Blood Will Out

Starred review from January 13, 2014
In the summer of 1998, Kirn (Up In the Air) was a struggling writer, taking assignments where he could get them, when he accepted an odd task: transporting a crippled dog from a Montana animal shelter to New York City, where a wealthy benefactor from the Rockefeller family eagerly awaited its arrival. That alone could have made for a quirky riff on Steinbeck’s classic Travels with Charley, but Kirn’s road trip took another turn entirely as he entered a wild and murky 15-year friendship with the man who called himself “Clark Rockefeller”—a man who would eventually be the target of a nationwide FBI manhunt and charged with murder. Kirn artfully relates how the man born as Christian Gerhartstreiter manipulated those around him, operating against a backdrop of elite mens’ clubs, expensive art, constant name-dropping, and tales of wealth and sophistication. The parallels with Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley are not lost on Kirn, who spends as much time trying to understand how he and others fell under Gerhartstreiter’s spell as he does relating the primary tale of the criminal himself. Kirn’s candor, ear for dialogue, and crisp prose make for a masterful true crime narrative that is impossible to put down. The book deserves to become a classic. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Entertainment.

February 15, 2014

When someone hears of a con man who has fooled dozens of people over the years, the first question is: "How could they have been so taken in?" Journalist and novelist Kirn (Thumbsucker; Up in the Air) is in an excellent position to answer this question: for over 15 years he was friendly with "Clark Rockefeller," a supposed scion of the Rockefeller family, who turned out to be Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a German immigrant who lived under different identities for over 20 years. Their acquaintance started with Kirn delivering a rescued dog to his new owner and continued through their respective divorces, until a parental kidnapping charge brought Gerhartsreiter's impressive run to an end. Even worse, a brutal and callous murder committed in the 1970s could be traced back to one of Gerhartsreiter's early identities. Kirn reflects on this odd friendship as he watches the murder trial and concludes that proximity to the rich blinds people to nagging inconsistencies. Gerhartsreiter didn't need to fool him; he was already fooling himself. VERDICT This fascinating account from the perspective of a victim should appeal to readers of memoirs and true crime titles.--Deirdre Bray, Middletown P.L., OH

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