Rule is this country's premier true crime author as well as one of its most prolific. She maintains her position with this first volume in a projected five-volume series. This book contains one long piece (a book in itself) and five shorter pieces, all dealing with male killers of women in the Northeast, Rule's home turf. The title piece focuses on a modern-day Bluebeard, Randy Roth, who murdered his second wife for insurance, claiming that her death was a mountaineering accident; tried to murder his third wife; ditched a promising marriage prospect when he discovered her to be uninsurable; and then murdered his fourth wife, this time explaining her death as an accidental drowning. Although there was no hard evidence in any of the cases, the cumulative circumstantial evidence was enough to convict him. Rule's ability to depict both criminals and victims as believable human beings is perfectly embodied in this sad, fascinating account. Indeed, all her accounts present the female victims as real people who deserve compassionate treatment. For all popular true crime collections.-- Ben Harrison, East Orange P.L., N.J.