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Bitter Harvest
1st Pocket books printing Feb. 1999
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Ann Rule
142 books4,166 followersAnn Rule was a popular American true crime writer. Raised in a law enforcement and criminal justice system environment, she grew up wanting to work in law enforcement herself. She was a former Seattle Policewoman and was well educated in psychology and criminology.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
She came to prominence with her first book, The Stranger Beside Me, about the Ted Bundy murders. At the time she started researching the book, the murders were still unsolved. In the course of time, it became clear that the killer was Bundy, her friend and her colleague as a trained volunteer on the suicide hotline at the Seattle, Washington Crisis Clinic, giving her a unique distinction among true crime writers.
Rule won two Anthony Awards from Bouchercon, the mystery fans' organization. She was nominated three times for the Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. She is highly regarded for creating the true crime genre as it exists today.
Ann Rule also wrote under the name Andy Stack . Her daughter is Goodreads author Leslie Rule.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 507 reviews
May 6, 2023
Why I chose to read this book:
1. I bought my hardcopy at a thrift shop years ago since I really liked Ann Rule's book The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story;
2. I've always been fascinated by forensic science; and,
3. April 2023 is my "True Crime Month".
Praises:
1. once again, Rule's diligent research, including interviews, is laid out in chronological order, from background information of the key players, to the actual tragic event(s), followed by pertinent investigations, the trial, and the eventual sentencing of the accused;
2. I always appreciate visual representation in true crime novels, so the inclusion of several pages of black and white photos helped me get a greater understanding of the people and settings involved; and,
3. Rule demonstrates why it is most imperative to take mental health issues seriously. Even though Dr. Michael Farrer (himself a victim of poisoning) tried to have his wife, Dr. Debora Green, committed for a mental evaluation and treatment, she checked herself out after only four days, hardly enough time to get serious help. One month later, she set their house on fire, killing two of their children in the process.
Niggle:
I often felt that Rule painted Dr. Michael Farrer in too sympathetic a light. Yes, living with his wife might have felt like "hell on earth", and being critically ill due to poisoning (which he initially never suspected) are horrible; still it seemed that too often he was written as an all-caring and involved father, although hints were given that this behavior towards his children wasn't always the case. Rule also seemed to excuse his (and his lover's) infidelity.
Overall Thoughts:
Occurring in Prairie Village, Kansas back in 1995, I've never heard of this horrific tragedy. This is a most comprehensive read about Dr. Debora Green and how she came to be convicted of murdering two of her children as well as poisoning her husband. It is interesting to note, that to this day, her one surviving child (now almost 40), still believes that her mother is innocent of all wrongdoing.
There are no winners.
1. I bought my hardcopy at a thrift shop years ago since I really liked Ann Rule's book The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story;
2. I've always been fascinated by forensic science; and,
3. April 2023 is my "True Crime Month".
Praises:
1. once again, Rule's diligent research, including interviews, is laid out in chronological order, from background information of the key players, to the actual tragic event(s), followed by pertinent investigations, the trial, and the eventual sentencing of the accused;
2. I always appreciate visual representation in true crime novels, so the inclusion of several pages of black and white photos helped me get a greater understanding of the people and settings involved; and,
3. Rule demonstrates why it is most imperative to take mental health issues seriously. Even though Dr. Michael Farrer (himself a victim of poisoning) tried to have his wife, Dr. Debora Green, committed for a mental evaluation and treatment, she checked herself out after only four days, hardly enough time to get serious help. One month later, she set their house on fire, killing two of their children in the process.
Niggle:
I often felt that Rule painted Dr. Michael Farrer in too sympathetic a light. Yes, living with his wife might have felt like "hell on earth", and being critically ill due to poisoning (which he initially never suspected) are horrible; still it seemed that too often he was written as an all-caring and involved father, although hints were given that this behavior towards his children wasn't always the case. Rule also seemed to excuse his (and his lover's) infidelity.
Overall Thoughts:
Occurring in Prairie Village, Kansas back in 1995, I've never heard of this horrific tragedy. This is a most comprehensive read about Dr. Debora Green and how she came to be convicted of murdering two of her children as well as poisoning her husband. It is interesting to note, that to this day, her one surviving child (now almost 40), still believes that her mother is innocent of all wrongdoing.
There are no winners.
June 20, 2023
This true crime book is about a horrific incident that occurred in Kansas in 1995, when a house-fire resulted in the death of two children and a dog.
Some people seem to be so blinkered and obtuse that you'd expect them to wander into traffic or fall off a balcony. That's how Dr. Michael Farrar struck me when I read this book.
The major events in the story begin when Farrar and his wife, Dr. Debora Green - who wed in 1979 - have been married for nearly 15 years and have three children: Tim (12), Lissa (10) and Kelly (6). The family has a nice home in Prairie Village, Kansas and their lives look serene from the outside.
Dr. Debora Green
Dr. Michael Farrar
Young Tim, Lissa, and Kelly Farrar
The marriage is troubled though, in part because Debora Green is uninterested in sex; has a cold demeanor; and is a poor homemaker. This last trait is evidenced by the fact that Green leaves the house in a mess and treats the children with benign neglect. (Today Farrar would be expected to pull his weight - at least by me - but those were different times.)
In any case, in 1994 Farrar tells Green he wants a divorce and moves out of the house and into an apartment. Green - who's horrified by the idea of losing her social position - goes nuts. She rails against her husband and constantly tells the kids their dad is a monster who wants to leave them all homeless and starving.
Debora Green with her children
Before long the family house 'mysteriously' burns down, and Farrar has no choice but to take in his wife - who's now essentially homeless.
The Green/Farrar couple go on to purchase a large, expensive house and the marriage staggers on for a while. However, things don't get better and the children - egged on by their heavily drinking (and probably drug-using) mother - continually disrespect and bad-mouth their father. This is especially true of Tim, who calls his dad vile names and even gets physical.
By now Farrar wants out for good, but decides to wait until the family returns from a multiple-family trip to Peru sponsored by the children's expensive private academy, 'The Pembroke Hill School.'
During the trip Farrar becomes friendly with another parent, Celeste, whose husband is also a doctor. Back home Farrar and Celeste embark on an affair and in 1995 Farrar once more asks for a divorce.
Again faced with the prospect of losing her husband, Green escalates her verbal abuse and erratic behavior, and starts to appear quite demented. Unfortunately, Farrar is even more poorly equipped to cope this time. He's contracted an unknown illness and experiences bout after bout of a severe intestinal affliction that repeatedly sends him to the hospital. Green's doctors speculate that he picked up something in Peru, but don't know what.
Farrar becomes severely weakened, can't work, and deteriorates physically. His worst episodes ALWAYS occur after he eats a meal prepared by his wife, which he appreciates - thinking she's trying to be kind. Farrar's girlfriend suggests he's being poisoned, but Farrar dismisses the idea.
COME ON!! At this point I figure that Farrar is TSTL - too stupid to live.
Thankfully, Farrar wises up after discovering castor bean seeds (the source of ricin) in his wife's purse.
Castor bean seeds
By now Farrar is determined to end the marriage once and for all.....and he packs up and moves out. With Farrar gone, Green spirals down and decompensates completely. She sets fire to the house, apparently meaning to kill all three children. Luckily Lissa escapes, but her siblings, Tim and Kelly - and the family dog Boomer - perish.
Tim and Kelly
Kelly and Boomer
Interviewed by the police, Green denies everything. She avers that she didn't poison her husband; didn't set fire to the house; and didn't deliberately kill the children. She even seems to think her husband will take her in again. (Can you believe it?!)
In the book, Ann Rule describes the arson probe; the police investigation; Green's arrest; and what happens before, during, and after - including the adjudication of the crimes and Farrar's continuing illness and numerous operations.
Debora Green
The author also goes back and details Debra Green's (née Jones) entire life. Rule starts with Debra's parents meeting and marrying; Debra's birth and childhood; Debra's high IQ and academic success; Debra's social adeptness and ability to 'fit in'; Debra's relationships with men.....and her first marriage to Duane Green (which ends in divorce). Up to this point, Debra's life seems fairly average for a gifted woman from a middle-class background.
Rule then goes on to write about Green meeting Farrar, their courtship, wedding, and years together. Green seems detached - and a bit peculiar - from the get-go, and I couldn't help wanting to jump into the book to yell PAY ATTENTION (at Farrar) before disaster occurs.
The tragedy happens, though, and it appears clear that Green was mentally ill. Sadly the psychiatric problem didn't become obvious (or perhaps didn't manifest itself) until Green was well into adulthood.
I found the story compelling, and would recommend the book to true crime aficionados.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
January 6, 2022
Debora Green has it all. Her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, three perfect children, and an opulent home in an exclusive Kansas City suburb. Until, one day, her "perfect" life starts coming apart. In the mist of a nasty divorce, her house is set ablaze, killing two of her children. As detectives dig, they start to uncover the fire might have been arson. What would drive a mother to kill her kids in an inferno.
I have some issues with placing all the blame on Debora. Dr. Farrar, the husband, needs to take some responsibility in the part he played in this madness. I think Ann could have been more neutral in this one. However, she wrote another great book.
🐱🐱🐱
I have some issues with placing all the blame on Debora. Dr. Farrar, the husband, needs to take some responsibility in the part he played in this madness. I think Ann could have been more neutral in this one. However, she wrote another great book.
🐱🐱🐱
September 9, 2008
I read this book in the airport, on a layover in Jacksonville, Florida. If my flight would have been canceled again, I would not have cared or minded. More time to read!! Times just seems to fly when you're sucked into this book.
