Dead by Sunset

What a great author. I have purchased practically every book she has written and have never been disappointed. Her talent to tell a true crime is matched by no one. Justice was slow but it did prevail. To the victims of this horrific crime I pray you find eternal peace and happiness.
What a pathetic piece of s__t Brad is May his days in prison be miserable and unbearable. He should never be allowed to have power over another living soul.

While I generally read fiction, I read Dead by sunset due to the fact that it was a true (murder) mystery. There was a bit too much fluff-not sure for the literary word for it, but I had to skip complete paragraphs just to keep my interest going. I was satisfied with the overall story telling though.

Bradly Morris Cunningham's life story would be the basis for most Lifetime movies where the wife's life is in peril. In his case, he had five wives and numerous girlfriends. Rule's book does a very good job in detailing his history and background into a compelling book. Rule writes objectively and fairly for the most part here. There is nothing redeemable about Brad's shenanigans, his stalking, his crimes against women and even his own children, and his own mother could shock you. If you are a fan of true crime, Ann Rule is a must read author who exhibits a 360 view of the crimes in her book.

In this book, the main murdered victim is Cheryl Keeton, a loving mother of three boys and a well-respected successful attorney in Oregon. When she is found dead in her car on Sunset highway, nothing is simple as a car accident. This book unravels her ex-husband's obsession with control and power over their sons like pawns in a game. Cheryl and Brad were at war with one another regarding child custody of their three sons.

I was horrified in reading about Brad's early marriages to previous women who were obviously terrified of him and his children from previous marriages as well. He had six children and five wives by the 40 years old. His behavior and cruelty is unbelievable and real at the same time. You can only imagine the horror in reading this novel of what the women went through with Brad. He is first charming, suave, and attractive as well. Once married or involved, his true colors show in full light and it's terrifying. He stalks, haunts, harasses, belittles, berates, manipulates, dictates, etc. even a doctor like fifth wife Sara and a lawyer like Cheryl. They fell prey to his lure of perfection only to be shattered and abused in all ways.

In reading this book, I found it compelling while it may be dry and redundant at times. There is humor when reading Brad's defense of himself in the courtroom. You know the phrase that only fool would represent himself. Well, I found Brad's defense to both hysterical and yet tragic in the courtroom. I felt horrible for Brad's victims who are too numerous to mention here.

If there is a message here about the book is that no man is perfect and looks can be deceiving. Monsters can come in all shapes and sizes and Brad was one of them. You know if it's too good to be true than it probably is.

Here is another true crime classic by Ann Rule. I think her description of Bradley Cunningham is one of the most insightful, thorough and chilling she has ever written. Cunningham, a pathological narcissist, used his assumed charm to lure many women into his web of lies and abuse. Each of his many wives thought they were getting the perfect husband, and each soon learned that they were very mistaken. He did not limit his psychological and physical abuse to his women, either. He treated his many children just as badly. Personally, I can't feel as much sympathy as I should for Bradley's wife Cheryl, an attorney who he ultimately beat to death. Cheryl had been having an affair with Brad, who was married to her former sorority sister and supposed friend. Brad convinced his wife, a teacher, to quit her excellent job when she was pregnant, and they moved to an expensive new condo. Cheryl, posing as her friend, helped with the moving. With the baby due any day, Cheryl then gleefully served her with divorce papers at the door of her new home. Cheryl and Brad's married life was one of financial shenanigans, and Brad liked to have sex with the babysitters they hired to take care of the three children Cheryl had with Brad. By the time Cheryl got around to divorcing him, Bradley had met his next wife, a beautiful and well-to-do doctor named Sara. The new woman in Brad's life did not protect Cheryl from Brad's wrath, though. Sara is a much more sympathetic figure than Cheryl. She loved and protected Brad's children, but in spite of her beauty and success, Brad was soon cheating on her and embezzling her money. Sara's life became a living hell, and she was not to be the last woman Brad tormented. Next came the young nanny Brad turned into a stripper, and Brad took the money she earned, too. Several female members of Brad's family and Brad's ex's finally got some justice by testifying against him at his murder trial. Brad is most likely still shaking down women for money from inside his prison cell. A fascinating and cautionary tale, especially for women dating.

