Here’s a splendidly written and insightful story of one woman, stalked by an obsessed nut case. Stalkers might not be all that unusual but RICH stalkers are an even bigger problem.
Although hey, this author is one smart lady, I tell you I’d have spotted this guy’s nuttiness right from the start. Read the review for mine own insight into this idiot.
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”In His Sights” by Kate Brennan
Amazon link for this book.
Here’s a good book on two important levels. First, books about True Crime might be in abundance but well-written True Crime books, especially about the crime of stalking, are rare.
In fact, while I know about stalking, don’t we all, I’ve never read even an essay, much less a book, about this crime.
Once upon a time, in fact, stalking was not even considered a crime. Women (although men too are stalked, although far less frequently) would simply have to tolerate lives where a man could follow her everywhere while the local authorities took a lackadaisical attitude about it. “So he follows you around. What’s it hurt?” was the prevailing thought.
Kate Brennan is an alias, as this author states right from the start of the read. She is also a writer and this is evident by the beauty and flow of the prose. I enjoyed this read as much for the tale of horror within as the fine writing of an author who writes for a living.
One could probably find out who Kate Brennan is in real life if one had a proclivity to do so for whatever bizarre reason. She gives enough clues about her life, her job, her home, and her family that her true identity is probably easily discovered.
There’s no need to do so and her stalker already knows who Kate is and, as she tells the story, everywhere she goes.
For Kate Brennan lives no ordinary life though Kate would probably consider her life normal and my life the stuff of dregs. Kate travels all over the world, regularly, with no second thought. She stays with friends in foreign lands and family in distant states. I marvel at how easily she can contact a friend in northern Italy and arrange a stay at her estate for months at a time.
Which makes the tale of her stalker even more mind-boggling in that this fellow manages to follow Kate all over the world.
Kate’s stalker is, like most stalkers, a former lover. She lived with the guy for a couple of years and in due course discovered that he was a bit of a nut. Stalkers are mostly not mentally normal people and enough odd things happened to Kate’s stalker that this reader at least could see he was a nut case even as Kate was describing how she was falling in love with the guy.
He was very wealthy, Kate’s former lover and eventual stalker of her endless torment. This fact added a huge dimension to the man’s ability to follow her. He could hire people to stalk Kate is what I’m saying here. And he had endless funds to do so. Stalkers of more normal economic means are restricted to stalking duties that they can afford or find the time to do while doing the normal acts of life as required. Kate’s stalker could, by a mere phone call, summon an employee of his company or other eager person willing to run an errand, such as following Kate for a day, for a handsome fee. Kate’s stalker consisted of many stalkers, all hired by one fellow who enjoyed the hunt.
Kate tells the story of how she met Paul, her wealthy ex-boyfriend. She tells the tale of a romantic, handsome and mostly personable guy, a fellow most any woman would swoon over at the thought.
She was only living with him for a few months when she discovered two things about the guy that would have me, go with me here, throwing this rich, handsome guy out on his ear. Kate, ah, she was a fine, liberal, educated woman.
First, she discovered the guy was seeing a therapist for sex addiction.
Now there isn’t enough money in the world to keep me living with a guy who is in therapy for sex addicition cause a)I’m not sure there is even such a thing and b)if there is such a thing, it’s icky and hardly the stuff of true love, I don’t care how many therapists the guy is seeing. I’d be packing and leaving and Kate was free to do so once she made the discovery.
Remember, Kate wasn’t married to this guy so she could have packed up her bags and left right at that discovery.
Even more horrifying, she discovered, through a series of incidents, that ole Paul was into…ah…shall we say “younger” women.
First clue, Kate found details about a trip to Thailand that Paul had taken. She did confront him with questions about whether he indulged in sex acts with young adolescents, the sort of thing Thailand is famous for. Paul denied it. He only had sex with “legal” Thai prostitutes he asserted and hey, even that would have been enough for me. I might not be a wonderful writer who travels the world on a regular basis but I don’t regularly lie with men who engage in such decrepit activity and for sure wouldn’t continue doing so had I not known about it all before getting moving in with the guy.
But Kate stayed with this fine fellow even though she expressed written doubts that Paul only had sex with legal age prostitutes in Thailand. I’m trying to imagine living with, making love with, a man who I really believe paid for young adolescent girls, we’re talking 13 and 14 here, to sexually satisfied him. Kate felt that so long as he was going to a therapist then it was in the past. Me? I’d have been gone.
To add to her suspicion, Kate tells of an incident when Paul, on some occasion, openly expressed a lust for young adolescent girls. She even recounts his bizarre statement about a teenage athlete and her budding breasts. Matter-of-factly he states how erotic is the emerging sexuality of a young girl, how much it turns him on.
At this time Kate finally decided she’s had enough and it’s a good thing. By me she knew the guy was a lecher and there was questions about the guy and his possible involvement in the death of his father AND his mother many years earlier.
He was a bad dude, Kate, no matter how much money he had. This mundane non-traveling female reader figured it out right away. Kate had the monetary means to get away from this guy. Why she stayed for the two years she did is beyond me.
Kate details how she dealt with the police, once she finally reported Paul’s stalking. Police departments are more modern and they take stalkers much more seriously than in the past. Still, the crime of stalking is difficult to first-catch in the act and second-prosecute. A stalker can always claim presence somewhere for a perfectly innocent reason, that they were certainly NOT following a prey.
It’s an intriguing read, again, very well-written. My heart ached for Kate and I admired her for how stoicly she tolerated the insufferable attack on her life. For Kate’s stalker had endless resources. While most of us, if unlucky enough to fall prey to a stalker, could at least move across country and be freed from the torment. Kate Brennan could not get relief even if she moved across the planet.
This book is a fine read, mesmerizing, enlightening. I’d recommend it highly.
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