It's a really sad ending, why didn't people see danger coming? Where were the neighbors? The police? The teachers? The own father? Why didn't anyone do anything? Yet another example why if you see something wrong, you should do something...
It's a really sad ending, why didn't people see danger coming? Where were the neighbors? The police? The teachers? The own father? Why didn't anyone do anything? Yet another example why if you see something wrong, you should do something...
April 22, 2018
Mental illness is slippery. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with psychological evaluations will understand that such a diagnosis is not like a diagnosis for chicken pox, a positive or negative proposition. Instead, there is an attempt to evaluate in relation to an ambiguous standard of “normal ability to function,” and a menu-like list of possible symptoms. Dr. Debora Green was evaluated as having a “schizoid personality disorder,” by Dr. Marilyn Hutchinson who was hired by her defense team. Dr. Hutchinson pointed to the score of a Global Assessment Function to support her conclusion. It purports to measure “an individual's ability to exist, interact, [and] cope with the world he or she lives in.” (p.321) Such a diagnosis also demands evidence of continuity — pervasiveness.
There is no doubt that Dr. Debora Green was mentally ill, although her symptoms were inconsistent with any single diagnosis. What is troubling is that nothing could be done to avert the tragedy that unfolds in Ann Rule's well-researched crime chronicle — not her hysterical temper tantrums, not her alcohol abuse and obvious bouts of depression, not the psychiatric evaluation a month earlier at the ER of the University of Kansas Medical Center and not her subsequent evaluation at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka.
Unfortunately, BITTER HARVEST, does not dwell on these implications. On the one hand there is the stoic fatalism of Green's husband Michael Farrar: “'Predicting criminal human behavior is one of the most difficult tasks our society tries to perform....Despite some apparent mental illness that Debora suffered, I certainly never anticipated a homicidal predisposition. Obviously, neither did professionals trained to identify, evaluate, and treat psychiatric disorders. Debora is truly a victim in that the system failed by not being able to force her to remain hospitalized and obtain desperately needed, intensive psychiatric evaluation and care, therapy that could have potentially averted this disaster.'” (p.327) On the other hand, BITTER HARVEST provides a view of impotent legal and mental health systems that are unfixable. Again and again, we return to issues of competence: understanding the need for psychiatric intervention, ability to follow-up on medical recommendations, the decision to acquiesce to voluntary commitment, the competence to predict the results of displayed behavior. Confronting these issues is a diagnosis that includes a probability that the patient is unaware that there is even a problem.
Ann Rule has written a compelling if disturbing book. The events she describes occurred over two decades ago. They could just as well have happened yesterday. I read this book because it was the selection of our local book club.
NOTES:
After reading this book I was fascinated by the term "Schizoid Personality Disorder." Here are some websites that describe the diagnosis.
http://brucelevine.net/925/- article addressing issues of reliability among the various DSM editions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoi...
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/m...
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healt...
There is no doubt that Dr. Debora Green was mentally ill, although her symptoms were inconsistent with any single diagnosis. What is troubling is that nothing could be done to avert the tragedy that unfolds in Ann Rule's well-researched crime chronicle — not her hysterical temper tantrums, not her alcohol abuse and obvious bouts of depression, not the psychiatric evaluation a month earlier at the ER of the University of Kansas Medical Center and not her subsequent evaluation at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka.
Unfortunately, BITTER HARVEST, does not dwell on these implications. On the one hand there is the stoic fatalism of Green's husband Michael Farrar: “'Predicting criminal human behavior is one of the most difficult tasks our society tries to perform....Despite some apparent mental illness that Debora suffered, I certainly never anticipated a homicidal predisposition. Obviously, neither did professionals trained to identify, evaluate, and treat psychiatric disorders. Debora is truly a victim in that the system failed by not being able to force her to remain hospitalized and obtain desperately needed, intensive psychiatric evaluation and care, therapy that could have potentially averted this disaster.'” (p.327) On the other hand, BITTER HARVEST provides a view of impotent legal and mental health systems that are unfixable. Again and again, we return to issues of competence: understanding the need for psychiatric intervention, ability to follow-up on medical recommendations, the decision to acquiesce to voluntary commitment, the competence to predict the results of displayed behavior. Confronting these issues is a diagnosis that includes a probability that the patient is unaware that there is even a problem.
Ann Rule has written a compelling if disturbing book. The events she describes occurred over two decades ago. They could just as well have happened yesterday. I read this book because it was the selection of our local book club.
NOTES:
After reading this book I was fascinated by the term "Schizoid Personality Disorder." Here are some websites that describe the diagnosis.
http://brucelevine.net/925/- article addressing issues of reliability among the various DSM editions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoi...
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/m...
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healt...
October 30, 2014
Missing the "rest of the story"
I like Ann Rule. I usually like her books. However, I did not find this one to be a satisfying read. It seemed to leave out a good bit of the most pertinent part of the story -- making it one-sided/unbalanced/incomplete. The facts of this case, like in most of Ann's true crime stories, are beyond sad and horrifying; But it also provides an opportunity for a riveting study of a brilliant mind gone bad-- begging the question WHY! However, this retelling of the case where a Kansas City doctor ended up poisoning her husband and starting a fire that caused the death of two of her children seems incomplete, unbalanced and one-sided. It was unsettling to me that Ann seemed perfectly willing to take the husband's (as well as his mistress's) account of how things played out in the relationship as gospel, giving unnecessary, flimsy excuses for his bad behavior in the marriage while excoriating the wife as an evil shrew when it seems so evident that this woman was in the grips of extreme distress and obvious mental impairment. What a really unsatisfactory loss of opportunity to explore the truly urgent side of this case -- mental illness and it's effect on the entire family. The disintegration of Dr. Green's marriage her husband's affair with another woman seemed to be the catalyst that catapulted an already mentally ill wife down a tragic path of alcohol abuse and unspeakably reckless behavior that led to this horrific end. Dr.Greene's actions were horrendous and doubtless she'll spend the rest of her life grieving over how she killed her children in a nightmarish act of selfish revenge. But there's no doubt that she had descended into a type of madness that manifested in her wilful, intemperate, "destructive child" behavior. She is rightfully serving time for the consequences of her actions. But is very hard for me to see Dr. Farrar in the role Ann Rule paints him. To her he is the g and some, wonderful model of patience and virtue at the mercy of f his maniacal wife. Dr. Green may have been manical but I just have a sneaky feeling that Dr.Farrar's behavior contributed to his wife's deteriorating mental health. Children are much more perceptive than Ann Rule gives them credit for being. There was most likely more to their obstinate behavior toward their father than just what Mommy told them. By the age of the two oldest, most children have the ability to size up a situation for themselves. But that is not the greater issue here. The greater issue to me is the fact that Dr. Farrar, the neighbors, their medical colleagues, their families, and any number of professionals witnessed this woman's decline over a period of many years and did nothing to help her until it was much too late. It should not have taken a tragedy of this proportion to get Dr.Green the help she needed. It also bothered me that Ann R. went to great lengths to explain the callous behavior of Dr.Farrar and his mistress' toward her husband's suicide -- even downplaying it -- when the truth is that their behavior in the wake of that tragedy makes me wonder about their mental health. That goes double for Dr.Farrar getting the heck out of Dodge when he starts to realize that his wife might be poisoning him but LEAVES the children behind. Come on, if she is capable of harming him, then that should be a red flag that her deteriorating mental health is a danger to his children, too. There were THREE selfish adults in this tragedy tale. ONE we know was suffering from mental illness. The other two were blinded by their own sexual desires. Dr. Green's mental state and alcohol abuse does not excuse her from culpability for her crimes. But geez, Ann Rule, then please don't make frivolous excuses for the other bad-behaving adults in this tragic story. To truly have a chance of understanding what went so horribly wrong in this family, we need the complete story, not just one side of it.
I like Ann Rule. I usually like her books. However, I did not find this one to be a satisfying read. It seemed to leave out a good bit of the most pertinent part of the story -- making it one-sided/unbalanced/incomplete. The facts of this case, like in most of Ann's true crime stories, are beyond sad and horrifying; But it also provides an opportunity for a riveting study of a brilliant mind gone bad-- begging the question WHY! However, this retelling of the case where a Kansas City doctor ended up poisoning her husband and starting a fire that caused the death of two of her children seems incomplete, unbalanced and one-sided. It was unsettling to me that Ann seemed perfectly willing to take the husband's (as well as his mistress's) account of how things played out in the relationship as gospel, giving unnecessary, flimsy excuses for his bad behavior in the marriage while excoriating the wife as an evil shrew when it seems so evident that this woman was in the grips of extreme distress and obvious mental impairment. What a really unsatisfactory loss of opportunity to explore the truly urgent side of this case -- mental illness and it's effect on the entire family. The disintegration of Dr. Green's marriage her husband's affair with another woman seemed to be the catalyst that catapulted an already mentally ill wife down a tragic path of alcohol abuse and unspeakably reckless behavior that led to this horrific end. Dr.Greene's actions were horrendous and doubtless she'll spend the rest of her life grieving over how she killed her children in a nightmarish act of selfish revenge. But there's no doubt that she had descended into a type of madness that manifested in her wilful, intemperate, "destructive child" behavior. She is rightfully serving time for the consequences of her actions. But is very hard for me to see Dr. Farrar in the role Ann Rule paints him. To her he is the g and some, wonderful model of patience and virtue at the mercy of f his maniacal wife. Dr. Green may have been manical but I just have a sneaky feeling that Dr.Farrar's behavior contributed to his wife's deteriorating mental health. Children are much more perceptive than Ann Rule gives them credit for being. There was most likely more to their obstinate behavior toward their father than just what Mommy told them. By the age of the two oldest, most children have the ability to size up a situation for themselves. But that is not the greater issue here. The greater issue to me is the fact that Dr. Farrar, the neighbors, their medical colleagues, their families, and any number of professionals witnessed this woman's decline over a period of many years and did nothing to help her until it was much too late. It should not have taken a tragedy of this proportion to get Dr.Green the help she needed. It also bothered me that Ann R. went to great lengths to explain the callous behavior of Dr.Farrar and his mistress' toward her husband's suicide -- even downplaying it -- when the truth is that their behavior in the wake of that tragedy makes me wonder about their mental health. That goes double for Dr.Farrar getting the heck out of Dodge when he starts to realize that his wife might be poisoning him but LEAVES the children behind. Come on, if she is capable of harming him, then that should be a red flag that her deteriorating mental health is a danger to his children, too. There were THREE selfish adults in this tragedy tale. ONE we know was suffering from mental illness. The other two were blinded by their own sexual desires. Dr. Green's mental state and alcohol abuse does not excuse her from culpability for her crimes. But geez, Ann Rule, then please don't make frivolous excuses for the other bad-behaving adults in this tragic story. To truly have a chance of understanding what went so horribly wrong in this family, we need the complete story, not just one side of it.
