Green River, Running Red

In Seattle, from 1982 until 2001, the Green River Killer carried out his hideous obsession, eventually murdering 48 young women before his capture. Abridged true crime cuts to the heart of a piece, avoiding overly technical jargon and repetition. In this abridgment, author and ex-policewoman Ann Rule offers unsentimental examinations of the lives of each of the murdered women. Rule humanizes them, making Gary Ridgeway's mindless brutality seem even more toxic. Ridgeway was everyone's nightmare--the quiet next-door neighbor with a baseball cap, a pickup truck, and a penchant for murder. Narrator Michele Pawk reads with the detachment necessary to tell so grisly a tale. She handles the women's stories, the murder scenes, Ridgeway's sexual sadism, and his marriages coolly, with appropriate distance, allowing the listener to color the highly emotional content. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine