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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine piece of journalism, June 7, 2000
Between the Summer of 1982 and Spring of 1984 someone, almost certainly a man, picked up at least 40 and perhaps as many as 60 young women, mostly prostitutes, strangled them and disposed of their bodies in various locations in the Pacific northwest, predominantly in southern King County, Washington. Despite the efforts of a special police investigative unit that developed a proficiency in forensic techniques that would later prove useful in countless other investigations, and that had the lessons of Ted Bundy nearly a decade before to draw upon, this killer was never caught, and to this day his identity and final fate remains unknown. This book is an essentially journalistic account (in the modern sense, in which a description of the facts is coupled closely with a subjective evaluation of them) of the investigation of the "Green River" murders (so named because the first victims found were disposed of in the Green River, though most others were found elsewhere). Thus we read about the victims, who they were and in some cases how they drifted into prostitution and/or drug use, when they were last seen and with whom, when their absence first came to the attention of the police or the Green River investigators. We read of the detectives themselves, of the leads they followed, the manner in which they were forced to learn about the lives of prostitutes and the violence routinely directed against them, the political conflicts that occasionally helped but more often hindered their investigation, the forensic approaches they learned and perfected, the mistakes they made, the attempts to find links between the Green River murders and similar slayings occurring elsewhere, such as Portland and San Diego. We read of the occasional suspects, the coincidences or other apparent evidence that led the police to them, and the frustrating regularity with which they were always exonerated. What we do not read about at all, of course, is the killer himself; in a book of true crime, this is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because we are largely spared the psychological mumbo-jumbo that might otherwise have dominated such an account, and as a result we are presented only with the basic descriptions of "profiling" as practiced in the 1980's by the FBI, and generalizations regarding the psychology of serial murderers. A curse because the real subject of the narrative, the one character we do want to know about most, never makes it onto the stage. It is perhaps a testament to the skills of these writers that we as readers experience some measure of the frustration that must have gripped the detectives on the case. Unlike other reviewers of this book, I don't see how this book is "horrifying" or otherwise comparable to anything in the suspense or crime genre. While the crimes described were certainly horrendous, they were committed 20 years ago, the victims almost uniformly possessed a very specific profile that most readers will not fit, and most of the book is concerned not with the crimes themselves (which were never witnessed in any case) but with the investigation of them, which is a much less sensational and much more tedious process to describe. That these authors managed to maintain my interest in such subject matter should stand as a sufficient compliment to their skills. This book is worth reading whether you are interested in the Green River murders by themselves or police investigations of this scale in general.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For all True Crime Buffs, August 2, 2001
This was probably one of the best books on a Serial Killer that I have read since Helter Skelter. I really liked the way the authors wrote in chronological order. Many true crime authors try to get creative and jump back and forth to make themselves look smarter or something; when all we want is the information. I also liked the way it went into depth about the problems within the different law enforcement agencies, as well as how the media and government play in to funding these type of investigations. It made the entire investigation much more clear. I also felt that the authors knew it was vital to give full descriptions of each victim (when they disappeared, where, cause of death, etc.) and comparisons between each victim. You could actually follow the killer's subtle signature, and watch their M.O. develop throughout the book. Anyone interested in Serial Killers should definitely give this book a second glance.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The better of the two books available, March 2, 2003
Better than the Ted Bundy "Riverman" book, since you don't have to wade through that maniac's ravings. One of the better true crime books in that neither you (the reader) nor they (the author and his sources) really know who did it or why. This is what makes the Green River Killer case so disturbing--the very high number of victims taken in a short period of time from the same geographical area by someone who was never identified. Was it Ridgway? Who knows. The trial is upcoming. Strengths: gets behind the scenes of the investigation and traces the growing horror of the sheer number of bodies being discovered. Points out some critical points in the investigation where costly mistakes were made (like not searching further up the river when the first bodies were found, and blowing a chance to catch the killer returning to the river because the media got wind of the stakeout and showed up with a helicopter!) Weaknesses: Doesn't give a very good description of the scene around the Strip in 1982-84, nor speculate just why this area was the killer's hunting ground of choice. Gives some details on the victims, but not enough to make them real people. They remain simply street prostitutes with some background information. A critical missing piece is some accounts of how they lived while they were on the strip. But maybe nobody knows much about that. That's where the author should have dug a little deeper. Worth reading if you're interested in true crime, and essential if you follow the Green River case.
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