November 14, 2008
Rule is well-known for her true crime writing and justifiably so. Ever since Truman Capote popularized the form in In Cold Blood, true crime has become a popular genre.
This harrowing book tells the story of Dr. Debora Green, a very bright Kansas physician whose life unraveled into a nightmare of murder and virtual insanity. After her trial for the murder of two of her children and the attempted murder of her husband, Michael Farrar, psychiatrists attempted to answer why something like this could have happened. Their diagnosis was that Dr. Green had a limited ego, was a very immature person with the emotional responses of a small child. Ostensibly, she was able to function quite well, until her marriage and the pressures of raising a family began to stress her life. She had an IQ of 165 and had zipped through medical school, married a brilliant cardiologist, and borne three children. The family lived in a large house in the Kansas City suburbs.
By the end of the story Debora had become a violent and irrational monster who had driven away her husband, as she descended into a maelstrom of alcohol, drugs and invective. In hindsight, a house fire that destroyed an earlier home was probably her doing. The final straw was apparently her husband's affair with Celeste Walker, a nurse whose physician husband had committed suicide. The family had returned from a long-awaited vacation to South America, when Mike became deathly ill. He could keep no food down and suffered constant diarrhea. His condition puzzled the clinicians because the symptoms did not seem to match anything in their knowledge base. The only thing they could think of was that perhaps Mike had picked up some kind of virulent bug while traveling, but none of the others who had been on the trip had suffered anything beyond the normal traveler's stomach problems that quickly disappeared.
Bouts of his illness always seemed to come after he had been released from the hospital and had eaten food served by his wife. After what seemed - to me - an interminable period he began to suspect that perhaps Debora might be trying to poison him. One afternoon when she was out, he searched her purse and discovered several packages of Castor beans. Warnings on the package labels revealed that these beans contain a very toxic poison called Ricin. Normally, the beans could be swallowed whole without much difficulty because they had such a hard shell, and the beans would pass through the system without causing any ill effects, but if crushed, they could be terribly destructive. Mike also realized his wife had just finished an Agatha Christie novel in which the murder is committed using Ricin.
Several months later, a fire, clearly arson, broke out in their house. Mike had moved out in preparation for a divorce. Two of the children died, trapped in their bedrooms by a fire, fed with accelerants, that blocked access to the hall and the stairs. The responding police and firemen were immediately struck by the mother's bizarre behavior, talking of her children in the past tense, even before anyone knew whether they had been killed or not. Eventually, she confessed to all charges and escaped the death penalty with a guilty plea.
A truly tragic story spellbindingly told by Rule, a master of the genre.
This harrowing book tells the story of Dr. Debora Green, a very bright Kansas physician whose life unraveled into a nightmare of murder and virtual insanity. After her trial for the murder of two of her children and the attempted murder of her husband, Michael Farrar, psychiatrists attempted to answer why something like this could have happened. Their diagnosis was that Dr. Green had a limited ego, was a very immature person with the emotional responses of a small child. Ostensibly, she was able to function quite well, until her marriage and the pressures of raising a family began to stress her life. She had an IQ of 165 and had zipped through medical school, married a brilliant cardiologist, and borne three children. The family lived in a large house in the Kansas City suburbs.
By the end of the story Debora had become a violent and irrational monster who had driven away her husband, as she descended into a maelstrom of alcohol, drugs and invective. In hindsight, a house fire that destroyed an earlier home was probably her doing. The final straw was apparently her husband's affair with Celeste Walker, a nurse whose physician husband had committed suicide. The family had returned from a long-awaited vacation to South America, when Mike became deathly ill. He could keep no food down and suffered constant diarrhea. His condition puzzled the clinicians because the symptoms did not seem to match anything in their knowledge base. The only thing they could think of was that perhaps Mike had picked up some kind of virulent bug while traveling, but none of the others who had been on the trip had suffered anything beyond the normal traveler's stomach problems that quickly disappeared.
Bouts of his illness always seemed to come after he had been released from the hospital and had eaten food served by his wife. After what seemed - to me - an interminable period he began to suspect that perhaps Debora might be trying to poison him. One afternoon when she was out, he searched her purse and discovered several packages of Castor beans. Warnings on the package labels revealed that these beans contain a very toxic poison called Ricin. Normally, the beans could be swallowed whole without much difficulty because they had such a hard shell, and the beans would pass through the system without causing any ill effects, but if crushed, they could be terribly destructive. Mike also realized his wife had just finished an Agatha Christie novel in which the murder is committed using Ricin.
Several months later, a fire, clearly arson, broke out in their house. Mike had moved out in preparation for a divorce. Two of the children died, trapped in their bedrooms by a fire, fed with accelerants, that blocked access to the hall and the stairs. The responding police and firemen were immediately struck by the mother's bizarre behavior, talking of her children in the past tense, even before anyone knew whether they had been killed or not. Eventually, she confessed to all charges and escaped the death penalty with a guilty plea.
A truly tragic story spellbindingly told by Rule, a master of the genre.
January 16, 2018
So it's weird. I have owned this book for a while, but never got around to reading it. I think it's because I watched this on a couple of television shows (Forensic Files and Murderous Affairs). So to read Ann Rule's insight into a couple that ended up in a toxic marriage that resulted in a fire that killed two of their children will have you reading each page while holding your breath.
The incident takes place in 1995, but we go back to see the beginning of the married couple (Doctor Debora Green and her husband Doctor Michael Farrrar). Initially attracted to his skinner and more lively wife (the number of times it's said that Debora is not attractive anymore due to her weight gain, haircut, and clothes is unreal) when he first meets her, Michael realizes pretty quickly he made a bad decision. I don't even know what to say about this, because I know a lot of friends who have married in haste and repented in leisure. In Michael's case he realized it was a mistake on their wedding night. I also get from the story that includes quotes from Debora (Rule did visit with her) I don't think she ever really liked him too. Instead, I think they both stayed with each other due to expectations foisted on them by what society expects of a man/woman.
I didn't like Debora, but I also didn't like Michael Farrar. I felt for their three kids (Tim, Kelly, and Lissa) and just felt as if the two adults in this situation were acting like children. You are also going to get to read about Farrar having an affair. I like that Rule doesn't pull any punches with her depictions of everyone in this one. I don't think she cared for Farrar that much either. Even so, I did have sympathy for the man when you realize what he and his family (his kids) have been put through. One wonders if there could have been anything he could have done if more people had been willing to call out something that they saw was wrong (a mother who was being emotionally manipulative of her kids and an actual danger to her husband).
We also get an insight into a woman that Farrar has an affair with (I had some thoughts about her) as well as the law enforcement and prosecution that is involved with this.
I really enjoyed the writing in this one. Probably because Rule managed to keep the story moving along without any huge digressions into other things. I think her having just one story to tell and not an anthology helped things along the way.
The setting is primarily focused in Kansas and you do get a great sense of the area/neighborhood and how tight knit the community was before and after the events in this book.
Even when you think you are at an end, Rule comes back and shows you what Debora's side of the story is/was and you just end up shaking your head all over again.
The incident takes place in 1995, but we go back to see the beginning of the married couple (Doctor Debora Green and her husband Doctor Michael Farrrar). Initially attracted to his skinner and more lively wife (the number of times it's said that Debora is not attractive anymore due to her weight gain, haircut, and clothes is unreal) when he first meets her, Michael realizes pretty quickly he made a bad decision. I don't even know what to say about this, because I know a lot of friends who have married in haste and repented in leisure. In Michael's case he realized it was a mistake on their wedding night. I also get from the story that includes quotes from Debora (Rule did visit with her) I don't think she ever really liked him too. Instead, I think they both stayed with each other due to expectations foisted on them by what society expects of a man/woman.
I didn't like Debora, but I also didn't like Michael Farrar. I felt for their three kids (Tim, Kelly, and Lissa) and just felt as if the two adults in this situation were acting like children. You are also going to get to read about Farrar having an affair. I like that Rule doesn't pull any punches with her depictions of everyone in this one. I don't think she cared for Farrar that much either. Even so, I did have sympathy for the man when you realize what he and his family (his kids) have been put through. One wonders if there could have been anything he could have done if more people had been willing to call out something that they saw was wrong (a mother who was being emotionally manipulative of her kids and an actual danger to her husband).
We also get an insight into a woman that Farrar has an affair with (I had some thoughts about her) as well as the law enforcement and prosecution that is involved with this.