Brad Cunningham bludgeons his estranged wife to death and then pushes the van onto the Sunset Freeway in Oregon hoping cars will pile into the vehicle and the murder will look like a traffic accident. Cunningham is a classic psychopath in the mode of Jeffrey McDonald, but even more predatory. He had five or six wives, seven or so kids, made and lost millions, a complete control freak, charming, macho, handsome, athletic, a wife beater without a conscience.
Exposing characters like this is what Ann Rule does best, and she's on top of her game here. The women don't look so good either, although Rule is always sympathetic. I couldn't help but think about all the karmas they created by having and raising Cunningham's children. Rule kept saying they were "in love" as though that excused their behavior-in love with a psychopath, wanting him and wanting his children, and even raising his children from previous marriages. Our social sense of right and wrong condemns his behavior, but does it applaud theirs? In the long run their actions create and nurture psychopaths past and to come, yet the women couldn't resist him. They all melted for him and for his children. Yet he beat and brutalized them. Their primitive desire for what they saw as the superior man, the alpha male, was so strong that they risked death to be possessed by him. The Sunset Freeway victim, apparently an otherwise excellent person, "upgraded" to him and paid the awful price. Rule gives no details about the drugs they did and she considerably downplays the sex graphics as though this were evidence in a trial and she wasn't allowed to sully the principals. Ann Rule fans know this is her style, and perhaps it is best to concentrate on the essentials.
Dead By Sunset is a good read and a disturbing and profoundly sad story.

In this gripping story by crime narrator Ann Rule, authorities find Cheryl Keeton beaten to death in her car and left in the middle of a highway where an impending accident might cover up the evidence. The obvious suspect was her estranged husband, but proving his guilt would be no easy matter. As the author shows, Brad Cunningham was exceptionally bright and calculating. Since his youth he'd used his strength, looks, magnetism, and lack of scruples to bully his way, with women, in business, everywhere. Each of his ex-wives (plus his mother and sisters) all feared him as a control freak and unscrupulous misogynist. Some rightly indict Cheryl for having slept with Brad while he was married to her friend, but in time that betrayed friend came to sympathize with the beleaguered victim. This narrative covers the lengthy investigation, Brad's troubled relationships, and his calculated attempts to outwit the law and intimidate witnesses and government prosecutors. We also learn of the civil lawsuit that helped eventually bring this killer to justice.

This probably isn't Ann Rule's top narrative. I would clearly rate "And Never Let Her Go" plus "The Stranger Beside Me" as superior. Still, Rule keeps the reader engaged, and that's a key to good writing.

Ann Rule, the American true crime diva, has published plenty of books over the past 20+ years. Unfortunately the quality of this material has varied, largely depending on the personal (emotional) interest she has on the subject matter. Fortunately in Dead by Sunset, a story about a handsome and charming monster named Brad Cunningham, the author is clearly caught up in all aspects of a horrific crime (a wife/mother/attorney is bashed to a pulp). She in fact dedicates the book to the victim and all abused women.
Dead by Sunset's strengths are not in the unravelling of the crime (..we know early on who does it) or in the analysis of the criminal trials (..actually this is the weak part of the book). It is Ann Rule's in-depth analysis of the women who completely fall for an intelligent, sex-on-legs Romeo who really seems to hate women. Brad Cunningham is truly a vile person. But upon reading the book one has to wonder how is that several wives and mistresses could be fooled into loving him? Ann Rule never attempts at answering this question. Yet we certainly see the repurcussions of loving Mr Wrong.
Bottom line: while the momentum sputters slightly towards the end, one has to be impressed with Ann Rule's attention to detail and writing talents. Strongly recommended.

