Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers (Unabridged)
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4.0 • 68 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
“A provocative and page-turning work of true crime.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A provocative, eerily lyrical study of the heyday of American serial killers . . . A true-crime story written with compassion, fury, and scientific sense.” —Kirkus (starred review)
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by LitHub
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Prairie Fires comes a terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond—a gripping investigation of how a new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence
Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?
As Murderland indelibly maps the lives and careers of Bundy and his infamous peers in mayhem—the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalker, the Hillside Strangler, even Charles Manson—Fraser’s Northwestern death trip begins to uncover a deeper mystery and an overlapping pattern of environmental destruction. At ground zero in Ted Bundy’s Tacoma stood one of the most poisonous lead, copper, and arsenic smelters in the world, but it was hardly unique in the West. As Fraser’s investigation inexorably proceeds, evidence mounts that the plumes of these smelters not only sickened and blighted millions of lives but also warped young minds, including some who grew up to become serial killers.
A propulsive nonfiction thriller, Murderland transcends true-crime voyeurism and noir mythology, taking readers on a profound quest into the dark heart of the real American berserk.
Slag Forming Peninsula, American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) Records (Collection 2.4.1) Northwest Room at Tacoma Public Library
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
True-crime tales about serial killers so often leave you asking, “But why? What turns a man into a monster?” Caroline Fraser has an answer. She grew up in Seattle when the area was at the center of a serial-killer epidemic. Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, and many other infamous murderers all emerged in the ’70s and ’80s and proceeded to terrorize the Pacific Northwest. But why did this phenomenon skyrocket so dramatically in such a concentrated area during such a limited period? In this fascinating nonfiction listen, Fraser profiles the many, many killers who popped up in this time and place, meticulously connecting each man to something scientifically linked to violent crime: lead poisoning. Patty Nieman’s steady, deliberate narration had us utterly transfixed as Fraser pieced together this shockingly intense puzzle. We never knew that tracing a killer’s proximity to a region’s unchecked smelting industry could be so breathlessly gripping.
Customer Reviews
Great from beginning to end!
Great writing and great narration
Listened twice and will definitely listen again in the future.
Good content, writing not for me
Interested in the content but the writing style drives me crazy. Anthropomorphizing geology isn’t my thing I guess.
It makes complete sense
Superb research telling a story that needed to be told. An eye opening topic. Excellent narration. This needs to become a documentary for a wider audience to better understand what happened with the proliferation of serial killers in certain geographical areas.