I really enjoyed the writing in this one. Probably because Rule managed to keep the story moving along without any huge digressions into other things. I think her having just one story to tell and not an anthology helped things along the way.
The setting is primarily focused in Kansas and you do get a great sense of the area/neighborhood and how tight knit the community was before and after the events in this book.
Even when you think you are at an end, Rule comes back and shows you what Debora's side of the story is/was and you just end up shaking your head all over again.
May 30, 2019
Dr. Debra Green has everything. A genius IQ, three children, a huge upscale house in a upper-class neighborhood, a handsome husband, Mike Farrar, who is also a doctor, and no worries about money. However, beneath the surface is a very unhappy family. Debra is full of unexpected rages and vituperous viciousness when thwarted. She cannot keep a job for very long. While she can be witty and bitingly funny, she also has times of blank vacancy when she is emotionally disconnected and uncaring. Her drinking is heavy, and she is stealing patient's medications.
Despite their three children, Mike soon finds emotional connection with another man's wife, who is also unhappily married. Debra isn't aware there is another woman, but she does know Mike wants a divorce. She convinces him yet again to stay. Mike does not want to hurt his kids, and Debra has already turned them against him, but he hopes to repair his relationship with them by staying. However, he soon falls terribly ill after eating a dinner served by Debra. Hospitalized, he is misdiagnosed, but he recovers sufficiently to return home. On the road to recovery, he again becomes seriously ill after eating dinner served by his wife. And again. But he refuses to believe his wife is poisoning him, despite concerned suspicions by his friends. Finally, he moves out, planning on a divorce. Debra gets a lawyer and a psychiatrist.
Then, the two have a terrible conversation over the phone. Mike tells her he finally believes she poisoned him and he is going to take the kids. Oops.
The next phone call is a shock. His house burned down and two of his kids are dead.
Soon there are more shocks. Toxicological tests show he WAS poisoned. After many surgeries, he is very sick and could die. And, drum roll please.........the police suspect Debra.
Gentle reader, the following is a rant. Proceed.
I can conceive of an otherwise normal family which may have a single family member who unreasonably twists reality into incredibly destructive fantasies, usually because of using a lot of alcohol or drugs (but not always), disrupts, argues and is a general drama queen day after day, which has the effect of controlling everyone around her through her unhappiness, rage, upset and nervousness. I CAN'T imagine that the other adult family members try very hard for years to accommodate and appease and generally treat the high maintenance individual as someone who has legitimate points to their emotional excesses. Yet, in several Ann Rule books, that is usually what occurs in these dysfunctional marriages or relationships over and over. Husbands, parents and children somehow understand the wild behaviors as normal because they unquestionably accept the troubled person's explanation, no matter how peculiar or impossible. Of course children will believe in a parent if the situation is what they've lived with their entire lives. However, adults who support or help or lie for the troubled person because they believe utterly in their insane dramas is another story. Whatever mental mechanism this is, though, obviously functions in a million ways - cults, for one, and the famous 'Stockholm Syndrome' for another.
However, it's not as if anyone has the legal tools to prevent the extremely obvious and recognized mentally-ill family member from tearing apart the lives of everyone around them - ask the parents of paranoid schizophrenics, who often explain to police after their son or daughter has tried to murder dozens of people how they called and called and called police and agencies to report violent or threatening behavior, and they couldn't even get a mental health referral, or insurance coverage for a psychiatric hospital, or an arrest and a jail cell for more than a night.
A friend once advised me that if you have power over a situation, you have responsibility. If you have no power, you can't possibly have any responsibility. No power, no responsibility - that means your obligation is to save yourself. However, misplaced guilt or loving affection often traps responsible people into attempting to make 'lemonade from lemons' when there is only more wreckage on the horizon. If such 'good' people continue to try to fix things even after trying everything and they get advice from almost everyone that there is nothing to be done, well, I've described such people as 'too stupid to live'. All of the pity, sorrow, sense of wastefulness and agony one may feel about another adult's choices has not a whit of hope to change the inevitable outcome and often drowns both parties, if married.
Having said all of that, what the hell is a responsible person to do who sees the daily insanity but has made babies with the lunatic? Worse, the lunatic has good days when everything is blissful and happy with the kids? Or the lunatic has qualities which tug at your children's hearts? And the madman is is incredibly talented and amazing, or respected, and no one outside the family sees the insanity except for occasional eruptions? The problem here is often the kids are the innocent victims no matter what either of the adults do. Stay, and the family slowly self-destructs and suffers torture. Leave, and maybe save yourself, but suffer in watching your kids be destroyed.
I guess it isn't helpful that saying statistically a certain number of dysfunctional families are doomed to destruction and maybe you are are in that fuzzy probability of doom. What I CAN say is be cautious with whom you make babies. Take the time to meet the other's direct family over a period of years. Study the behaviors of siblings, parents - do not simply accept the visible signs of affluence or success or sociability. A lot of obsessive-compulsives are extremely successful. Do not ignore obvious signs of emotional high-maintenance demands or imperious querulousness (someone who is ALWAYS finding things too slow, too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, too dark, too bright, too loud, too noisy, too crowded, can't stand this or that, everything is intolerable or unbearable - and demands that it's all your fault and that everyone within the house has to fix it NOW). There is a clear distinction between occasional cranky tiredness and constant emotional abuse and complete lack of respect or affection. If you are stuck, then you are stuck. I'd try to find mitigating solutions. (I'm amazed by the people who accept without question the abusive statements made and unfair treatment as truthfulness and fairness. But I'm digressing....)
Don’t make babies with another person until you’ve met - and TAlKeD - to your adored one’s family members several times over a period of time, like two years. Take note of the adored one’s behavior over time and in many stressful situations. DO NOT INDULGE IN DENIAL OF WHAT YOU HAVE NOTICED OR YOUR FEELINGS OF LONELINESS AS AN EXCUSE TO PUT ASIDE ANY NIGGLING DOUBTS. Use your gd mind before your ‘loved one’ causes you to lose it, and maybe your life.
Despite their three children, Mike soon finds emotional connection with another man's wife, who is also unhappily married. Debra isn't aware there is another woman, but she does know Mike wants a divorce. She convinces him yet again to stay. Mike does not want to hurt his kids, and Debra has already turned them against him, but he hopes to repair his relationship with them by staying. However, he soon falls terribly ill after eating a dinner served by Debra. Hospitalized, he is misdiagnosed, but he recovers sufficiently to return home. On the road to recovery, he again becomes seriously ill after eating dinner served by his wife. And again. But he refuses to believe his wife is poisoning him, despite concerned suspicions by his friends. Finally, he moves out, planning on a divorce. Debra gets a lawyer and a psychiatrist.
Then, the two have a terrible conversation over the phone. Mike tells her he finally believes she poisoned him and he is going to take the kids. Oops.
The next phone call is a shock. His house burned down and two of his kids are dead.
Soon there are more shocks. Toxicological tests show he WAS poisoned. After many surgeries, he is very sick and could die. And, drum roll please.........the police suspect Debra.
Gentle reader, the following is a rant. Proceed.
I can conceive of an otherwise normal family which may have a single family member who unreasonably twists reality into incredibly destructive fantasies, usually because of using a lot of alcohol or drugs (but not always), disrupts, argues and is a general drama queen day after day, which has the effect of controlling everyone around her through her unhappiness, rage, upset and nervousness. I CAN'T imagine that the other adult family members try very hard for years to accommodate and appease and generally treat the high maintenance individual as someone who has legitimate points to their emotional excesses. Yet, in several Ann Rule books, that is usually what occurs in these dysfunctional marriages or relationships over and over. Husbands, parents and children somehow understand the wild behaviors as normal because they unquestionably accept the troubled person's explanation, no matter how peculiar or impossible. Of course children will believe in a parent if the situation is what they've lived with their entire lives. However, adults who support or help or lie for the troubled person because they believe utterly in their insane dramas is another story. Whatever mental mechanism this is, though, obviously functions in a million ways - cults, for one, and the famous 'Stockholm Syndrome' for another.
However, it's not as if anyone has the legal tools to prevent the extremely obvious and recognized mentally-ill family member from tearing apart the lives of everyone around them - ask the parents of paranoid schizophrenics, who often explain to police after their son or daughter has tried to murder dozens of people how they called and called and called police and agencies to report violent or threatening behavior, and they couldn't even get a mental health referral, or insurance coverage for a psychiatric hospital, or an arrest and a jail cell for more than a night.
A friend once advised me that if you have power over a situation, you have responsibility. If you have no power, you can't possibly have any responsibility. No power, no responsibility - that means your obligation is to save yourself. However, misplaced guilt or loving affection often traps responsible people into attempting to make 'lemonade from lemons' when there is only more wreckage on the horizon. If such 'good' people continue to try to fix things even after trying everything and they get advice from almost everyone that there is nothing to be done, well, I've described such people as 'too stupid to live'. All of the pity, sorrow, sense of wastefulness and agony one may feel about another adult's choices has not a whit of hope to change the inevitable outcome and often drowns both parties, if married.
Having said all of that, what the hell is a responsible person to do who sees the daily insanity but has made babies with the lunatic? Worse, the lunatic has good days when everything is blissful and happy with the kids? Or the lunatic has qualities which tug at your children's hearts? And the madman is is incredibly talented and amazing, or respected, and no one outside the family sees the insanity except for occasional eruptions? The problem here is often the kids are the innocent victims no matter what either of the adults do. Stay, and the family slowly self-destructs and suffers torture. Leave, and maybe save yourself, but suffer in watching your kids be destroyed.
