Green River Running Red

[Snow]

Just finished Green River Running Red, The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer. It tells the story of Gary Ridgeway, supposedly the most prolific of all American serial killers. Ann Rule is the Grand Dame of true crime books, especially serial killer books. She has been following the "GRK" for 20 years, having lived in the immediate area of the killings at the time they took place.

If you are into the serial killer genre, the book is good enough. I, however, was disappointed. As good as she is (supposedly), I find Ann Rule's work solid but less than enthralling. She is basically a technician, not an artist. She tells the story correctly but I didn't get a sense of the horror and tragedy, not that she doesn't try, she just doesn't hook me. I find this in her other work as well. She hit the big time with The Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy, with whom she worked side by side in a crisis call center, if you can believe it, at the time he was killing and she was writing about it never knowing that her friend Ted was the killer Ted. That's a unique hook and the book was interesting but I found other Bundy books to be more intriguing, giving more twisted insight into the mind of the killer. The old book The Boston Strangler was one that captured the creepiness of it all. She lacks that.

Gary Ridgeway, though prolific, was bland, nowhere near as interesting as Bundy or The Hillside Strangler, or .. Viktor Burakov, the most savage serial killer in Russian history.

Worth reading, but not monumental.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/074...6820354-3614363

[Idacat]

Originally posted by Snow@Mar 27 2005, 11:53 PM

Gary Ridgeway, though prolific, was bland, nowhere near as interesting as Bundy or The Hillside Strangler, or .. Viktor Burakov, the most savage serial killer in Russian history.

I agree, and this may be why, although I usually enjoy "true crime" that I have no interest in reading about Ridgeway.

I don't necessarily agree about Ann Rule, some of her books beyond Bundy have been pretty good. Dead by Sunset, about a sociopath who wooed, married, and killed a Portland,Or. doctor, I found enjoyable. Another one I enjoyed, more recently was A Heart Full of Lies. The latter, I was living in the area in which it took place at the time it took place, and knew personally a number of the law enforcement and legal professionals who figured prominantly in the story which made it even more interesting. Plus the killer was a woman whose psychopathology, followed from her teen years to present, was, IMO, fascinating.

[pushka]

It's great to see that you're including a wider variety of book reviews here, not just Church books...

I'm very interested in Serial Killers and psychology in general, and agree that we all seem to have a 'secret desire' to know all the gory facts...lol, graphic detail! However I don't mind a more clinical approach to a subject too, once in a while...I might find myself reading this book one day...

Thanks Snow.

[TTIOT]

I know this post is really old, but I just had to correct the error that was made here and I quote:

"Viktor Burakov, the most savage serial killer in Russian history."

Viktor Burakov was the detective who caught Andrei Chikatilo, not the killer.

[Snow]

I know this post is really old, but I just had to correct the error that was made here and I quote:

"Viktor Burakov, the most savage serial killer in Russian history."

Viktor Burakov was the detective who caught Andrei Chikatilo, not the killer.

That's true. Good catch. The book I read on Chikatilo was a good one. Better than most of Rule's books I think.

[pam]

I think one of the most gripping, can't put it down books was Helter Skelter. About the Manson family. Getting into the psyche of several of the family members was interesting. Plus the fact I can remember when all of that hit the news.