UBC: Rule, Lust Killer

[truepenny]

Lust Killer by Ann Rule

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Long form suits Ann Rule a good deal better, as does having an agenda. There's a reason she's writing about Jerry Brudos, and that reason informs her story-telling.

Her reason, of course, is the same reason that makes The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story compelling: educating her readers, specifically her young female readers, on the existence of men like Brudos, on the fact that you can't protect yourself from them by being "good" (or "bad," for that matter), and that if one targets you, cooperation almost certainly means your death. Good girls who cooperate are exactly what a man like Brudos wants; it makes them easy prey.

The most horrifying thing about Jerry Brudos is that I'd never heard of him, that there are so many serial killers like him that his name doesn't hold a charge. (The dubious upside to this observation is that it would have infuriated him, Brudos, like others of his ilk, having had a poisonously swollen ego.) If you are interested in serial killers, this is a good case study, clearly written and compelling and, as she quoted from Ted Bundy's letters, she quotes from Brudos' petitions and appeals written in prison--that kind of primary evidence, when available, is certainly the quickest way to get a visceral understanding of how someone like this thinks.

I'm interested in true crime as a genre. This is a good example of how to tell a no-frills story cleanly and concisely. It would be a good choice for representing Ann Rule in a class on twentieth-century American true crime writing.



View all my reviews

N.b., this is the 201st nonfiction book I've reviewed under the unread book challenge tag.