I guess it isn't helpful that saying statistically a certain number of dysfunctional families are doomed to destruction and maybe you are are in that fuzzy probability of doom. What I CAN say is be cautious with whom you make babies. Take the time to meet the other's direct family over a period of years. Study the behaviors of siblings, parents - do not simply accept the visible signs of affluence or success or sociability. A lot of obsessive-compulsives are extremely successful. Do not ignore obvious signs of emotional high-maintenance demands or imperious querulousness (someone who is ALWAYS finding things too slow, too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, too dark, too bright, too loud, too noisy, too crowded, can't stand this or that, everything is intolerable or unbearable - and demands that it's all your fault and that everyone within the house has to fix it NOW). There is a clear distinction between occasional cranky tiredness and constant emotional abuse and complete lack of respect or affection. If you are stuck, then you are stuck. I'd try to find mitigating solutions. (I'm amazed by the people who accept without question the abusive statements made and unfair treatment as truthfulness and fairness. But I'm digressing....)
Don’t make babies with another person until you’ve met - and TAlKeD - to your adored one’s family members several times over a period of time, like two years. Take note of the adored one’s behavior over time and in many stressful situations. DO NOT INDULGE IN DENIAL OF WHAT YOU HAVE NOTICED OR YOUR FEELINGS OF LONELINESS AS AN EXCUSE TO PUT ASIDE ANY NIGGLING DOUBTS. Use your gd mind before your ‘loved one’ causes you to lose it, and maybe your life.
February 12, 2017
True crime writers seem to be afflicted by what I am dubbing the Groucho Marx Fallacy, from Groucho's famous line, "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member." True crime TV shows do this all the time, and I've seen it in more than one true crime book, the assumption that anyone with an interest in true crime must be ... a criminal! So I'm reading Rule describing Debora Green's interest in true crime as if it must correlate with what she did in 1995, as if she could only have been reading those books to pick up tips for how to commit murder and not get caught, and thinking, Well, I have all of your books, lady, so what does that make both of us?
And while I'm criticizing, the habit of Rule's that I am finding annoys me most is the way that she judges women, both victims and perpetrators, based on (a) their weight, (b) their housekeeping, and (c) their "attractiveness," meaning both whether their physical features are attractive and whether or not they wear make-up or get their nails done or wear "flattering" clothes. I understand perfectly where Rule's coming from, and I'm sure she got this habit as a stringer for true crime magazines, where she had to write under the pseudonym Andy Stack, because her editors told her their readers wouldn't read stories written by women. But for a woman whose moral purpose is to educate women against sexual predators of both the domestic and stranger-on-stranger kind, it's either hypocritical or a sign of some badly under-examined assumptions, because this is the Male Gaze in all its patriarchal bullshit glory. Again, telling me that Debora Green, in the '90s, wore jeans and t-shirts most of the time, as if that makes her a bad person, does not actually make me believe she's a bad person, especially since jeans and t-shirts constitute 94% of my own wardrobe.
With all of that said, this is an excellent book. It's counter to Rule's usual pattern, in that the perpetrator here of hideous and cruel domestic violence is a woman, and while she and her husband had a horribly dysfunctional marriage, she was the emotionally abusive one. I know at least one reviewer felt Rule was too sympathetic to Mike Farrar, but while she clearly empathizes with him and works to present him in the best possible light, she doesn't hide the character traits that must have made him a sometimes aggravating spouse. He was (presumably also is) a control freak and consumed by his job, and for all that he complained about Debora Green's housekeeping, I don't notice any evidence that he himself made any effort to clean the house or--since for a man routinely working twelve-hour days, that's not feasible--hiring a housekeeper, which the Green-Farrar household could most certainly have afforded. So, yeah, the domestic dysfunction wasn't all her. And, yes, he did have an affair in 1995 (which Rule does not condone, either). But it's still more than evident that Green was emotionally abusive, so let's not blame the victim of the abuse for the fact that the abuse was happening.
And the part where Green decided to poison him with ricin . . . no, I'm sorry. No matter how aggravating your spouse is, castor beans are not the answer. Especially when he has already asked you for a divorce, which you have refused to grant him, partly on the grounds that you will lose your position and lifestyle as a cardiologist's wife, but mostly on the grounds that you are a narcissist and see him as your possession.
And then there's what she did in October of 1995, which is entirely on her.
Green burned down their house, deliberately trapping their three children and two dogs inside. The youngest child and the Labrador succumbed to carbon monoxide without ever waking up. The oldest child used the house intercom to ask his mother what to do. She told him to stay put until firefighters rescued him; he obeyed her and died. The middle child escaped over the roof of the garage. When she was afraid to jump down, her mother promised to catch her and then didn't. It was pure chance that the little girl wasn't hurt. The greyhound's body was found by firefighters searching the wreckage of the house.
Police first suspected Green because, like many people with personality disorders, she couldn't figure out how to fake grief. But it was the arson investigation that convicted her. I first learned about this case from an episode of Forensic Files ("Ultimate Betrayal" 4.3), because the arson investigators not only found accelerant and not only traced the path of the accelerant through the house, demonstrating that the children were not merely collateral damage but in fact the targets of the fire, they found that the accelerant trail ended at Green's bedroom door and furthermore disproved her story that she woke up and opened the door to find the house on fire, because the door was open when the fire started, and Green's hair was singed. Like many first-time arsonists, she wasn't prepared for how fast her accelerant ignited.
Bitter Harvest is a thorough examination of what Green did and why, both in the ricin poisoning of her husband and the arson-murder of her children, and how law enforcement figured it out.
And while I'm criticizing, the habit of Rule's that I am finding annoys me most is the way that she judges women, both victims and perpetrators, based on (a) their weight, (b) their housekeeping, and (c) their "attractiveness," meaning both whether their physical features are attractive and whether or not they wear make-up or get their nails done or wear "flattering" clothes. I understand perfectly where Rule's coming from, and I'm sure she got this habit as a stringer for true crime magazines, where she had to write under the pseudonym Andy Stack, because her editors told her their readers wouldn't read stories written by women. But for a woman whose moral purpose is to educate women against sexual predators of both the domestic and stranger-on-stranger kind, it's either hypocritical or a sign of some badly under-examined assumptions, because this is the Male Gaze in all its patriarchal bullshit glory. Again, telling me that Debora Green, in the '90s, wore jeans and t-shirts most of the time, as if that makes her a bad person, does not actually make me believe she's a bad person, especially since jeans and t-shirts constitute 94% of my own wardrobe.
With all of that said, this is an excellent book. It's counter to Rule's usual pattern, in that the perpetrator here of hideous and cruel domestic violence is a woman, and while she and her husband had a horribly dysfunctional marriage, she was the emotionally abusive one. I know at least one reviewer felt Rule was too sympathetic to Mike Farrar, but while she clearly empathizes with him and works to present him in the best possible light, she doesn't hide the character traits that must have made him a sometimes aggravating spouse. He was (presumably also is) a control freak and consumed by his job, and for all that he complained about Debora Green's housekeeping, I don't notice any evidence that he himself made any effort to clean the house or--since for a man routinely working twelve-hour days, that's not feasible--hiring a housekeeper, which the Green-Farrar household could most certainly have afforded. So, yeah, the domestic dysfunction wasn't all her. And, yes, he did have an affair in 1995 (which Rule does not condone, either). But it's still more than evident that Green was emotionally abusive, so let's not blame the victim of the abuse for the fact that the abuse was happening.
And the part where Green decided to poison him with ricin . . . no, I'm sorry. No matter how aggravating your spouse is, castor beans are not the answer. Especially when he has already asked you for a divorce, which you have refused to grant him, partly on the grounds that you will lose your position and lifestyle as a cardiologist's wife, but mostly on the grounds that you are a narcissist and see him as your possession.
And then there's what she did in October of 1995, which is entirely on her.
Green burned down their house, deliberately trapping their three children and two dogs inside. The youngest child and the Labrador succumbed to carbon monoxide without ever waking up. The oldest child used the house intercom to ask his mother what to do. She told him to stay put until firefighters rescued him; he obeyed her and died. The middle child escaped over the roof of the garage. When she was afraid to jump down, her mother promised to catch her and then didn't. It was pure chance that the little girl wasn't hurt. The greyhound's body was found by firefighters searching the wreckage of the house.
Police first suspected Green because, like many people with personality disorders, she couldn't figure out how to fake grief. But it was the arson investigation that convicted her. I first learned about this case from an episode of Forensic Files ("Ultimate Betrayal" 4.3), because the arson investigators not only found accelerant and not only traced the path of the accelerant through the house, demonstrating that the children were not merely collateral damage but in fact the targets of the fire, they found that the accelerant trail ended at Green's bedroom door and furthermore disproved her story that she woke up and opened the door to find the house on fire, because the door was open when the fire started, and Green's hair was singed. Like many first-time arsonists, she wasn't prepared for how fast her accelerant ignited.
Bitter Harvest is a thorough examination of what Green did and why, both in the ricin poisoning of her husband and the arson-murder of her children, and how law enforcement figured it out.
May 31, 2008
You may have noticed that many of my books are about murder and crime. I am totally fascinated by human beings that have such anger or psychosis that they murder others. It is beyond my ability to understand. So I read about those who conduct these crimes in an attempt to somehow understand the behavior.
Ann Rule writes about true crimes and she does so in an insightful manner that helps the reader see how these crimes could have been committed. Bitter Harvest is about a female doctor, genius, mother, who could have easily been my next door neighbor. She was married to a doctor and they had three children. She was a great mother, totally devoted to her children. However the rage she carried through life ultimately caused her to murder her children to get revenge at her husband. Huh????? Wow~! What a story.
