by Ann Rule
First published 2010
Nine days before Christmas 1998, Ronda Reynolds prepares to leave Seattle for Spokane to spend the holidays with her family. Her second marriage is crumbling after less than a year, and her career as a Washington State Trooper has ended, but she feels optimistic about her future. "I'm actually looking forward to getting on with my life," she tells her mother Barb Thompson the night before. At 6:20 the next morning, her husband Ron calls 911 to report Ronda is dead from an apparent suicide. But Barb Thompson refuses to accept this explanation. She believes her daughter was murdered. For eleven years, Barb wages a relentless campaign to change Ronda's death certificate from suicide to homicide. Detective Jerry Berry, ballistics expert Marty Hayes, attorney Royce Ferguson, and dozens of Ronda's friends join her fight. The Lewis County Coroner repeatedly changes the official manner of death between "undetermined" and "suicide." Ann Rule follows this legal battle through courtrooms and hearing rooms, examining conflicting witness statements and compromised evidence to uncover what really happened that December night.
Genres: mystery, crime, non-fiction, true-crime
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Seattle, Spokane, Washington
Period: 1998, December
432 pages · Hardcover · Free Press
Content warnings: death, suicide