quickly.
Its not a bad book but I wish I would not have bought it, not worth 7 or 8 euros. ( )

This is the first true crime book Kathryn Casey wrote. It is told mainly from interviews, most with Linda Bergstrom. After a difficult childhood and a sexual assault as a teenager Linda found someone she thought would treat her well, at first the marriage seemed good, James himself had a difficult childhood with anger issues. He became abusive and violent, would disappear for hours at a time.

James had a secret life that when Linda found out about she was horrified. Her attempts to report him appeared to go nowhere, unfortunately she had no proof of her allegations. Also as his wife she was unable to testify against him. Eventually he was brought to justice.

This is not a good as the other books of Kathryn Casey, however it is her first book. I have read other reviews that felt Kathryn was making excuses for the wife staying with the husband, one reviewer went so far as to say she was a ‘dumb-ass’. I don’t feel this was the case, the excuses were the wife’s and are consistent with battered woman syndrome. Even though this was not as good as others, I still enjoyed it, even though much information was from interview, she did try to bring out several points of view if she was able to. I recommend this book. ( )

Linda thought that she had found the perfect man: shy, quiet, respectful James. What she didn't know, however, was that he had dark impulses for violence against women. James starts as a peeping tom, then escalates into attempted rape, before finally raping a woman. He also becomes violent against his wife. Linda believes that the only way she can protect herself and her young daughter from James is to find a way to turn him in...if only the police would listen to her.

This was an interesting case. I get the urge to read true crime now and again, and this was a well-written book. I couldn't get over how Linda stayed with her husband for at least three years after she found out that he was a rapist. I know that she was a battered wife and he guilted her into staying with him, but still...three years? Wow. Also interesting how Linda kept trying to reach out to the police and warn them what her husband was, but no one seemed to want to take her seriously. Recommended for true crime fans. ( )