So this was a welcome take from Rule's usual look at murderers and serial killers. Rule looks at the backstory behind a man who was responsible for robbing 17 banks in the Seattle area over a period of four years back in the 1990s. I weirdly found myself completely taken in by Rule's recounting of the childhood and later life of the man whose plan it was to rob banks, Scott Scurlock.

"The end of the Dream" talks about two families who were apparently destined to live in each other's pockets, the Scurlocks and the Meyers. Both families ended up settling in Reston, VA and from there two of the boys, Scott Scurlock and Kevin Meyers would be life long friends who seemed to follow each other all over. Rule obviously interviewed members of both families and from Kevin you start to get a sense that he realized that over time something in Scott became bent.

Scott seemed more intent on making sure he didn't have to work a "straight" job. He eventually moved from Virginia, Hawaii, and then to Washington State. While in Washington state he started to become a meth dealer.

I wondered while reading how so many people obviously realized that something (not legal) was going on with Scott, but ignored all of the red flags that were being thrown up. I do laugh at Rule though, she always describes these people as being handsome, attractive to women, etc. and I saw pictures of Scurlock and just kind of shrugged.

When Rule goes into the rift that eventually happens between Kevin and Scott, and how Scott pulls in Kevin's brother and another long-time friend to start robbing banks you start to realize that this story is not about to have a happy ending.

Scott's plan to rob banks seemed pretty smart, but he obviously had a spending problem that needed fixed. Rule at one point asserts that he spent something like $300,000 in one year. Though you may start to have sympathy at a certain point for Scott, the way he treats women and others around you will start to turn you off. He seemed to have a sixth sense on how to draw people in and have them owe him favors.

I thought Rule did a great job of showing the backstory to Steve Meyers (Kevin's brother) and Mark Biggins. These last two men Rule doesn't skimp on details. Both men get into bank robbing because they want their daughters to have a better life. I would of course respond that they would probably prefer their dads not doing something illegal.

Rule eventually gets to the tragic end of Scurlock and what happens to Meyers and Biggins. The book does falter in the end a bit as if Rule didn't quite know how she wanted to tie this up.

Rule provides details on the police which I would happily have preferred to be left out. I didn't care about the police hunting the robbers. It ended up reading as filler after a while and ruined the flow depicting Scurlock's chronology along with everyone else. ( )

A friend of mine recommended this series to me when she saw I was reading some nonfiction about criminal psychology, and though I've never really read True Crime, I picked this installment in the series up from a library sale when it caught my eye. I suppose I have mixed feelings about it, but it was certainly engaging. I doubt I'll be methodically picking up Rule's other works, but this was an interesting, in depth look at one case, with short explorations of another, and the detailed research was certainly impressive.

In the end, I'll probably continue sticking mostly to psychological thrillers that are wholly fiction and to nonfiction that deals heavily with psychology and only wanders into casefiles, but I'm glad I at least tried this, and I may try more if particular cases catch my interest. For what it is, I'd say this is probably a 4 star read, though for me personally it's probably closer to a 3.

Recommended If you're interested in true crime and/or bank robberies. ( )