About book And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer (2000)
The strap line on the English edition of this book carries the words 'The World's No. 1 True Crime Writer' and a read of this mammoth volume shows the reason why Ann Rule has that billing.As an investigative piece of true crime writing it is exhaustive and covers every aspect of a horrifying and very sad case. Thomas Capano is the protagonist and he is known as 'The Deadly Seducer' for good reason; he was a serial womaniser and control freak.As an attorney he had a good understanding of the law that he tried to put to good use when his trial came along but thanks to the sterling work of the prosecutors, he failed and was sentenced to death by lethal injection.Supposedly happily married and with four children, all girls, he seduced a variety of women, with one of whom he had a long term relationship that was to last over 17 years; they were so close that he promised to marry her once his eventual, and not unexpected, divorce became final. While that affair was ongoing he had affairs with a variety of other women, with one lady becoming particularly close. This was Anne Marie Fahey, a name that the long-term girlfriend was not to encounter until the dastardly deed had been done.The relationship with Anne Marie had its ups and downs, not surprisingly, and it ended with Capano killing her and then disposing of her body in the ocean. Eventually his assistant, one of his brothers, spilled the beans and the chase to arrest him was on.In a thrilling but understandably very sad read Ann Rule captures the feelings of the people involved superbly and the court case is indeed dramatic. It certainly brought out a chilling insight into the evil that sometimes hides behind the most charming of facades for Capano was supposedly a well respected member of the community.
Ann Rule is the master of a rather old fashioned, meticulously researched type of crime reporting. It’s the opposite of exploitative, and in some ways it is deeply touching that this book exists as a memorial to Anne Marie Fahey, who emerges as an admirable, flawed and beautiful young woman. Unlike the only other Rule book I recall reading, the seminal The Stranger Beside Me which focused on the author’s real life coincidental friendship with prolific serial killer Ted Bundy, this is a smaller, more insidious crime that unfolds gradually into something all the more repellent thanks to its rooting in the mundane. Raised as a golden boy in a successful, upper middle class family, Thomas Capano was a well-liked lawyer and former Delaware deputy attorney general. He was also a narcissistic, sociopathic creep with an expert ability for targeting vulnerable woman, grooming them, and knowing exactly what buttons to push to keep them reliant. Although Capano’s backstory is fully fleshed out, Rule wisely chooses to focus on the women he abused: wife, mistresses, girlfriends, daughters, and mother. Clocking in at close to 700 pages it’s hardly a fast read, but the upside of all that research is Rule’s ability to fully immerse the reader in the claustrophobic world of Capano’s manipulation and lies. The flipside is that it can all get a little dry at times, especially when we move into legalese, and Capano’s stupendous self-delusion means that ultimately a lot of the emotional and – final tragic – physical abuse he put Anne Marie through is supposition and conjecture.
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This is a true crime book written by an investigative journalist, so if you're looking for something that has details and dates and conflicts and a fantastic overview of all the players and their bios (brief, but in depth), this book will amaze you. Rule's pace is sometimes bang-your-head-against-the-wall ish because of the detail she goes into, but BOOOOY, when you get to the point when it makes all the sense in the world... hold on to your seat. Fantastic blow-by-blow account of how this story unfolded. It's like an onion... it looks good on the outside and stinks deep in and makes you weepy when you get down into it. I'm not done yet, I'm about 3/4 into it and I'm gearing up for the finalé. Poor Anne Marie Fahey... Rest in Peace. It was great.
—Molly
...And Never Let Her Go tells the real-life story of a manipulative, controlling seducer (wealthy lawyer Thomas Capano) and his plot and the subsequent carrying out of said plot to murder one of his many mistresses (scheduling secretary Anne Marie Fahey), whom he sought to control and could not. The amount of detail that Ms. Rule crams into this novel's 400+ pages is impressive, at once a gift and a curse. You're never left wanting when it comes to the details of the ensuing investigation... no stone is left unturned as she relays the developments of the ensuing investigation. Her attention to detail occasionally became a problem during long, rambling descriptions of Delaware and its history and other such passages that have nothing whatsoever to do with the story. While I continued to read, my mind simply wandered. I think 50 to 100 pages could have safely been shaved off of this novel without hurting the story in any way. Despite that issue, I still found it interesting. 2 1/2 stars.
—Jessica
This is a story of a young woman who was taken in by an older married man. She never feels good about the relationship, and when she falls in love with someone else, she tries to break it off with him. Apparently no woman had ever said "no" to this man. He killed her and got his brother to help him hide the body. Tom Capano was a suspect from the beginning because he was the last one to be seen with her. They were at a restaurant together. It took several years to convict him because he didn't leave much evidence. The prosecutors ended up getting two of his brothers to confess their part in hiding the crime by telling them they would be convicted on drug charges if the didn't cooperate. If the police didn't have the brothers and another woman he was having an affair with to help, he probably would have gotten away with killing the young woman. I enjoyed seeing how the police and the prosecutors solved the crime and put the case together to convict him.
—Lori
