Fellow serial killer book reader Lazy first drew my attention to Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer, by Ann Rule. Being that I hadn’t heard of the Green River Killer (or GRK) before, but also wasn’t sure I wanted to have a book about a serial killer prominently displayed on my bookshelf, I requested it from my university library. (I’m now probably on a government watchlist somewhere.)

So, the GRK (Gary Ridgway) was active in the 1980s in the Seattle and Tacoma areas of Washington. He murdered over 70 women, possibly as many as 90, and targeted women working as prostitutes. He was caught and arrested in 2001, thanks to the use of DNA evidence. The actual story is much more drawn out—Rule writes about the ongoing, frustrating police investigation, as well as the lives of some of the women killed and Ridgway’s child- and adulthood.

Rule herself is a well-known true crime writer, who has published tons of books and short stories. She’s probably best known for “The Stranger Beside Me,” as she was co-workers and friends with Ted Bundy, another prolific serial killer.

I think, in this book, I would have liked for her to downplay her involvement. (However, this could be my bias against memoirs speaking.) Though it would have made sense to detail her interactions with Bundy, her involvement in the GRK case was limited and fairly ineffectual—so additions like Ridgeway having attended one of her book signings seemed to be grasping and didn’t enhance my understanding of the case or Ridgway.

In contrast, I wanted more about GRK himself. I’m not sure if they just couldn’t get enough reliable information out of him to construct viable diagnoses, but I didn’t feel that the police came any closer to understand Ridgway. The transcripts of police interrogations of Ridgway were helpful in giving us a glimpse inside the mind of a serial killer, but never went so far as to provide answers to the “how” and “why” questions. I also didn’t think that the period of latency after his third marriage was explained well enough. As Rule herself states, serial killers don’t just “stop.” Their behavior usually escalates the longer they remain free. So how and why did Ridgeway go from murdering multiple women—sometimes in the same week—to potentially murdering no one for years?

While Rule’s writing isn’t what I would call extremely masterful, the twists and turns of the story was enough to keep me reading. The fact that Ridgway is portrayed as being unintelligent but manages to elude the police for so long was interesting in and of itself. I did appreciate that Rule dedicated space to the victims of GRK, and told many of their stories in the book. Almost all of GRK’s victims were women—girls, really—who had been abused, abandoned, forced to the fringes of society, and forgotten. Learning more about them as they had been, and reading the words of their families, felt like a fitting tribute.

Bookwanderer Rating: Three out of five stars

Recently, though, I started reading some other book blogs again, and remembered what I liked most about book blogs: the reviews! So I think I will start updating this again, but at my pace and without comparing myself to other book bloggers. Hope you enjoy bookwanderer!

BTW, Panama was awesome. Can’t beat hiking, birding, snorkeling, and seeing the Panama Canal all in one trip!

We will resume our regularly-scheduled program in May. Thanks for visiting!

My Waiting on Wednesday pick this week is The Bird Detective. (I love birds and I love learning about them in fun ways, so I’m really excited about this one, especially as it turns bird fidelity on its head.) The blurb, via Harper Collins:

In The Bird Detective, the author explains why some birds readily “divorce,” why parents don’t treat their sons and daughters equally, why females sneak in quick sex with neighbouring males and why some adults forgo breeding altogether. Stutchbury writes about the territorial nature of birds and describes their nesting habits, revealing why some species prefer to live in over-crowded groups. Perhaps most important, she illuminates how climate change and other pressures of the modern world are forcing birds to change their habits as they fight for their very survival.

There’s a great article on the book here. The Bird Detective comes out July 4, 2010.

What’s your Waiting on Wednesday?

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from West with the Night, byBeryl Markham. It is awesome. (It’s also my final book for the Women Unbound Challenge.)

The tease:

We were leaving the scene of our mutual discouragement when Arab Kosky’s curiousity overcame his natural caution. He bent down in front of the dark hole and the warthog came out. It was more like an explosion than an attack by a wild pig.

What’s your teaser?

It’s hard for me to categorize this novel: it’s a mystery, it’s literary fiction, it’s a thriller, it’s even a bit fantastical. I described the main plotline above, but there are sidelines dedicated to Zee’s parents’ relationship, her mother’s fairy tales, and Melville’s life. Unexpectedly, at least for me, was how much space in the book is dedicated to the hard realities of caring for an ailing parent. I think others in the same situation would appreciate the understanding portrait Barry paints here.

