Green River, Running Red

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 30 AUG 2004

Following the winter 2003 sentencing of the Green River serial killer, Gary Ridgeway, perennial true-crime bestseller Rule (Heart Full of Lies, etc.) has finally completed her long-awaited definitive narrative of the brutal and senseless crimes that haunted the Seattle area for decades. Rule once again validates her standing as one of the pre-eminent chroniclers of modern serial murder, calling upon her experience as a former police officer and a civilian adviser to the VICAP Task Force to present a nuanced and easily comprehensible account of the hunt for the man responsible for at least 48 killings. She succeeds on a number of levels; perhaps her greatest achievement is bringing Ridgeway's victims to life as distinct individuals, most of whom led lives of quiet desperation that brought them to prostitution and, eventually, to death at his hands. Rule also captures the profound sadness pervading this grim chapter in U.S. crime history by humanizing the grieving relatives, as well as the dedicated investigators who, tragically, had interviewed Ridgeway several times and then moved on to other suspects. Her eventual realization that the murderer had attended some of her lectures and book signings will give readers the creeps. This account is a good counterpoint to Sheriff David Reichert's recent insider account, Chasing the Devil, and should expand Rule's already large readership.