Customer Reviews

The Sunset Murders

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4 star:		(3)
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Great book, very easy read. Unlike most "true crime" novels the author includes interesting background information on the criminals, victims and the people who put them away. What a couple of wackos those two were (are). Best lines include: murderer Carol Bundy: "Your treating me like a criminal". Victim's wife to Geraldo:"she would like Doug to go to the electric chair with Carol Bundy on his lap."

The book "The Sunset Murders" is certainly well-detailed and fact based. I applaud Farr for her eyes and ears used to bring this twisted story to life, and yes, she does not glamorize the killers, instead displaying them obviously as what they are in real life - sick and disgusting losers. Clark a grandiose, overblown ass and Bundy his oversexed ignorant slave. I just wondered, after reading the book, if there was one single person involved in the story from witnesses to cosp, that was pleasant or had any redeeming qualities whatsoever. Not the killers, mind you, but there had to be someone in law enforcement and investigating worth applauding. I didn't care for some of the presentations of the investigators. Five stars for research though. And I wonder - what has become of Carol's sons? Crime fans - read this book.

I read this book a few years ago and I still wonder about Carol Bundy. She is the most pathetic person, she still wants to help Doug Clark even though he has tried to blame the murders on her. This book was very detailed, Farr did a very thourough job in describing all the details that true crime buffs love.

Everything about this book is creepy. I love true crime and this one filled my expectations. The pictures are creepy and I don't mean the ones just of the victims. Carol and her thick glasses, Douglas' evil glare and the Tom Jones wannabe, not to mention the severed head!!! Great quick read.

Too much sensational crime coverage has turned the serial killer into some kind of celebrity, living examples of evil personified. Such killers as Manson and Bundy are practically legendary figures. More than any book I've ever read, "The Sunset Murders" exposes serial killers for what they really are: ordinary slobs like the rest of us. Doug Clark comes across like someone's cretinous and boastful loser uncle, Carol Bundy like the idiot manager you had during your first summer job in fast food. Somehow, these two drab and none too intelligent souls joined together to become mass murderers. Fascinating.

Louise Farr's THE SUNSET MURDERS is the story of a serial killing scumbag named Douglas Clark and his marginally less-disgusting doormat/accomplice, Carol Bundy.
Clark was a narcissistic, grandiose, sexual incompetent who was so soul-dead that he had reached the point where he incessantly craved the excitement he experienced when he picked up and murdered young street prostitutes, with his ultimate rush being when he had sex with their dead bodies. This bundle of nausea's M.O. also included manipulating overweight, unattractive and needy women, as much as anything just so he could psychologically abuse them. He also lived with or married a series of them.
Bundy was the poster girl for Clark's domestic abuse. She was in a perpetual state of heat and martyrdom, which was perfect for Clark as he could deny her sex while having sex with other women while Bundy was present
Eventually Bundy began assisting Clark with his nighttime forays in search of prey; and they also began tag teaming and sexually abusing an 11-year-old neighbor girl, whom they eventually included in their searches for victims.

Farr's book is written in standard true crime format, and includes enough background material on Clark that the reader realizes that he's been subhuman all his life. There is also background, though less extensive, on Bundy.
The writing in the book is well done, though it had its share of what I consider flaws. IN her preface, Farr states, "Nothing has been made up." While this seems for the most part to be true, I tend to doubt whether or not she really knows that, for example, "Lt. Ron Lewis' (...) skin was pink with annoyance."
There is not a lot, but enough, repetition in the book that it becomes noticeable, particularly in Farr's continual descriptions of Bundy as fat, dowdy, and unattractive. Six or seven times would have been plenty.
The book presents a sometimes convoluted set of circumstances, but Farr's lack of coherent chronology does not make them any easier to follow; and, finally, the book has a large cast of characters, and even the minor ones make occasional reappearances, sometimes a hundred or more pages later. I found it hard to keep track of who many of them were and would have greatly appreciated a listing of the cast of characters.

