Book Review: A Tangled Web

A Tangled Web

A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisting Path to Justice.

by Leslie Rule

 Kensington Books 

Citadel

 Nonfiction (Adult)  |  True Crime 

Pub Date 28 Apr 2020

Leslie Rule is the daughter of “America’s Best Crime Writer.” Ann Rule, and now we are going to get to meet her daughter, and the heiress of her legacy. 

Cari Lea Farver vanished from Omaha, Nebraska, on a bleak day in November of 2012.  She was a thirty seven year old woman, who was a Mother devoted to her children,  a reliable employee and a loyal friend.  She was not one to shirk her responsibilities,  abandon her son, and run off on an adventure while her dying father took his last breaths.Yet, the many texts from her phone indicated she had done just that.

From appearances, it seemed that Cari, had decided to dump her boyfriend and quit her new job as well as to give custody of her son to her Mom, and all by text, but from the start something felt off.   Cari’s boyfriend, Dave Kroupa as well as her boss took the texts as legit, despite the fact they felt a little odd about them.  And they were bewildered about her sudden disappearance.  Nancy Raney (Cari’s Mother) however was alarmed and was the one who reported her missing.  Police were however skeptical of Nancy’s claims that a cyber impostor had commandeered her daughter’s phone and online identity.

Nancy was afraid for Cari, but Dave Kroupa was becoming afraid of Cari, because he believed she was stalking him.  The stalker was never seen or heard but had become aware of every move, and seemed obsessed over Shanna “Liz” Golyar, often calling her “a fat whore” in the twelve thousand emails and texts he received in a disturbing three-year deluge.

It was hard to figure out how the Stalker could know Dave’s phone numbers, right after they were changed, or how he knew the names of his female friends, even the shows he watched on television.  Dave and Liz reported death threats, vandalism, and burglaries, but the stalker remained at large.  The threats they received were vicious, vile and far to often obscene sent mostly via text and always in Cari’s name. There was some truth in the messages, but all of them contained one big lie. The culprit was not Cari, but had killed and planned to kill again.

Leslie Rule has written a powerful True Crime book, one that I am sure her Mother Ann Rule would have been proud of.

I am reviewing a copy of A Tangled Web five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!