Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer?

Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer?
Dead By Sunset Perfect Husband Perfect Killer
Author: Ann Rule
PBS Market Price: $8.09 or $4.19+1 credit
ISBN-13: 9780671001131
ISBN-10: 0671001132
Publication Date: 4/1/1996
Pages: 544
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 178

4 stars, based on 178 ratings
Publisher: Pocket
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

28 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 275 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
True story about a obessed man who killed his wife in front of his children. So much better than the movie and I thought it was terrific. Lots more information on this guy who though he was hot stuff. I couldn't believe he could be such a jerk.
Hissy-Fitz avatar reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Another great true crime book by Ann Rule.

You have to wonder how the people in this tragically true story - intelligent, successful people including a doctor and an attorney - managed to get themselves mixed up with someone like Brad Cunningham, a truly evil person.

If you like true crime books, this one will not disappoint.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Based on a true story -

When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his 3 sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

In this gripping account of Cheryl's murder, Ann Rule takes us from Brad's troubled boyhood to one of the most bizarre trails in legal history, uncovering multiple marriages, financial manipulations, infidelities, and monstrous acts of harassment and revenge along the way. DEAD BY SUNSET is Ann Rule at her riveting best.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 38 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
A very good, suspenseful read. I could not put this book down. Highly recommended.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 51 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Another Ann Rule hit. I think this was her best book! I could not put it down.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 57 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Wow this guy was insanely charming to woo these professional women, get them to pay for his excessive lifestyle and then even kill one of them. He gets what he deserves at the end but the story is gripping. It really makes you think about those charmers out there!
toni avatar reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 351 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Dead By Sunset is the extraordinary true story of a charismatic man adored by beautiful and brilliant women who always gave him what he wanted. But he wanted everything--sex, money, and their lives. How long would it take before he finally got what he deserved?
Now the former Seattle policewoman brings us the horrific account of a charismatic man adored by beautiful and brilliant women who always gave him what he wanted...sex, money, their very lives....
When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

In this gripping account of Cheryl's murder, Ann Rule takes us from Brad's troubled boyhood to one of the most bizarre trials in legal history, uncovering multiple marriages, financial manipulations, infidelities, and monstrous acts of harassment and revenge along the way. Dead By Sunset is Ann Rule at her riveting best.

Publishers Weekly
Brad Cunningham was handsome, brilliant, a high-school hero in his native Seattle, a football star at the University of Washington. His family background was unusual, with a Native American mother of whom he was ashamed and an Anglo father who was contemptuous of women. As an adolescent, Brad was violent with his sisters and his mother. This pattern continued in his first, second and third marriages but reached its apogee with his fourth wife, Cheryl Keeton, a highly successful lawyer by whom he fathered three sons. When their marriage collapsed and she sought custody of their children, Brad, a bank executive, threatened her; in September 1986, she was found bludgeoned to death in her car on an Oregon highway. The case remained unresolved until Cheryl Keeton's estate filed a civil suit for damages against Brad in 1991. A criminal trial followed in 1993, in which Brad was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 22 years. Rule (Small Sacrifices) provides a perceptive character analysis of a malignant, self-centered, charismatic con artist. It's a chilling, haunting portrait.
Ariadnae avatar reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 356 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Very good true crime book. I love the way Ann Rule writes, we get to know the people who committed the crime and the victims. Rule delves into the backgrounds of both and we end up with a very concise picture of everyone involved.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 171 more book reviews
good book
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 30 more book reviews
THIS BOOK MADE ANN RULE, ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 129 more book reviews
From the back of the dust cover: "Who is Brad Cunningham? How could five beautiful, intelligent and successful women believe he was their dream come true? Ask any woman who ever longed for the 'perfect man'"
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 314 more book reviews
Based on a true story about a man married 5 times--they died--was he a murderer.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 552 more book reviews
Annotation
Dead By Sunset is the extraordinary true story of a charismatic man adored by beautiful and brilliant women who always gave him what he wanted. But he wanted everything--sex, money, and their lives. How long would it take before he finally got what he deserved? A soon-to-be ABC-TV miniseries.

From the Publisher
Ann Rule has no equal in the delineation of the criminal mind. Brad Cunningham is, perhaps, the most complex subject she has ever chosen. The women who loved him were beautiful and extremely intelligent, yet they never saw his need to control and destroy them - not until it was too late. Her book is a chilling look at the evil that can lurk behind the most charismatic facade, and a reminder of the courage and brilliance it often takes to combat that evil.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 64 more book reviews
Great book.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 459 more book reviews
When attorney Cheryl Keeton is found brutally murdered in her van, her husband is the prime suspect. No evidence can be found, and he is never charged.

He remarries, a physician, who adopts his 3 sons.

But this marriage gradually becomes a nightmare.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 26 more book reviews
One of Ann Rule's best.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 18 more book reviews
One of Ann Rule's best writings
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 2 more book reviews
Awesome storyline
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 9 more book reviews
Husband who murders his 3rd wife and then marries again.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 12 more book reviews
Another great Ann Rule book.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 69 more book reviews
A disturbing account of "If I can't have you, no one will."
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 3 more book reviews
ANOTHER GREAT TRUE CRIME
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 41 more book reviews
Multiple marriages, murder, lies, and betrayal. All the things that make a Ann Rule book grear
Janny avatar reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 21 more book reviews
This is a story about a man that had to have complete contol of people, especially the woman in his life. He could fool anyone who knew him in the beginning.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on
This book was great, a good telling about a creepy man.
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 8 more book reviews
A very good book like all Ann Rule's books.
cranbery avatar reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 530 more book reviews
This one is so sad..........another one of her greats!
reviewed Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? on + 88 more book reviews
Good book. Ann Rule is one of my favorite authors.