Brad Cunningham was truly a killer Casanova. Married several times and the father of several children, he finally got caught when he married Cheryl Keeton.
Brilliant and a successful lawyer, Cheryl was beguiled by the intelligent man of natual charm and quick wit. Three sons were born of their union, each one described as being highly intelligent like their mother.
Cheryl adored the boys and would do anything and everything for them. She also accepted Brad's older children wholeheartedly. Unfortuately for all, Cheryl's sons never really got to know this because she was killed when they were quite small.
Cheryl's dream of a happy life as Brad's wife ended with her death. Brad's dream of continuing to maintain a certain lifestyle at the expense of others would soon become a dream deferred.
Cocky and confident that he had pulled off the untraceable murder, Brad set to work finding yet another willing wife. That cockiness was to prove his undoing when he served as his own counsel during his 1994 trial.
Brad got what he deserved which is life behind bars. As for his hapless children and former wives, one can only hope and pray that their lives have worked out despite their many hardships caused by this killer Casanova.

Ann Rule portrays Bradley Cunningham as a man of humble origins who, in becoming self-made and prosperous, creates a charming persona behind which a criminally irresponsible, mendacious, and violent man resides. As Cunningham lives more and more by the lie of this persona, in his private life, especially with his girlfriends, wives, and children, he becomes incrementally more and more autocratic. Rule diligently chroncicles the descent of Bradley Cunningham into hell, a hell where fair is foul and foul is fair, and chroncles the lives of the women he seduces into his nightmare. The book climaxes when Cunningham is put on trial for murdering Cheryl Keeton, and we see that when as fine a vision as the American Dream goes beserk in the imagination of Bradley Cunningham, he won't be satisfied until he brings down American Justice along with it. It's a compelling and very disturbing true crime story.

Brad Cunningham destroyed lives wherever he went. Every woman that ever had anything to do with the man was afraid of him. The once charming and delightful man always turned into a controlling, self-absorbed egotistical monster. Ann Rule takes you from the beginning of many lives that intersected with Cunningham, including Cunningham's past, all the way to the night he murdered his soon to be ex-wife Cheryl and then the battle to prove him guilty of same. His 3 young boys were lucky in that the 5th wife, Sara, adopted them and ended up raising them. Once again Ann Rule shows the diverse backgrounds of everyone who got involved with this jerk and how so many who loved Cheryl fought to bring this creep to justice. Excellent book, as are all Ann Rules' true crime stories.

Ann Rule's characters usually fall into three categories: (1) victim-saints; (2) virtuous, persevering law enforcement officials; (3) heartless, wicked sociopaths. But in "Dead by Sunset" the author fooled me. The last section of the book concerns the murderer's trial which Rule actually attended, and it's got the spit and sparkle of real life. The dialogue between the defendant, who was acting as his own lawyer (he had not gone to law school or passed the bar) and the rather acerbic judge, is priceless. The old saw about 'the lawyer who tries his own case has a fool for a defendant' is proven to be doubly true in the case of Brad Cunningham, who tended to ramble tediously on about the state of his finances even though he was on trial for murder. When Cunningham decided to take to the witness stand and cross-examine himself, he made himself fair game for the prosecution and a legal dilemma for the judge. Here is a sample of the defendant versus judge dialogue, after Judge Alexander repeatedly warns Cunningham about asking improper questions:

"'I'm walking just on the edge,' Brad countered defiantly.

"'And you're stumbling over...'

"Brad had always argued with anyone who did not agree with him. Stubbornly he was arguing now with Judge Alexander.

"'This is why we go to law school, Mr. Cunningham,' the judge said. 'It's a sophisticated concept.'"

The first 464 pages of this book are standard Ann Rule. A beautiful, brilliant attorney marries a psychopath and suffers dreadfully for her choice of mate. She bears him three beautiful, brilliant little boys while Brad runs through her money, accumulates girlfriends, and is never home when she and the boys need him (I definitely thought that was a plus, considering what he did when he was home). Finally, Cheryl can't bear his abuse any longer. She files for a divorce, and starts collecting evidence about his financial misdealing. She also wants full custody of the boys.

Oops. Cheryl is beaten to death in the first ten pages.

The next 454 pages don't dwell on the mystery of who killed her. Everyone knows who did her in, but there is very little physical evidence. Instead, the author dissects Brad's various marriages and affairs, with emphasis on his brutality toward Cheryl and his children. We learn everyone's life story. We are told over and over again how slender, frail, and beautiful Cheryl was, what a good mother she was, and how her brilliance as an attorney was beginning to be recognized by one and all. In the midst of all these repetitive eulogies, I couldn't help remembering poor Eliza's deathbed scene in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Ann Rule spends so much time cranking Cheryl up to heaven, that I was almost glad when she died. At least she was out of her misery.

