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Run at Destruction: A True Fatal Love Triangle |  | Author: Lynda Drews
Publisher: Titletown Publishing LLC
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $10.09
as of 11/25/2009 04:37 CST details
You Save: $5.86 (37%)
New (21) Used (12) from $9.24
Seller: sbd-
Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 10997
Media: Paperback
Pages: 370
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0982000928
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780982000922
ASIN: 0982000928
Publication Date: August 7, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Run at Destruction explores the true life love triangle between three teachers/runners in small town America and the eventual death of the wife in her own bathtub. Drews unfolds the drama brilliantly right through to the sentencing of the husband to a life in prison and even an afterward from the mistress apologizing years later. Sent to prison, the husband and mistress still can't let go and she becomes a prison bride. Readers are left to decide for themselves if it was murder, suicide or manslaughter by neglect. Run at Destruction is lust, murder and obsession delivered with the beat of a runner's heart, as the theme of running is woven throughout. The book grabs at a large cross-section of readers because everyone can relate to the desire and often disaster that comes with affairs. This is true crime court drama and author Drews exposes the characters to such a depth that readers will feel like they are reading a novel, only, this really happened.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
 A story I won't soon forget... November 23, 2009
Susan Emmery (Dallas, TX)
Years ago I read a True Crime /Memoir called My Dark Places by James Ellroy. It is one of my favorites within the genre. Run at Destruction is written in a similar fashion and is just as fascinating. Like Ellroy's book, it alternates between first person and third. Lynda Drews provides an intimate view into her thoughts and feelings surrounding her best friend, Pam Bulik's death. The detailed investigation and trial are then relayed primarily through the detectives, attorneys, psychiatrists, and judge's eyes. But, after Drews takes the stand in Pam's husband's trial, she's able to once again share personal insight. Throughout the entire defense testimony and closing statements, you feel like you could be sitting right beside her. I'm not a runner, but the group that both the Drewses and Buliks belonged to certainly brought the story alive. This is an excellent true crime memoir. It is a book I won't soon forget.
Unique Memoir November 23, 2009
Anne Perry (Tampa, FL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yes Run at Destruction is categorized as True Crime, but it is also slotted as Running. Quite often books about the sport talk about training, diet, and particular races meshed within clever anecdotes. I found Run at Destruction to be quite different - a very unique, tragic, and personal memoir. I was drawn into this story's family-like running subculture. I also totally related to Lynda's tumultuous relationship with her best friend and running buddy, Pam, before her confusing death. During my life, I've had similar friends. Even though you do your best to support them, it never seems to be enough. The investigation into Pam's death and the trial of her husband, Bob, were extremely interesting. It certainly was a tale of two stories. As the attorneys presented their sides, my opinion about Bob's guilt kept fluctuating. Lynda did an admirable job having to don two hats. To be truthful in the telling, she had to reveal her own emotions and beliefs that she experienced at the time. Yet, in the last chapter, she was also able to provide a very fair evaluation of some new facts, providing some alternatives that I continue to ponder. This book was a page-turner and fast read. I highly recommend it to both runners and readers of true crime.
 Trivial Pursuits November 21, 2009
Dan Bogaty
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
As far as I can tell, RUN AT DESTRUCTION (RUD) is Lynda Drews' first book, and despite the fact that she does not understand the use of the comma or the difference between the words "imply" and "infer" and that she routinely uses the word "ironically" to mean "coincidentally", she writes competently for a beginner which is more than can be said for a lot of veteran authors in the true crime genre. However, this is the only positive comment I can make about the book, which is ostensibly about the murder in Green Bay, WI, of her good friend, Pam Bulik, and the subsequent trial of her accused killer. I say ostensibly because the book is actually only tangentially about Pam. Its main subject - by a wide margin - is the life and times of Lynda Drews herself to the extent that Pam's story is essentially background material. Drews could just as easily have been writing about Utah sugar beet production or the Lindbergh kidnapping.
Let me say that I stopped reading at page 146 as RUD is so irritating and so boring that I could read only 2 or 3 pages at a time and it's unlikely I'd have finished it before Easter.
Drew has to be one of the most self-centered and self-satisfied authors I've ever read, and there is nothing too trivial about her life for her to omit. As one example, Drew and her friends were regular runners and she finds it necessary to mention each and every race she or her husband participated in, including her group's CONSTANT Fun Runs. She describes all of her circle of friends' parties - and they were numerous - mentioning the participants by name, how they were dressed, and any other minutiae that catch her fancy. And though the subject is never confronted head on, she frequently mentions the group's alcohol consumption. This thread is so ubiquitous that I began to picture knots of drunken or hung-over runners regularly careening around the streets and trails of the greater Green Bay area.
So you may fully grasp Drews' maddening self-absorption I have chosen at random some examples, which can be found on each and every page:
"Jim (Drews' husband) slid his hand under my hair and began rubbing the nape."
"Jim looked at my flushed cheeks and brushed the damp bangs out of my eyes. `I sure do love you ` I captured his hand, kissing the palm."
"Pam had finally completed her special education credits...I still flushed remembering how we'd agreed to celebrate her achievement."
"Daryl (said) 'Maybe Bob is guilty. Maybe he's not. How do we know until we've heard all the facts?' My face flushed."
`"I flushed, remembering one situation I'd never shared with Pam..."
Though I realize I may just be ill informed, I have never heard of such constant flushing in an individual and thought that Drews might have been wise to consult a doctor. But I know that she didn't, as, had she done so, she would have droned on about it including what she wore, the doctor's hair, and a description of the office.