One of the parts I found most affirming was seeing Zee come into herself and discover what she really wants out of life. She’s a very well-realized character and I found myself identifying with her, even though my life has been happy and hers traumatic. She works to overcome the past and the present, and though it’s not all tied together with a neat little bow, it is realistic and kinda uplifting.

I also really liked how this book took place in the same version of Salem we were introduced to in The Lace Reader. Mentions of Towner and Rafferty, as well as appearances by Ann Chase, were delightful. By no means do you have to read The Lace Reader first, but it did enhance my enjoyment a bit (especially getting to know Ann better–she’s definitely one of my fave characters, and I hope Barry’s third book will be about her).

And it’s a good litmus test: if you liked The Lace Reader, it’s probably an indication that you’ll like The Map of True Places, too. It had a lot of the same themes: emotionally/mentally-scarred mothers, distant/absent fathers, a distinct New England feel, a family secret, even a kind of unreliable main character. While it’s true she does this really, really well, it would also be cool to see a major departure from this formula in her next novel.

I also noticed that Barry seems to delight in tricking you into thinking the male (romantic) leads may have done something “bad,” and then cooking up an explanation for it that lets them off the hook. I for one think it would make her books that much more complex and interesting if she let these guys actually DO what they were accused of, and still be accepted/loved by the female main characters. Otherwise, they seem a little too good to be true, honestly. That may be just me! (And her “gotcha!”-type endings may wear a little thin for some, though this one I saw coming.)

A strong sophomore offering from Ms. Barry!

I received this ARC from William Morrow through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. The Map of True Places comes out on May 4, 2010.

Bookwanderer Rating: Three and a half/four out of five stars

Bookwanderer Tagline: Mayhem in Salem (it almost rhymes…)

Facts:

1. I spent longer than you’d believe working on this.
2. It’s based on a true story.
3. I never claimed to be a poet.

New York: A Haiku

It’s hard not to love
A place you buy truck tacos,
Even at four a.m.

And they are the spiciest freakin’ tacos (and burritos and sopes and etc) you will ever have.

Now that you’ve subjected yourself to my poem, make sure to check out the other participants’ superior offerings by going to the challenge page I linked above!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, a memoir by Nick Flynn that I’m reading on recommendation from a friend. The tease:

In the summer I’d hear about someone found face-down near the railyard and wonder if the body was my father’s. A reflex. White male, fifties, sixties, could be anyone.

Missy/Taylor Greer is brought up in rural Kentucky, and is determined to make her way out of it someday. She stays in school, avoids getting pregnant (apparently half of her female class ends up dropping out of school because of pregnancy), and even gets a job at a hospital. After buying a car and saying goodbye to her loving, fantastic mother (seriously, loved her!), she takes off for the mountains of the west. And along the way, picks up the one thing she told herself she never wanted: a child. Taylor and Turtle, the silent American Indian girl she’s now caring for, make their way to Tucson and make a family for themselves among a cast of eclectic, warm characters.

Almost despite myself, I really liked everyone in the book. Taylor is so naive as to be almost childlike, and like a child, she expresses wonder and acceptance of all the good she’s shown. Mattie, garage owner and an immigrants-rights advocate (well, more than advocate…) was straight-up awesome. Lou Ann had me laughing, and even reminded me a bit of my own mother. Again, Kingsolver proves that she just writes great, strong, funny, well-rounded female characters that you’d be happy to call your friends.

The one thing I couldn’t get over–and perhaps this is a limitation on my part, as a reader–was how differently I would have handled everything from Taylor. Her way made for much more interesting reading, I’m sure, but it stretched my suspension of disbelief that a) a woman tells you to take a baby and b) you DO, without demanding answers or checking over the baby to see if it’s injured or anything. It’s what the whole novel is built on, and it was pretty shaky ground for me.

Otherwise, though, I did love the characters themselves, and the themes that families can be made, not born. Taylor’s relationship with Turtle was really moving, as a mother and daughter who sort of fell into one anothers’ lives and ended up being exactly what the other needed. Estevan and Esperanza’s side story was also handled sensitively and interestingly, and gave the book an added dimension that I wasn’t expecting–immigration and morality.

Overall it’s interesting to see how her writing and story-telling has matured, from The Bean Trees all the way to Prodigal Summer. I would recommend it to fans of Kingsolver and women’s lit, definitely.

This is my final fiction read for the Women Unbound Challenge. One nonfiction left to go before I reach the Bluestocking level!

Bookwanderer Rating: Three and a half stars

Bookwanderer Tagline: Taylor and Turtle make two!