If you like criminal stories you should read this book. You just won't believe it; and yet, it is a true story.
Ann Rule writes about true crimes and she does so in an insightful manner that helps the reader see how these crimes could have been committed. Bitter Harvest is about a female doctor, genius, mother, who could have easily been my next door neighbor. She was married to a doctor and they had three children. She was a great mother, totally devoted to her children. However the rage she carried through life ultimately caused her to murder her children to get revenge at her husband. Huh????? Wow~! What a story.
If you like criminal stories you should read this book. You just won't believe it; and yet, it is a true story.
December 30, 2014
Reading this for book club. I don't care for how the information is coming across. It's reading as if it was an episodes of Forensics File or 48 hours or something. Granted, it's a true story but I wish it was written more with a traditional plot. Through the eyes of someone.
The book seems dated, I didn't care for the references just because Deborah had cut her hair short, wore unisex styled clothes and had a low sex drive that these would be cause for concern of either her marriage falling apart or the potential characteristics of a psychopath.
I do wonder if this happened today if Deborah would have been diagnosed with Asbergers as I feel some of the details earlier in the book about Deborah might have put her in that spectrum.
Also, there were some things I agreed with on Deborah' terms. I too dislike stupid people. I can relate to, from working in the medical field, that when people come in with blazing infections and you just look at them like, why did you take care of this sooner?
While I was only a small child when this happened and I do not remember hearing about it on the news, it's a tragedy. A tragedy that could have been told better, IMO.
The book seems dated, I didn't care for the references just because Deborah had cut her hair short, wore unisex styled clothes and had a low sex drive that these would be cause for concern of either her marriage falling apart or the potential characteristics of a psychopath.
I do wonder if this happened today if Deborah would have been diagnosed with Asbergers as I feel some of the details earlier in the book about Deborah might have put her in that spectrum.
Also, there were some things I agreed with on Deborah' terms. I too dislike stupid people. I can relate to, from working in the medical field, that when people come in with blazing infections and you just look at them like, why did you take care of this sooner?
While I was only a small child when this happened and I do not remember hearing about it on the news, it's a tragedy. A tragedy that could have been told better, IMO.
May 26, 2017
Murder in any form is unimaginable but the murder of one's own children is beyond comprehension. In this true crime novel, the author delves into the lives of a couple who seem to have it all...both are physicians, have a seemingly happy marriage and three bright and beautiful children. But there are tell-tale signs that all is not what it appears and then a series of events occur which eventually lead to the unthinkable. This is a chilling book that reveals how jealousy and possessive behavior can twist an already fragile ego to commit unspeakable acts. Very dark and disturbing.
December 2, 2014
One of Rule' s better works from when she had murder-to page-mojo. Fascinating and thorough in presenting the details without dumbing down the information. The arson investigation techniques were especially interesting. Presents the facts without sensationalism.
August 17, 2021
Interesting case, nothing amazing as a book.
At times the details Ann focuses on seem kind of sexist, like all the time spent on describing how Deborah looked (She didn't wear make up! She was just wearing sweatpants! She gained weight!) Who gives a shit?
At times the details Ann focuses on seem kind of sexist, like all the time spent on describing how Deborah looked (She didn't wear make up! She was just wearing sweatpants! She gained weight!) Who gives a shit?
December 12, 2022
Another good one from Ms. Rule.
If you've ever read an 'Ann Rule book,' you sort of know what you're getting: a factual account of a story you might have heard about/read about/seen on television, etc. of someone who's done something VERY VERY BAD. Murdered their parents, their children, their spouse. Drowned them, shot them, poisoned them and all for very simple reasons. Boyfriend won't 'accept' children. Husband in love with another woman. Sister/mother/daughter is abusive, when actually YOU are the one who's got the problem. I've read a few and the themes run the same. What differentiates one story from the next is all in the details and details are what Ann Rule does best.
In this one there's a woman who comes across as attractive, intelligent, even friendly. First impressions are great! High IQ. Over-achiever. Doctor, specialist - in you name it: ER medicine, cardiology, and maybe psychology? Well, why not? But many a charming person doth tend to be a pretty snake in the grass - and this one's lethal, a serpent. In the course of these pages you learn about Debora Green - her backstory, her parents, her past. Then the story moves forward - time period the 1990's - and you witness how this woman transmogrifies into a harridan, a harpy, a beast of a woman who you'd best just nod to in the halls and move quickly on. What Debora does when her husband finally plans to get up and leave her is horrible and you need to read it to find out...
No spoilers here.
The conclusions many reach about this woman tend toward an assortment of 'personality disorders,' but I read control in every awful thing she does. Absolute control. Agree with her, please and praise her and she's fine - your best friend! (Maybe.) Disagree, dispute or find fault? Then you're in hot water indeed. I've known a few people like this in my long life and I've learned to keep them at arm's length. And no, none of them have ever done what this woman did - I hope! - but best to nod, say good morning and just keep moving. It's all about control and if they can't get it, they'll go to great lengths to do so.
Sometimes, for the most extreme among them, those great lengths include murder.
Four stars.
If you've ever read an 'Ann Rule book,' you sort of know what you're getting: a factual account of a story you might have heard about/read about/seen on television, etc. of someone who's done something VERY VERY BAD. Murdered their parents, their children, their spouse. Drowned them, shot them, poisoned them and all for very simple reasons. Boyfriend won't 'accept' children. Husband in love with another woman. Sister/mother/daughter is abusive, when actually YOU are the one who's got the problem. I've read a few and the themes run the same. What differentiates one story from the next is all in the details and details are what Ann Rule does best.
In this one there's a woman who comes across as attractive, intelligent, even friendly. First impressions are great! High IQ. Over-achiever. Doctor, specialist - in you name it: ER medicine, cardiology, and maybe psychology? Well, why not? But many a charming person doth tend to be a pretty snake in the grass - and this one's lethal, a serpent. In the course of these pages you learn about Debora Green - her backstory, her parents, her past. Then the story moves forward - time period the 1990's - and you witness how this woman transmogrifies into a harridan, a harpy, a beast of a woman who you'd best just nod to in the halls and move quickly on. What Debora does when her husband finally plans to get up and leave her is horrible and you need to read it to find out...
No spoilers here.
The conclusions many reach about this woman tend toward an assortment of 'personality disorders,' but I read control in every awful thing she does. Absolute control. Agree with her, please and praise her and she's fine - your best friend! (Maybe.) Disagree, dispute or find fault? Then you're in hot water indeed. I've known a few people like this in my long life and I've learned to keep them at arm's length. And no, none of them have ever done what this woman did - I hope! - but best to nod, say good morning and just keep moving. It's all about control and if they can't get it, they'll go to great lengths to do so.
Sometimes, for the most extreme among them, those great lengths include murder.
Four stars.
October 13, 2015
When I logged in to mark this book as "Read", I did not plan on writing a review. However, I was more than a little surprised by the number of high ratings and ended up feeling compelled to provide a different perspective.
There is no doubt the event itself is a gut-wrenching story. Yet, Rule's recounting of it felt heavily-biased, with most of it being told from the viewpoint of people who had the benefit of time to cultivate their own narrative (skewing positive light in their direction when possible). To me it was just very transparent and off-putting.
I think this is the first true-crime novel I've ever read, and I didn't choose it myself (my neighbor loved it and lent me her copy to read), so it's possible the style is par for the genre and I'm just not used to it. But I agree with a couple of other reviewers that Rule cast a way too sympathetic light on Michael Farrar and other people surrounding Debora. Maybe that was the only way she could get their blessing for interviews? Maybe she thought first-hand accounts from them appearing in the book would give more weight to the story? Who knows, but I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and just in general feeling bemused by how much we were obligated to believe that others' recounting of events weren't heavily subjective. There were a few occasions where Rule tried to maintain an objective air by saying something to the effect of 'of course, this is just one person's account', but it was weak and did little if anything to strengthen her credibility as an impartial observer.
A disappointing read for me. :/
There is no doubt the event itself is a gut-wrenching story. Yet, Rule's recounting of it felt heavily-biased, with most of it being told from the viewpoint of people who had the benefit of time to cultivate their own narrative (skewing positive light in their direction when possible). To me it was just very transparent and off-putting.
I think this is the first true-crime novel I've ever read, and I didn't choose it myself (my neighbor loved it and lent me her copy to read), so it's possible the style is par for the genre and I'm just not used to it. But I agree with a couple of other reviewers that Rule cast a way too sympathetic light on Michael Farrar and other people surrounding Debora. Maybe that was the only way she could get their blessing for interviews? Maybe she thought first-hand accounts from them appearing in the book would give more weight to the story? Who knows, but I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and just in general feeling bemused by how much we were obligated to believe that others' recounting of events weren't heavily subjective. There were a few occasions where Rule tried to maintain an objective air by saying something to the effect of 'of course, this is just one person's account', but it was weak and did little if anything to strengthen her credibility as an impartial observer.
A disappointing read for me. :/
February 12, 2013
I'd heard good things about Ann Rule, but I have to admit that this one didn't impress me much. I had only vague knowledge of the Debora Green case at issue before I read the book, but one of the stronger points of the story was how the author managed to portray the shattering, heartbreaking quality of what happened. Two of Debora Green's three children perished in a fire in the 1990s, and Green was ultimately convicted of arson and murder.
