And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer

Most people like to think they recognize evil when they see it. But as this gripping story of a 1996 Delaware murder makes clear, most people are wrong. Much more than the profile of a handsome, insidious killer and the young woman he murdered, true-crime veteran Rule's latest is also the story of three close-knit families and how 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey's death strengthened or destroyed them. When Fahey, the scheduling secretary for Governor Thomas Carper, was reported missing, her relationship with the older, married Capano was known only to a tiny handful of close friends. A prominent lawyer from a powerful local family, Capano had served as a political adviser to local and state officials. But he also had less savory attributes, many revealed during the investigation into Fahey's disappearance and his subsequent murder trial. Fahey was the only woman Capano murdered, but she certainly wasn't his only victim. Both the Faheys and Debby McIntyre, Capano's mistress of 18 years, trusted Rule enough to share details of their lives. Rule (Bitter Harvest, etc.) doesn't betray that trust, nor does she shortchange the Capano family. All those involved emerge as real people whose lives are circumscribed by experience. When Capano's brothers turned state's evidence, revealing their parts in helping dispose of Fahey's body, Capano accused McIntyre of the murder. His ruthlessness, the constancy of the Fahey family and the Capanos' loyalty to Tom (who's now on Delaware's death row) become, in Rule's capable hands, the raw material for a modern-day tragedy. (Oct.)