The Stalking of Kristin: A Father Investigates the Murder of His Daughter [Paperback]

George Lardner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Drawing on a series of articles that won him a Pulitzer Prize, an investigative reporter tells how his young daughter became involved with a man who eventually killed her, while the law failed to protect her. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"This is Kristin's story. I'd give anything not to have written it." Kristin Lardner's father won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of Washington Post articles about this promising young art student who was killed by a jealous ex-boyfriend. In this expanded book version he makes the important point that Kristin did everything right. She was educated and sophisticated, and had the time and resources to make the law work for her. And she was a member of the class of people who believe the law when it promises to protect them. With a parent's rage, and an impressive command of the facts and statistics, George Lardner refutes the widespread belief that the courts offer effective protection to battered women who do report their abusers and press charges. The book includes photos of Kristin's artwork about abuse of women and 80 pages of footnotes and bibliography about the legal system.

From Publishers Weekly

The author's 21-year-old daughter, Kristin Lardner, began dating 22-year-old Michael Cartier in January 1992. She first suffered his violence that April; on May 19, she was granted a restraining order; on May 30, she was dead, gunned down on a Boston street by Cartier, who, within hours, committed suicide. She, an art student, was the daughter of a Washington Post journalist. He was a part-time bouncer and a felon who, from age seven, had been raised in state homes and whose arrest record covered three pages. All they shared in common was a liking for noisy music, snakes and tattoos. In a powerful, courageously personal, heart-wrenching book, the author, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his expose of the domestic abuse laws that failed his daughter, reaches deep inside himself to assuage the pain of a preventable tragedy. We learn of Kristin's supportive home life with her parents and four siblings, her serious application to her studies, her lack of self-confidence. We're also told of the background of her killer, his abuse of a former girlfriend and his other crimes. Lardner, whose press coverage of this story reformed domestic abuse legislation in Massachusetts, indicts the courts for their laxity in punishing criminals. Kristin's complaint against Cartier "was processed like a slice of cheese," he charges; the justice system is "witless... the law is not properly protecting us."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451407318
• ISBN-13: 978-0451407313
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,592,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling and profoundly sad!, March 27, 2000

By 

M. T. Guzman "squeakychu" (Rockville, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stalking of Kristin: A Father Investigates the Murder of His Daughter (Paperback)

With heart-rending honesty, Lardner recounts the tragedy that turned his picture-perfect life into a horrendous nightmare. Lardner's daughter, an art student in Boston, was murdered by a disgruntled boyfriend who first stalked her and then shot her dead. The beginning of the book is great. The dad speaks with candor about his love for and his frustrations with his daughter from the time she was a young girl through her college years. She grew up in Chevy Chase, a suburb of Washington, D.C., a setting very familiar to me. The author had me laughing out loud and crying real tears before I was barely into the book at all yet. He reported on the details of his daughter's tragic death as well as the sad state of affairs in the United States which allows hardened criminals back on the streets to quickly become repeat offenders. Lardner recalls the story of murderer Michael Cartier's youth and the criminal record he accumulated during his short but turbulent life.

This is not a book for everyone due to it intense subject matter, but it was nonetheless quite engrossing to me. Good writing. Incredibly sad story. The story Lardner presents of Cartier, is quite frightening. It demonstrates the lengths to which a criminal's right's are protected by the United States criminal justice system versus the appalling lack of consideration given to a victim's right to safety and freedom from fear. What made the book all the more creepy was that, during the few weeks it took me to finish the book, a murder under similar circumstances occurred in a suburb of Washington, D.C. The March, 2000, Washington Post article which ran the news story ("Md. Man Gets Life Term in Girlfriend's Slaying" by Ruben Casteneda) ended by saying of the killer's girlfriend "A month before the shooting, she filed assault and kidnapping charges against him after he allegedly abducted her at knifepoint, but the arrest warrant was never served." Some things never change.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth in Justice, February 6, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Dave Shultz, Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stalking of Kristin: A Father Investigates the Murder of His Daughter (Paperback)

As a local police expert on stalking and stalking issues, such as domestic violence, I was extremely gratified to read George Lardner's book. As I read on, I found myself believing Kristen was my daughter, my girlfriend, or my best friend. I was as devastated as George was when she was killed, and as horrified as he to learn of how little victims are protected in the "real" world. You must read this book and recommend it or pass it on to your friends. Over 30% of women in America, and over 20% of men, will find themselves stalked at some time in their lives. It is good to know that you really must fend for yourself, and not rely on the police or the Courts to protect you. George Lardner's book should be a requirement for any poly-sci, criminal justice major, and for first-year law students. It is packed with statistics about how the system fails victims, and how society is endangered by our failure to imprison vilent criminal offenders.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this book!, May 20, 2001

By 

Jenna (San Antonio, TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stalking of Kristin: A Father Investigates the Murder of His Daughter (Paperback)

I found this book thought-provoking and very interesting. It must have been exceptionally painful for George Lardner to dig this deeply into his daughter's murder, but also somewhat theraputic when he finished writing the book. THE STALKING OF KRISTIN will hit home especially to parents, since the worst nightmare of any parent is to see their child hurt, or even worse, killed. It also will appeal to women, as it discusses the difficulty we sometimes face when all we desire is justice. It caused me to think about our legal system today and how it fails us AND protects us everyday. Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I highly reccomend it...