The portrayal of Green's substance abuse and mental health issues added an air of tragedy to the already sad tale. However, the author seemed to have a very strong bias and it made for unsatisfying reading. Her style was heavy-handed and from the early chapters, it became obvious that in Rule's mind, Debora was just evil while her husband(Dr. Farrar) was portrayed as an innocent victim, with his various shortcomings() minimized. Rule makes frequent reference to how handsome and wonderful Farrar supposedly was(references not borne out by the photos of Farrar contained in the book), and this did more to make the author look personally biased than it did to help bring the story to life. This story involves the complete breakdown of a marriage and family, and the layers and subtleties of the situation just get glossed over and swept aside in this telling.
The portrayal of Green's substance abuse and mental health issues added an air of tragedy to the already sad tale. However, the author seemed to have a very strong bias and it made for unsatisfying reading. Her style was heavy-handed and from the early chapters, it became obvious that in Rule's mind, Debora was just evil while her husband(Dr. Farrar) was portrayed as an innocent victim, with his various shortcomings() minimized. Rule makes frequent reference to how handsome and wonderful Farrar supposedly was(references not borne out by the photos of Farrar contained in the book), and this did more to make the author look personally biased than it did to help bring the story to life. This story involves the complete breakdown of a marriage and family, and the layers and subtleties of the situation just get glossed over and swept aside in this telling.
April 8, 2018
Great read! So heartbreaking and tragic to think a person could do such heinous things. And to her own children!!! 😢 Beautifully written. Easy to follow the events as described by the author according to her interviews and accounts. Although the author tends to repeat details a bit, it serves as more of a review of facts rather than a nuisance. Definitely recommend this book especially to True Crime fans ❤️
December 27, 2017
I remember watching a Forensic Files episode about this case and it is deeply disturbing. This was a thorough and interesting account of such a tragedy. Fascinating as usual!
September 28, 2022
This is not my first Ann Rule read and it most definitely won’t be my last either! In fact, I think it’s amongst my favourites I’ve read by her. Minus maybe The Stranger Beside Me because that one is just beyond iconic and my fave by her. But this one made me feel almost as excited and horrified while reading it. This story is really both horrifying and fascinating, a space Rule occupies so well. Of course the events these victims went through at the hands of their mother/wife were horrifying but seeing justice served provided such an immense sense of satisfaction. Knowing the victims got justice makes any true crime read all that much sweeter. And as usual Rule’s sensitivity is on point in her writing, she’s not being sensationalistic or exploiting the victims. That’s one of my favourite parts about her writing, her ability to bring class and sensitivity to a normally quite exploitative genre.
August 13, 2022
This was the first Ann Rule book I read. My husband, who reads true crime books all the time, recommended this one, so I decided to read it. Reading true crime books is quite different from the fiction books I typically read. Obviously, true crime books detail actual crimes committed by real people. As I am certain is the case in many books of this genre, these people are quite horrible human beings.
Ann Rule was a police detective before she became a writer, so much of this book reads like a bunch of police reports grouped together in chronological order. No detail is too small to include because at some point one of these details explains the criminal’s behavior, the crime, or any number of motivations for said crime. Parts of the book were difficult to read but overall I would recommend this to readers who want to feel better about their own lives. That’s how my husband explains his interest in reading these sorts of books. Reading about despicable people committing heinous crimes makes him feel better about his own quiet life.
Ann Rule was a police detective before she became a writer, so much of this book reads like a bunch of police reports grouped together in chronological order. No detail is too small to include because at some point one of these details explains the criminal’s behavior, the crime, or any number of motivations for said crime. Parts of the book were difficult to read but overall I would recommend this to readers who want to feel better about their own lives. That’s how my husband explains his interest in reading these sorts of books. Reading about despicable people committing heinous crimes makes him feel better about his own quiet life.
January 2, 2023
This is one of those ' truth stranger than fiction' stories. Debora Jones Green has an IQ of 165, but her emotional IQ is that of a child. Because of her extremely high IQ, she is successful academically and sips through medical school easily; however, in practice she has difficulty relating to her patients.
Debora Jones Green marries Mike Farrar in 1979. They met at the Truman Medical Vented in Kansas City when Michal was still in med school and Debora was a senior resident. They had three children between 1983 to 1988.
In 1994, shortly after Mike asked Debora for a divorce, a fire destroyed their home in Kansas City, Missouri. Fortunately, the children and the dog were with Debora when the fire broke out. Mike and Debora reconciled and bought a huge mansion in Prairie Valley, Kansas.
The marraige began to unravel within six months. On a school trip to Peru, Mike was draw to another woman. When they returned to Kansas, he contacted Celeste and began to see her regularly. He told Debora he wanted a divorce.
It was very difficult to believe that a mother and wife could actually do the things she was accused of doing by the prosecution. And how could a husband continue to live with a wife who verbally abused him in front of his children every day? The psychology of the murderer is discussed in detail, which was interesting to me. It was a very strange, interesting story, but parts of the book repeated itself, and that got a little boring.
Debora Jones Green marries Mike Farrar in 1979. They met at the Truman Medical Vented in Kansas City when Michal was still in med school and Debora was a senior resident. They had three children between 1983 to 1988.
In 1994, shortly after Mike asked Debora for a divorce, a fire destroyed their home in Kansas City, Missouri. Fortunately, the children and the dog were with Debora when the fire broke out. Mike and Debora reconciled and bought a huge mansion in Prairie Valley, Kansas.
The marraige began to unravel within six months. On a school trip to Peru, Mike was draw to another woman. When they returned to Kansas, he contacted Celeste and began to see her regularly. He told Debora he wanted a divorce.
It was very difficult to believe that a mother and wife could actually do the things she was accused of doing by the prosecution. And how could a husband continue to live with a wife who verbally abused him in front of his children every day? The psychology of the murderer is discussed in detail, which was interesting to me. It was a very strange, interesting story, but parts of the book repeated itself, and that got a little boring.
March 26, 2008
The subject of this book is very tragic: Dr. Debora Green,in a bizarre attempt to win back the attention and affection of her estranged husband, first tries to poison him, then burns down their home, killing two of the couple's three children.
The book carefully documents the story of the couple's early years of marriage and parenthood, their disintegrating relationship, Dr. Green's horrific crimes, the trial, and the aftermath.
Since I live just a few miles from the site of the burned house, and my kids have been friends of some of the neighbor children referred to in the book, I finally decided to read it.
What fascinated me most was that Dr. Green had a brilliant IQ, but after her arrest, psychiatric testing revealed she had the emotional level of an infant, and the social skills of a 10-year-old. She was able to function intellectually, but had no coping skills for life. Her only means of getting her way was to throw tantrums--just like a child.
Because she never got help, her tantrums had horribly tragic results.
It makes me wonder why Green and her husband, obviously highly educated individuals, did not get her help LONG before this? Why did her husband put up with her verbal abuse so long, then bail and leave his kids unprotected with her?
There were a million red flags signaling, this person needed professional help.
If you like true crime or books that probe the psyche and/or legal system, I highly recommend "Bitter Harvest."
The book carefully documents the story of the couple's early years of marriage and parenthood, their disintegrating relationship, Dr. Green's horrific crimes, the trial, and the aftermath.
Since I live just a few miles from the site of the burned house, and my kids have been friends of some of the neighbor children referred to in the book, I finally decided to read it.
What fascinated me most was that Dr. Green had a brilliant IQ, but after her arrest, psychiatric testing revealed she had the emotional level of an infant, and the social skills of a 10-year-old. She was able to function intellectually, but had no coping skills for life. Her only means of getting her way was to throw tantrums--just like a child.
Because she never got help, her tantrums had horribly tragic results.
It makes me wonder why Green and her husband, obviously highly educated individuals, did not get her help LONG before this? Why did her husband put up with her verbal abuse so long, then bail and leave his kids unprotected with her?
There were a million red flags signaling, this person needed professional help.
If you like true crime or books that probe the psyche and/or legal system, I highly recommend "Bitter Harvest."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2007
I am a huge Ann Rule fan. I love true crime books and she nails the story every time. This tale is fascinating in every way. Both parents are Dr's and the mother descends into an unimaginable madness. Chilling, devistating and a great read.
January 28, 2016
On the night of the 23rd October 1995, qualified doctor, sometime oncologist and mother of three Debora Green deliberately set fire to her luxury three-story house in Prairie Village, Kansas, then stood and watched unemotionally as two of her children were engulfed in the smoke and flames.
This extraordinary arson was the final, tragic act of vengeance by a scorned wife on her estranged husband, a woman so consumed with hate and self-delusion that she could sacrifice the lives of her own children, Medea-like, in order to torment the man she was about to lose.
Horrific enough of a crime in itself, worthy to be of interest to Ann Rule, America's "doyenne" of the true crime story (to steal her own term for Agatha Christie with regards the fictional crime story), Doctor Green's behaviour both before and after that fateful night were equally shocking and bizarre.
Debora, who is characterised repeatedly by friends and colleagues as being exceptionally smart and funny, vivacious and outgoing -"a people person" according to her own estimation- is also shown to be chronically "self-absorbed", emotionally immature and constantly close to anger.
As Rule skillfully relays the events that culminate so unthinkably in filicide, we discover how Debora Green had been systematically turning the children against their father by belittling and demonising him in their eyes; how she burnt down a previous house to force a reconciliation; how she wrote bizarre, unsigned notes praising herself and damning him, which she left for neighbors to find; and how she set about poisoning him with ricin (castor beans), a deadly, incapacitating toxin that left him on the point of death and requiring multiple surgeries.
As if that wasn't enough, in her defense at the pre-trial she supports a case whereby her defendants attempt to pin the arson on her dead (murdered) son, who they character assassinate as a troubled pyromaniac.
