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In the Still of the Night
In the Still of the Night
In the Still of the Night
Audiobook11 hours

In the Still of the Night

Written by Ann Rule

Narrated by Barbara Caruso

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

From true crime legend Ann Rule comes this riveting story of a young woman whose life ended too soon—and a determined mother’s eleven-year crusade to clear her daughter’s name.

It was nine days before Christmas 1998, and thirty-two-year-old Ronda Reynolds was getting ready to travel from Seattle to Spokane to visit her mother and brother and grandmother before the holidays. Ronda’s second marriage was dissolving after less than a year, her career as a pioneering female Washington State Trooper had ended, but she was optimistic about starting over again. "I’m actually looking forward to getting on with my life," she told her mother earlier the night before. "I just need a few days with you guys." Barb Thompson, Ronda’s mother, who had met her daughter’s second husband only once before, was just happy that Ronda was coming home.

At 6:20 that morning, Ron Reynolds called 911 and told the dispatcher his wife was dead. She had committed suicide, he said, although he hadn’t heard the gunshot and he didn’t know if she had a pulse. EMTs arrived, detectives arrived, the coroner’s deputy arrived, and a postmortem was conducted. Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson, who neither visited the death scene nor attended the autopsy, declared the manner of Ronda’s death as "undetermined." Over the next eleven years, Coroner Wilson would change that manner of death from "undetermined" to "suicide," back to "undetermined"—and then back to "suicide" again.

But Barb Thompson never for one moment believed her daughter committed suicide. Neither did Detective Jerry Berry or ballistics expert Marty Hayes or attorney Royce Ferguson or dozens of Ronda’s friends. For eleven grueling years, through the ups and downs of the legal system and its endless delays, these people and others helped Barb Thompson fight to strike that painful word from her daughter’s death certificate.

On November 9, 2009, a precedent-setting hearing was held to determine whether Coroner Wilson’s office had been derelict in its duty in investigating the death of Ronda Reynolds. Veteran true-crime writer Ann Rule was present at that hearing, hoping to unbraid the tangled strands of conflicting statements and mishandled evidence and present all sides of this haunting case and to determine, perhaps, what happened to Ronda Reynolds, in the chill still of that tragic December night.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 8, 2011
ISBN9781442342262
In the Still of the Night
Author

Ann Rule

Ann Rule wrote thirty-five New York Times bestsellers, all of them still in print. Her first bestseller was The Stranger Beside Me, about her personal relationship with infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. A former Seattle police officer, she used her firsthand expertise in all her books. For more than three decades, she was a powerful advocate for victims of violent crime. She lived near Seattle and died in 2015.

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Reviews for In the Still of the Night

Rating: 3.6526717900763357 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

131 ratings11 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not a review but an update for anyone interested in this case. The most recent inquest has ruled that this was a homicide, not a suicide and that the most probable suspects are the husband and one of the sons. Arrest warrants are pending at this time. 10/21/2011______________________________________________________________________My thoughts and comments on this book.I guess that there is a reason that I do not read true crime books.But I wanted to read this one as it occurred in our locale. I was quite disappointed in the book all around. I was disappointed in the writing, in the time-line...........I just didn't think that it was well done at all. To give Rule credit, she does do her homework and you can tell that she does her research.At any rate, I didn't like it and gave it 1 1/2 stars just on the research alone.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This book was tedious, too much completely irrelevant information and no finality.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The saddest of the Ann Rule books I've read. This is probably because there's no resolution. While Barb Thompson worked to have her daughter's death ruled a suicide we never do find out who killed her. That said there are other books of hers that I love and have that sense of satisfaction at the end. It was a good story one where you felt what Ronda's family must have gone through. There were too many questions that have yet to be answered surrounding her death.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent Read! I'm now hooked on this author, Ann Rule.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    After a certain point, just skimmed it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I had a difficult time staying with this book and finishing it, although I'm a big fan of Ann Rule. Perhaps I was frustrated by the lack of answers after all these years. If I feel that way, I can't even imagine what it must be like for the mother of Ronda Reynolds. Because the case has not been resolved, this was not a typical Ann Rule book. I like when she draws clear pictures of all the people involved and takes the reader along as the pieces of the puzzle come together. This case remains murky as do the backgrounds and true character of some of the main players. So although I felt a great deal of empathy towards Ronda Reynold's strong and resilient mother, I was a little disappointed in the book. Even so, I'm glad Ann Rule wrote it because it may help find justice for Ronda someday.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was not my favorite Ann Rule book. I appreciated reading it, but found it to be very repetitive. I understand trying to get the victim's story told and what it means to the victim's family, but this should have been much shorter.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was disappointed. It was a mountain of dry facts with insufficient payoff. A well-written enough story but poorly chosen perhaps.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rather weak true crime story. The story doesn't have a conclusion. No killers were ever convicted of the crime, so what was the point. To prove that the victim didn't kill herself, come on man. It doesn't take Dick Tracy to figure that the victim didn't killer herslef. The husband ended the relationship that very week, he paid the life insurance premium after her death, he took a shower minutes after calling 911. His whole life he was a self-centered slob. The part I really don't get is why the author never discusses what a twit this gal was for getting involved with the idiot in the first place. I mean, come on, you marry a guy you barely know and then end the relationship within a year. This gal wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. She could be the most naive (sp?) women of all time. It wasn't a horrible book, but it was disappointing.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is not my favorite Ann Rule book, that would be Small Sacrifices. This book was rather strange for me because this is the first one that she wrote that I can remember where the killer is not in jail when the book is written. In fact no killer is identified at all though several suspects are explored. The true story revolves around a young former state trooper named Ronda Reynolds who is rather unlucky in love. When she is thirty three and newly married to and on the verge of divorce with husband number two, she is found dead of a bullet wound to the head in her closet. She was planning on leaving her two timing husband who was sleeping with his ex, for good the next day. Ronda's death was initially ruled a suicide and the book is about her mother's effort to get the ruling changed to homicide. Along the way Barb, Ronda's mother picks up many supporters, one of whom is the author Ann Rule. After ten long years Barb is finally able to get a jury to rule Ronda's death a homicide but who is the murderer? Is it soon to be ex husband number two Ron Reynolds, one of his awful teenage male children, or Ron's ex wife who he was still sleeping with Katie? We don't know but Ann Rule explorers all of these possible suspects. Ann Rule asks for tips in this case on her website and Ronda's mother maintains a website as well. My main complaint about the book is that it feels like it was written before the story was finished and in actuality it may never be. Ann Rule is not just telling the story, she is trying to make it at the same time. I missed all of psychological dissection of the killer that is present in all of her other full length books. I would still recommend this book and I hope Ronda's killer is one day found and brought to justice.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not one of the best V.C. Andrews books. I think it would have been tons better if the word "Daddy" wasn't used like 6 times on every page. Got to be very annoying. Almost didn't finish the book because of it. Some of her other series were much better than this one.