But having said that, THE SUNSET MURDERS is a very good work of true crime. The story is fascinating and fast paced, and, despite my quibbles noted above, the writing is considerably better than average. The trial section, often the worst part of these books, is terrific and nails down, in case there was any lingering question, Clark's megalomania. He behaved like an infant in the courtroom, regularly cursed out the judges and lawyers, including his own, and like many narcissists, thought he was smarter than everyone else and decided to represent himself.
Douglas Clark is among the most disgusting sub-human globs of sewer slime you will ever read about. His eyes, as seen in the book's pictures, are those of a sociopathic alien. Bundy is not quite as nauseating, but as a whiny, borderline, and manipulative sack of nothing, she'll do.

THE SUNSET MURDERS is very good true crime. I rolled through its 308 pages in a matter of a few days, and I think most fans of the genre will really enjoy it.

i think to most people of the world..douglas clark is a normal looking man...no handsome gigalo or anything like that...so he must have had the gift of a silver tongue,he seemed to be able to charm the birds from the tree`s and woman to become obsessed with him,physically and mentally. within this book it talks of clark living with or just staying with a numerous amount of women,some he converted to just live with him,some to be sex objects for him and one to..help him fulfill his ultimate fantasy...murder.the author holds no punches as clark picks up and has his way with young girls,who had turned to prostitution...at times gruesome and shocking but rivetting stuff...if you like serial killing books.get this..

The Sunset Murders is an absolutely gripping story, very well written, and as far as I know the only book written about this case (to date).

At the center of the story is Carol Bundy, 37, on first glance appearing to be a typical Valley wife and mother of two small boys. Who leaves her abusive husband Grant, and moves into the seedy Valerio Gardens Complex. The manager, Jack Murray, a native Australian is also a lounge singer nicknamed the "Australian Cowboy" married with two children. His wife, Jeanette, is a beautiful, slim, leggy blond (and an ex-marine!). Carol on the other hand is rather plump & "matronly", with a large front, cropped mousy brown limp hair, and glasses with thick lenses, her doctor told her she's going blind.

Carol comes from a horrendous childhood, suffering abuse from both parents. The worst from her father. She has a very needy, clingy personality, and likes to be dominated by men.

After she moves into the complex, she latches onto Jack, saying she was sorry he was married, to which he responded "that's okay, I fool around."

Jack, according to his friends was "an *sshole..but a likeable *sshole." He's a womanizer and seems to have an insatiable sexual appetite, and often told tall tales, mostly to impress women.

The only good things he did for Carol, was to suggest she get another opinion about her eyes, the doctors revealed her sight could be restored with sugery. And he told her to contact a lawyer to get her share of the house where she lived with her husband (he was selling it), which she did, an amount of: $25,000. With which she bought gifts for Jack, that he happily accepted.

But another man would enter Carol's life, a man much more dangerous and sinister than Jack. His name was Doug Clark, 32, she met him at a club that Jack frequented in North Hollywood called "The Little Nashville Club" .

Doug was charming, slim and handsome with golden blond hair & blue eyes. And a hypnotic, soft voice. But he was also a cold blooded killer. He would introduce Carol to a world of sexual obsession and serial murder, where she would be his unlikely accomplice. And later she would commit murder of her own.

Later unable to fulfill Doug (and Jack), who by and by didn't want to sleep with Carol anymore, citing that she was "underwhelmingly attractive" she brought her 11 year old neighbor Theresa to meet him. Doug was enraptured with Theresa, a particulary spunky precocious little blond girl. Who neighbors would joke with by saying "You're 11 going on 40". Doug seemed to put her on a pedestal, lavishing her with gifts and they would often go cruising together! Later Carol actually went to a couselor with Theresa, to whom she revealed Theresa & Doug's relationship. The counselor asked Theresa if it bothered her, to which she replied "not really". So he told Carol if it didn't bother Theresa, then it wasn't his place to moralize!

And this is just a taste, there's so much more!
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The Sunset Murders is a facinating story, filled with some of the most oddest people and circumstances.
The book goes in depth into each person's history even some of the detectives on the case. Including some female detectives battling sexism in the workplace, from the males who think women are too inept to work homicide...Engrossing, never a dull moment!