"Evil Beside Her" by Kathryn Casey…..Get past the boring beginning and it's a fascinating look at a rapist in action.

"Evil Beside Her" by Kathryn Casey…..Get past the boring beginning and it's a fascinating look at a rapist in action.

I began reading this book with little interest. Which may, or may not, explain my lackluster interest for almost a third of the book.

I am a true crime aficionado and most true crime books that intrigue me involve murders. My lukewarm interest wasn't helped by the fact that the beginning of the book was….well lukewarm.

Linda Bergstrom married James C. Bergstrom and it wasn't the most functional marriage in the world. The guy did like to tie up his wife and gag her during sex and I dunno, that's a bit strange. Maybe one time or something but this guy insisted on it.

And his wife agreed! Sure she hated it but right then and there my eyes begin to glaze. Who stays with such a weird guy? He was also obsessive, the wife says she was "forced" to sit by his husband's side and watch hours of war movies while not moving until he permits.

Well now this goes a bit beyond the gagging and tying. What woman does that? Linda Bergstrom did have a mother willing to let her come home but she needed to stay married to get the navy to move her then she needed to stay married for the money then she eventually got pregnant and stayed married for the child.

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Along about the middle of the book things get interesting for that fine specimen of manhood began sneaking out and night and raping women in whatever surround he chose.

Now this reads like a true crime book. Linda desperately tries to get her husband picked up as a rapist. She tracks his movements and compares them to rapes in the area. She finds hand-made ski masks and cord in the trunk of the car, she begs the detectives to please arrest the man.

There's a certain common sense here in that the best result for Linda Bergstrom was for her husband to get caught and convicted as the rapist he was. What I found hard to wrap my head around was all she went through to make it happen.

I'm not sure she's a human to admire is what I'm saying here and she had a daughter who she feared would be the subject of her husband's abuse. It boggles my mind.

Whatever the case, this is an interesting read, quite a story.

It's a study in the minds of rapists and you know what? In the end they need to be put away, that's all.-

Ending With a Smile