Reviews - Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers

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Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers

It's hard to say that you "really liked" a book about the horrendous serial killers that plagued certain parts of the country from the '60s to the '90s. And I certainly felt I already knew too much about Ted Bundy. But this was an expertly written and absolutely fascinating American history that included pop culture references, geology lessons, and a fascinating theory about what caused the rise and fall of these particularly revolting men during specific times and places. Plus a bit of memoir which I thought was great and would have liked more of. Reading about these men and the things they did made me nauseous, and I had to turn the book over so I wouldn't have to look at Ted's face. If you like true crime and want to read a real masterpiece about it, however, I definitely recommend it.

jltusc's review against another edition

2.5

dark informative medium-paced

I couldn’t put this down due to personal interest in the topic but as a book it was not successful in what it intended to do.

hilbertscurve's review against another edition

3.5

Would’ve liked more focus on the ecological thread and fewer descriptions of rape and murder

scoops_stories's review against another edition

5.0

slow-paced

suck the smoke down the stack and go back, back, back to the days when girls are dragged away from washing their clothes and hitching their rides and sleeping in their beds. Help them back into their bodies. Give them a hand up out of the Green River and the trash and the leaf litter - they don't belong there. For the love of all that's holy, strew their paths with daffodils. Let a little girl awake in the morning after rain, wearing her plea to St Christopher and keep her door latched fast. Put the baby back in the basket. Un-melt the slag. Un-break the rock. Un-breathe the air. Now and forever, let it all be over.

Perhaps toxic masculinity is exactly that -- toxic. Polluted by the fumes of smelters that pump arsenic and lead into the atmosphere.

Is that how we explain away the unexplainable? Do we blame all of the destruction caused by serial killers on underdeveloped frontal lobes and vitamin deficiencies? I guess it's better than constantly blaming their mothers.

But Caroline Fraser isn't suggesting lead pollution wipes clean the hands of these monsters. It's just another lens through which we can get a better look at these specimens of filth and depravity. Caroline grew up in the Pacific Northwest and lived near many of Bundy's crimes. She also grew up in the toxic air pollution caused by the Ruston Smelter stack.

I admit I first picked up Murderland because Ted Bundy was on the cover, looking for a pulpy true crime read that wouldn't require much thought. So I was disappointed at first to learn Caroline was going to give me a history lesson on the geology and ecology of the PNW area. But once I made it through that first chapter, I began to see the story she was weaving. Instead of listening to facts about heinous crimes like I'm ingesting junk food, I was instead confronted with not only crimes of notorious serial killers but also government and corporations who have killed and maimed even more people than Ted Bundy, the Green River killer and Israel Keyes combined.

Caroline Fraser wants us to hold these corporate murderers just as accountable as BTK. Their insanity and dark urges are just the same, but mixed with greed. What costs more, the lead poisoning of thousands of children, or turning off all smelting and slag operations? Why aren't the CEOs also being tied to the electric chair?

Don't forget -- these 'men' who hunt in the woods are not conniving geniuses and horror movie monsters. They only became prolific because we made them so. We need to see through the smoke stack and remember they are pathetic piles of slag who perhaps can sell books if they appear on the cover, but their victims are far more worthy of remembering.

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