Is there an audiobook of The Stranger Beside Me?

Yes. The Stranger Beside Me has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Lorelei King.

How long is the The Stranger Beside Me audiobook?

The The Stranger Beside Me audiobook runs 18 hr 29 min.

Is The Stranger Beside Me on Kindle Unlimited?

Yes. The Stranger Beside Me was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 1, 2026.

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule book cover for the Book of the Day true crime book review

Our score

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Stranger Beside Me free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

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EDITION PUBLISHEDJune 2018

Genres

Non-Fiction True Crime Biography

Themes

Evil hidden in plain sightThe betrayal of trustThe limits of reading characterRemembering the victims

The Stranger Beside Me

Name: The Stranger Beside Me
Price: 8.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Ann Rule

Ann Rule

Ann Rule was writing a book about an unknown serial killer when she realized she already knew him: her friend Ted Bundy. A true-crime classic with a premise no novelist could invent.

The Review

Our take

The Stranger Beside Me has one of the most extraordinary origins in all of nonfiction. Ann Rule, a former police officer turned crime writer, took a contract to write about a string of unsolved murders of young women in the Pacific Northwest. As the investigation closed in, the prime suspect turned out to be Ted Bundy, the handsome, articulate law student who had worked beside Rule on a suicide-prevention hotline, answering late-night calls, sharing coffee and confidences. The book is therefore both a meticulous account of Bundy's crimes and trials and a personal reckoning with the impossible question of how a woman who prided herself on reading people could have sat next to a monster and felt only warmth.

That double vision is what makes the book endure. Rule does not pretend to objectivity she does not have; instead she makes her own divided heart the instrument of the story. We watch her track the mounting evidence while struggling to reconcile it with the kind, funny colleague she remembers, and her honesty about that struggle is far more chilling than any catalog of atrocities. Bundy's particular horror was his ordinariness, his charm, the way he passed as decent, and Rule, having been fooled herself, is uniquely positioned to convey how that camouflage worked. She refuses the comforting fiction that evil announces itself.

As reporting, the book is thorough and clear-eyed. Rule walks through the investigations across multiple states, the courtroom drama of a defendant who insisted on representing himself, the escapes, and the eventual conviction and execution, all with a procedural care that respects both the victims and the reader. She is careful, too, never to let Bundy become a glamorous antihero; she keeps the murdered women in view and resists the genre's worst temptation, which is to find the killer more interesting than the people he destroyed. Over the editions she added updates as Bundy's case ground toward its end, and that long engagement gives the book unusual depth.

Why you should read

Readers who want a defining, foundational true-crime book
Those drawn to the psychology of how evil hides in plain sight
Fans of reporting told from a deeply personal vantage
Anyone interested in the Bundy case from a unique angle
Readers who value victim-conscious crime writing

What to expect

A true account of the Ted Bundy murders and trials
The author's personal friendship with the killer
An honest reckoning with being deceived
Procedural detail across multi-state investigations
A victim-conscious rather than killer-glamorizing approach

Readers sensitive to detailed accounts of violence against women should know the subject matter is harrowing, and the personal framing means some passages dwell on Rule's own emotions in ways that won't suit everyone. But that intimacy is precisely the point. This is not a clinical study; it is the story of betrayal experienced from the inside, written by someone who lived it, and it set the template for the empathetic, victim-conscious true crime that followed. Decades on, it remains one of the genre's defining works, unforgettable because it understands that the most frightening thing about a killer is how human he can seem. Rule went on to a long career, but she never again had a subject this close to the bone, and the book carries the charge of a writer processing a wound in real time. That is what lifts it above the shelves of imitators it inspired and keeps it essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the genre at its most serious.

Reviewed by Quinn · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.5/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to The Stranger Beside Me free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Included with Kindle Unlimited Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of The Stranger Beside Me?: Yes. The Stranger Beside Me has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Lorelei King.
Listen to The Stranger Beside Me free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the The Stranger Beside Me audiobook?: The The Stranger Beside Me audiobook runs 18 hr 29 min.
Is The Stranger Beside Me on Kindle Unlimited?: Yes. The Stranger Beside Me was included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 1, 2026.
How much does The Stranger Beside Me cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $8.99, Paperback $19.95, Hardcover $72.32. Prices as of August 25, 2026 at 3:45 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is The Stranger Beside Me about?: The Stranger Beside Me has one of the most extraordinary origins in all of nonfiction. Ann Rule, a former police officer turned crime writer, took a contract to write about a string of unsolved murders of young women in the Pacific Northwest. As the investigation closed in, the prime suspect…
Is The Stranger Beside Me worth reading?: We scored The Stranger Beside Me 4.5 out of 5. Ann Rule was writing a book about an unknown serial killer when she realized she already knew him: her friend Ted Bundy. A true-crime classic with a premise no novelist could invent.