In a story and genre such as this, obviously the facts have to speak loudest, and Rule never clouds them with her own voice. She mostly sits in the background, only really showing her presence when she, perhaps unnecessarily, editorializes the adultery and neglectful fathering of the husband, Doctor Michael Farrar, with constant excuses and justifications, and then again at the end when she attempts to answer the Why? question.
On the few occasions Rule takes exception to her unadorned approach her metaphors are generally flaccid and functional, which i found disappointing. That said, my experience in reading true crime books stretches no further than the ubiquitous In Cold Blood (which was also a Kansas killing) and the odd dip into some Colin Wilson anthologies, so I accept that I don't really know my way around this type of book. Rule is obviously an expert, the strength of her exposition is formidable.
Doctor Deborah Green read crime fiction copiously, both true and fictional. Indeed she may have got the idea for ricin (castor beans) poisoning from Agatha Christie, and, eerily and conclusively, the books she had on loan from the library shortly before the fire were all on the subject of family murders.
There is no way you can read her awful story and not emerge from it with an intensified feeling of protective love towards your own family. As a fireman who discovered the dead bodies of Tim and Kelly says, "the first thing I did when I got home was hug my kids".
This extraordinary arson was the final, tragic act of vengeance by a scorned wife on her estranged husband, a woman so consumed with hate and self-delusion that she could sacrifice the lives of her own children, Medea-like, in order to torment the man she was about to lose.
Horrific enough of a crime in itself, worthy to be of interest to Ann Rule, America's "doyenne" of the true crime story (to steal her own term for Agatha Christie with regards the fictional crime story), Doctor Green's behaviour both before and after that fateful night were equally shocking and bizarre.
Debora, who is characterised repeatedly by friends and colleagues as being exceptionally smart and funny, vivacious and outgoing -"a people person" according to her own estimation- is also shown to be chronically "self-absorbed", emotionally immature and constantly close to anger.
As Rule skillfully relays the events that culminate so unthinkably in filicide, we discover how Debora Green had been systematically turning the children against their father by belittling and demonising him in their eyes; how she burnt down a previous house to force a reconciliation; how she wrote bizarre, unsigned notes praising herself and damning him, which she left for neighbors to find; and how she set about poisoning him with ricin (castor beans), a deadly, incapacitating toxin that left him on the point of death and requiring multiple surgeries.
As if that wasn't enough, in her defense at the pre-trial she supports a case whereby her defendants attempt to pin the arson on her dead (murdered) son, who they character assassinate as a troubled pyromaniac.
In a story and genre such as this, obviously the facts have to speak loudest, and Rule never clouds them with her own voice. She mostly sits in the background, only really showing her presence when she, perhaps unnecessarily, editorializes the adultery and neglectful fathering of the husband, Doctor Michael Farrar, with constant excuses and justifications, and then again at the end when she attempts to answer the Why? question.
On the few occasions Rule takes exception to her unadorned approach her metaphors are generally flaccid and functional, which i found disappointing. That said, my experience in reading true crime books stretches no further than the ubiquitous In Cold Blood (which was also a Kansas killing) and the odd dip into some Colin Wilson anthologies, so I accept that I don't really know my way around this type of book. Rule is obviously an expert, the strength of her exposition is formidable.
Doctor Deborah Green read crime fiction copiously, both true and fictional. Indeed she may have got the idea for ricin (castor beans) poisoning from Agatha Christie, and, eerily and conclusively, the books she had on loan from the library shortly before the fire were all on the subject of family murders.
There is no way you can read her awful story and not emerge from it with an intensified feeling of protective love towards your own family. As a fireman who discovered the dead bodies of Tim and Kelly says, "the first thing I did when I got home was hug my kids".
November 5, 2021
Ann Rule was clearly infatuated with the husband in this case, and her bias is so strong it comes through in almost every word choice. Yes, Debra Green murdered her children and poisoned her husband. But Rule presents a completely one-sided narrative that is actually cringey with almost crush-like flattery in one direction and in the other, strange, hateful value judgements that have nothing to do with actual insight into the crime. She spends no time exploring the very real very obvious and serious mental health issues highlighted by this tragedy, instead just basically painting a black-and-white portrayal of one side of the story. A side that, while a victim absolutely, is not blameless in many events that lead up to the horrific crime.
She seems actually naive here, to present the case this way, relying so much on the husband’s account without any pushback. She portrayed him as a put-upon, brilliant, super-handsome guy whose once-hot wife got fat and became too much work, so he just *had* to cheat on her, really skimming over her mental disintegration and his actions and inactions in light of years’ of red flags and screams for help. Even when she admits he did horrible things, it’s sympathetically presented or excused in some way. But she can’t complain enough about how Debra wasn’t a good housekeeper or dresser.
I’ve also noticed in her other work she generally fawns over “pretty” people and hates anyone she thinks is ugly or non-conventionally “feminine”. She didn’t use this kind of language about Diane Downs, who shot her children point-blank. Rule found her spellbinding. But Debra Green’s crimes, according to Rule, aren’t just attempted murder, arson, and murdering her own children, but also being an overweight mess. I can’t put up with that kind of bias.
She seems actually naive here, to present the case this way, relying so much on the husband’s account without any pushback. She portrayed him as a put-upon, brilliant, super-handsome guy whose once-hot wife got fat and became too much work, so he just *had* to cheat on her, really skimming over her mental disintegration and his actions and inactions in light of years’ of red flags and screams for help. Even when she admits he did horrible things, it’s sympathetically presented or excused in some way. But she can’t complain enough about how Debra wasn’t a good housekeeper or dresser.
I’ve also noticed in her other work she generally fawns over “pretty” people and hates anyone she thinks is ugly or non-conventionally “feminine”. She didn’t use this kind of language about Diane Downs, who shot her children point-blank. Rule found her spellbinding. But Debra Green’s crimes, according to Rule, aren’t just attempted murder, arson, and murdering her own children, but also being an overweight mess. I can’t put up with that kind of bias.
September 22, 2023
One of the worst true crime books I’ve ever read. It makes me wonder why Ann Rule is so celebrated. Did she do any research at all outside of talking to the people directly involved, specifically the husband? Good true crime is investigative and digs into the story. This one so one-sided it was laughable.
I understand that Debora did terrible things. There is absolutely no excusing her crimes, and she should be in jail for the rest of her life. But also, it sounds like she had serious mental health issues for many years that went unnoticed, including a substance abuse disorder. Her husband knew about this for years and didn’t get her help, and he was a DOCTOR! She also had chronic pain.
And, just speaking of Ann Rule’s writing alone. Wow, she sure thinks Michael is a swell guy. Because Michael says he is a swell guy. And that darn Debora is a frigid bitch who doesn’t clean the house (couldn’t Michael have cleaned the house? Wasn’t Debora working full-time in a demanding job with multiple children? How is this important to a murder story?) And wow, she got fat, and that’s just not fair! And she didn’t like sex, and Michael didn’t like that! She even pushed him away in the delivery room when she was giving birth to their third child. When she was really unhappy about having to have the child. And judging by past behavior, maybe didn’t want to have sex anyway.
Look, I’m not giving a pass to Debora for killing her kids. It’s horrifying and she’s a terrible person. I’m just saying that Michael also seems like a pretty crappy person, and Ann Rule wrote a sexist book that is also a bad book.
I understand that Debora did terrible things. There is absolutely no excusing her crimes, and she should be in jail for the rest of her life. But also, it sounds like she had serious mental health issues for many years that went unnoticed, including a substance abuse disorder. Her husband knew about this for years and didn’t get her help, and he was a DOCTOR! She also had chronic pain.
And, just speaking of Ann Rule’s writing alone. Wow, she sure thinks Michael is a swell guy. Because Michael says he is a swell guy. And that darn Debora is a frigid bitch who doesn’t clean the house (couldn’t Michael have cleaned the house? Wasn’t Debora working full-time in a demanding job with multiple children? How is this important to a murder story?) And wow, she got fat, and that’s just not fair! And she didn’t like sex, and Michael didn’t like that! She even pushed him away in the delivery room when she was giving birth to their third child. When she was really unhappy about having to have the child. And judging by past behavior, maybe didn’t want to have sex anyway.
Look, I’m not giving a pass to Debora for killing her kids. It’s horrifying and she’s a terrible person. I’m just saying that Michael also seems like a pretty crappy person, and Ann Rule wrote a sexist book that is also a bad book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2017
If this wasn't true, documented crime, I would have a hard time believing this story.
Murder by arson, poisoning, an affair, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family- it's all there.
A few random thoughts: the children should have been taken out of the mothers care way before things came to a head. All the signs were there that something terrible was building up to happen.
Do people really get to know each other before they marry? Before they have children together?
The psychiatrist's evaluation of the killer just sounded like a fanciful cop out.
The killer, pretty much in prison for life, sounded to be in very deep denial, judging by the letters she had written to her surviving child and her husband.
Murder by arson, poisoning, an affair, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family- it's all there.
A few random thoughts: the children should have been taken out of the mothers care way before things came to a head. All the signs were there that something terrible was building up to happen.
Do people really get to know each other before they marry? Before they have children together?
The psychiatrist's evaluation of the killer just sounded like a fanciful cop out.
The killer, pretty much in prison for life, sounded to be in very deep denial, judging by the letters she had written to her surviving child and her husband.
September 1, 2023
I have some issues with the way Ann Rule writes about women and keeps harping on aspects of their appearance that aren't relevant to the story. We get it: Debora Green was fat, had a bad haircut and dressed like a slob so that made her extra evil. *eyeroll* I'm familiar with this case so it seemed overlong as well; I almost DNF around halfway but it was worth pushing through.
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