By now, you might be asking yourself why I kept slogging through this book.

In spite of her long, relentless beatification of her victim, Ann Rule writes about a riveting case. Plus, the more I read about Brad's loathsome habits and personality in "Dead by Sunset," the more I wanted to see the s.o.b. get his just reward, even if it did take 528 pages and two trials.

Ann Rule's gripping account of Brad Cunningham's obsessive and horrific abuse of the women and children in his life is truth stranger than fiction. She puts her experience as a law enforcement officer to good use as she takes the reader through the many details of the lifelong saga of almost unbelievable cruelty perpetrated by an extraordinarily manipulative and very intelligent man who, she convinces the reader, is sane. The reader is caught up in the contest of wills between Cunningham and his fifth wife Sara Gordon, wondering which of the two will survive and whether Cunningham will ever be brought to justice for the brutal murder of her predecessor.

Brad Cunningham was clearly the epitome of delusional narcissism. The classic sociopath/psychotic, without conscience, he cared for no one's feelings but his own. His personality disorders deemed him dangerous, placing him beyond any woman's worst nightmare. Lack of empathy and compassion combined with total self-absorption may make it difficult to see what anyone would find attractive about him; however, that is what characterizes people like Brad Cunningham as pure evil. He seeks out the perfect victim. He makes her feel important or needed or beautiful or whatever. There is a reason women fall for these men. Most are victims to begin with. I hope people do not judge Brad's victims too harshly. Sometimes others have a tendency to wonder how women could fall for guys like that. Men like Brad Cunningham know exactly what they are doing. I have read all of Ann Rule's books. I tout them as "must reads."

Rule caught my attention quickly. She starts with the crime, the relevant people, and then brings us back to the murderer's childhood. From there, we see how he develops into a cold-hearted murderer. He's married multiple times, each time abusing his spouse. (Save for the marriage of convenience) We relive the night of the murder, and then we become immersed in the hell through which he puts two more lovers. We read how he abuses his children. We have this monster before our eyes and we want justice. Rules provides details of the his fall from "glory".

Well written, well organized, well researched and the characters are well defined. This tragic story of a woman who is ridiculed, humiliated, abused, embarrassed, etc. by her husband until he finally kills her. His 2nd wife doesn't believe he could be the snake he is until he turns into a snake with her. In reading this true account, I am thankful Dr. Gordon came into the picture when she did for the children. This is a worse case scenario when you allow the wrong people into your life. I was sad for Cheryl, Sarah, and the other women in Brad's life and sad for his children too. I have read all of Ann Rule's books and have to say this is one of her very best. Highly recommended reading.

Frankly, I am disappointed. Ann Rule was recommended to me as a good summer read, but this book is less than good. Rule has taken a compelling story of aberrant behavior and turned it into a run-of-the-mill real life soap opera. She fails to draw the most obvious conclusions with regard to the effects of child abuse, spousal abuse, and violence in American life. The last third of the book betrays a churn-it-out, beat-the -deadline style which simply does not make for good reading. A rich vein which Rule fails to mine is malignant narcissism and the connection to wife murderers like Jeffrey MacDonald, which she mentions only in passing. At the end of the book, the reader is still wondering about Brad Cunningham's financial wheeling and dealing. Rule could have developed the theme of marriage as disposable commodity as well. Given the evidence, Rule could hazard a guess as to what makes Cunningham such a wonderful lover but such a horrible person. Unfortunately, we never read about it. This book could have been so much better. I suppose that is the main reason for my disappointment.

I bought this book after watching the Lifetime Movie of the same name "Dead By Sunset" knowing there is probably way more in the book that was not featured in the drama made for tv movie and I was right. This book makes so happy that I'm single! How can someone distinquish a good man from a Psycho. This book was definately worth the read and I took notes for future reference (just in case)

The book is very well written. Everything Ann Rule does is fantastic!
I bought the book again, as I realized there was a family connection to my first husbands family.
My daughter brought it to my attention awhile back. I had remembered some parts but when I re read it, I read it
in a different light!