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.

I had read this book a few years ago and I found it interesting, maybe partly because I live in the Northwest and the places and people were familiar to me. I don't think the book is above average as true crime books go--it gets a little too bogged down in details. However, once there was a recent arrest in some of the killings, I bought another copy and found it much more interesting this time. The person arrested is in the book as the truck painter who is one of the suspects all the way through. Tracing what law enforcement did to try to figure out and apprehend the killer is more fascinating now that it looks like they know who killed at least a number of these women. What I ended up feeling was a great sense of admiration and appreciation for all the law enforcement personnel who devoted much of their careers to this case. They were faced with so many leads to follow and so much information to sort out. I just hope that the prosecution will come to a just conclusion and lead to some peace for the families of all these girls, like Opal's brother who wrote a review of the book here.

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.

I probably would not have read this book, until I found out few years after that I had been dating the adult Male victims wife. The ex of the killer named Sandy. We did not date for a long period of time. However after reading this book and with my inside knowledge of the family and victims. I believe it may be that Sandy put her ex-boyfriend up to this, possibly trying to release herself from an unhappy marriage. You will have to make your own conclusions. I think the writer was spot-on when pointing a finger in Sandy's direction.

This book was very interesting and competent when describing the process in which the chemical substance that caused the deaths was tracked down. However, two parts of this book disturbed me greatly. The first was that the author kept casting unfounded suspicions on the surviving wife. I really felt disgusted by this in some portions of this work. The second is the author sometimes veers into satanism. One gets the feeling that this theme was originally more prominent in this work and an editor reigned it in. Still, someone should inform the author that humanism does not equate with satanism.

A chilling true story. How an almost perfect crime came to be solved. It is an almost impossible task to trace the cause of death until one woman expert in 'hidden' poisens comes to the rescue