Drews probably should have seen a doctor, though, because her symptomology was not confined to excessive flushing:
"Jim waited until we'd ordered drinks and gyros, and then took a deep breath. "'Lynda, I need to tell you something.' My heart sped up, seeing his concerned face."
"Watching the petite lady...had given me goose bumps."
"Pam cracked her beautiful smile, giving me goose bumps."
This woman is not well. And parenthetically, if your goose is missing some bumps, one of the first places I'd look for them is on Lynda Drews.
More bad soap opera-esque writing:
"Dressed neatly in a navy sport coat, plaid shirt, tie and khakis, Taylor climbed out of his unmarked brown Chevy. With flared nostrils, slight jowls, and bags below his eyes he looked a bit like the Cowardly Lion from the 1939 film THE WIZARD OF OZ." Seems improbable, but then I wasn't there.
"Her shiny fudge hair, always worn in a bob, was disheveled..." Drews does not specify, but I assume her hair was not black walnut.
"...the city's ethnic makeup of hardy Germans, Belgiums, and Scandinavians."
"'Bill was a terrible dancer!' Kathleen said, her green eyes twinkling."
"Eyes flashing, the prosecutor then detailed her numerous bruises and scrapes."
"On race mornings,...we'd clamber into Pam's van, and with Neil Diamond blasting, we'd rev up while driving to the run. Pam would lead the charge as we'd hijack the men's bathrooms. Once the gun went off she would relish sweating and even spitting during the race."
And as a hyperbolic example of RUD's consistent soap opera tone: "If I could picture Linda's long slim legs wrapped around Bob's sleek back, while she massaged his muscular shoulders, as the prelude to their ultimate `act', what must Pam have thought?"
Demonstrating Drews' propensity for self-congratulation to the exclusion of the actual case, "In the 1890s Green Bay had been in the midst of its boom years, and Astor was its most prestigious residential neighborhood. Victor Minihan, a co-founder of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, was one of our home's early owners.... For a pittance we were able to purchase our 1899 Queen Anne Victorian, with its beautiful open gables, original slate roof, tiled fireplaces, and its back and front staircases."
And finally, in an example of Drews' starkly unembarrassed narcissism, she dumps the day to day activity of shoring Pam up emotionally onto her friend, and is then hurt when she is not privy to titillating inside information. "Even though Pam's crisis was escalating, it was impossible for me to support her needs the way I should. After I hung up, I called Beezie (who) could devote time to Pam when I felt I couldn't. Over the next four weeks, I was grateful when Beezie became Pam's crutch." But then, "Later I cornered Beezie. I knew she was also (in addition to Pam) hiding some secret. She would only say, `The Bulik's counselors are still helping them work through their issues.' A terrible sense of rejection overwhelmed me. I felt that my best friends wouldn't trust me with their confidences when we'd shared absolutely everything in the past."
You will notice that none of these examples contain anything about the murder, investigation, or trial as those facets are essentially incidental to the book that Drews has chosen to write, and she mentions them only in the context of herself, her life, and her emotions. I would estimate that the 146 pages I read, if reduced to the actual information they contain about Pam Bulik's case, would consist of about 40 pages.
Do not read this book if you want a well reported account of an interesting true crime. But if an account of the author's essentially mundane life appeals to you, RUD will be right up your alley, because the book is all Lynda Drews all the time.
Murder or Suicide? A Second Look 25 Years Later November 19, 2009
Kim Cantrell (Tennessee)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Author Lynda Drews was a close personal friend and frequent sounding board to Pam Bulik as she struggled to hold together a failing marriage.
With Pam's untimely and suspicious death, Lynda tried to keep an open mind.
But as the evidence mounted against Bob, she grew to believe in his guilt.
Now she revisits the 1984 death of her friend, to try and get a clear understanding of what really happened that day. Will 25 years make a difference?
Readers will be suprised at the conclusion.
Although at times it was a bit bogged down with irrelevant information, the easy flowing writing style keeps the reader engrossed as it easily steers the story back to the topic at hand.
I found Run At Destruction to be a in-depth, extremely personal account of grief suffered by those left behind and the speculations surrounding the fatal end of a marriage.
An Insiders Look at Murder November 13, 2009
Jenera Healy (Caldwell, Idaho)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have read many true crime stories but this is the first where a person close to the victim has written the book. Author Lynda Drews shares her first hand experience, memories, and information of the death of close friend Pam Bulik in Run At Destruction.
Lynda Drews was a close friend to Pam Bulik and they shared a love running-along with their husbands and friends. In 1984 when Pam failed to show up for a race, many begin to worry about her absence. It was later found that she was killed the very morning of the race she missed.
Run At Destruction goes through the days, weeks, and months after Bulik's death as seen through the eyes of a close friend. Drews gives a close look into the past of the Bulik marriage that was marred by infidelity, lies, and deceit. This is a no holds barred look into a marriage that was falling apart, the murder of a friend, and the suspicion aimed at her husband, Bob Bulik.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was so different from other true crime books in that you are reading in through the eyes of someone who knew the victim. Knew of their struggles and their highs. Lynda Drews paints a clear picture of the turmoil not only in her own family but in the runner's group both her and Pam Bulik belonged to as well as the entire town.
She paints a picture of what going through a trial feels like for all involved. Drews shows how the court system we all trust may be a bit flawed.
If you like true crime books, I highly recommend this book. You will find yourself becoming attached to the author and the people of this book. This is a great read!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 36
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