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Wendy Darling's Reviews > Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
by
by
Wendy Darling's review
bookshelves: adult, audio, forensics-and-death, non-fiction, 70s, california, needs-a-red-pen, read-2025, tough-subjects
Jun 24, 2025
bookshelves: adult, audio, forensics-and-death, non-fiction, 70s, california, needs-a-red-pen, read-2025, tough-subjects
Ever notice that a lot of serial killers hail from the Pacific Northwest? This exhaustively researched book puts forth the theory that environmental factors, specifically lead poisoning, contributed to the creation of Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Ed Gein, and many other killers.
Pretty convincing stuff, with a history of the industrialization of mining and the horrific effects of pollution on its workers as well as the inhabitants of the towns where factories were based. Many families and children experienced terrible physical, mental, and emotional consequences, plausibly due to the proximity to these areas. It’s fascinating to see the timeline laid out for the environmental factors and historical context woven step by step with various crimes and significant events.
I’d have rated this higher, except:
— it’s a little long
— the occasional fantastical asides don’t really fit the narrative (a sudden Jekyll and Hyde reference irritated me, for example)
— it might be a little more detailed than it needs to be in describing so many crimes, though what’s there is well done; my assumption is most readers coming into this will know a lot of these cases already, and the minute descriptions, particularly the amount of time spent on Bundy, seem a bit excessive at times
— eventually the author’s personal connections (she grew up in the PNW) became intrusive as they kept interrupting the narrative; some of this interesting/fine, but a great deal of it is more personally significant to the author than it is to the reader. I didn’t pick this up because I was interested in the POV of a local and what she was doing as a killer was picking up a girl in his car a few minutes away.
A lot of non-fiction lately seems to suffer from similar issues. If the details aren’t in service of the book as described, or if it’s an anecdote best left to friends or book tours, it can probably be taken out and be better for it.
Still. It’s a great piece of investigative writing and very effective in how it presents crime. Her theory would just be stronger if there weren’t quite so many extraneous details to obscure it.
Audio Notes: Excellent on audio, read by Patty Nieman.
Pretty convincing stuff, with a history of the industrialization of mining and the horrific effects of pollution on its workers as well as the inhabitants of the towns where factories were based. Many families and children experienced terrible physical, mental, and emotional consequences, plausibly due to the proximity to these areas. It’s fascinating to see the timeline laid out for the environmental factors and historical context woven step by step with various crimes and significant events.
I’d have rated this higher, except:
— it’s a little long
— the occasional fantastical asides don’t really fit the narrative (a sudden Jekyll and Hyde reference irritated me, for example)
— it might be a little more detailed than it needs to be in describing so many crimes, though what’s there is well done; my assumption is most readers coming into this will know a lot of these cases already, and the minute descriptions, particularly the amount of time spent on Bundy, seem a bit excessive at times
— eventually the author’s personal connections (she grew up in the PNW) became intrusive as they kept interrupting the narrative; some of this interesting/fine, but a great deal of it is more personally significant to the author than it is to the reader. I didn’t pick this up because I was interested in the POV of a local and what she was doing as a killer was picking up a girl in his car a few minutes away.
A lot of non-fiction lately seems to suffer from similar issues. If the details aren’t in service of the book as described, or if it’s an anecdote best left to friends or book tours, it can probably be taken out and be better for it.
Still. It’s a great piece of investigative writing and very effective in how it presents crime. Her theory would just be stronger if there weren’t quite so many extraneous details to obscure it.
Audio Notes: Excellent on audio, read by Patty Nieman.
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Reading Progress
June 22, 2025
–
Started Reading
June 22, 2025
– Shelved
June 24, 2025
–
Finished Reading
I find this an interesting comment coming from Wendy as I am new to this place called GoodReads and I can detect when a cite or a person wants to obscure an absolute masterpiece about growing up with Lead (Pb). It has taken me a bit, but why does one that claims she does no book reviews in her bio write one about Murderland that doesn't show up on her page in recent reviews? How does that happen?
With that analysis out of the way, I have opined on Caroline Fraser's autobiography of these times but the more I think about it I find it takes someone to question why things changed so dramatically from Caroline and I's growing up to now. It is obviously hard to convey what a drag childhood used to be when we and our parents were poisoned by Lead (Pb).
I see it is very hard for someone who was not maturing during the time of Lead to understand what damage it did to human relationships and how erratic everyone was whether it be the response to music or driving like maniacs over the bridge. I will say for my part our cohort drank and drove like maniacs as I am lucky to be alive.
For those who may claim that Lead (Pb) robbed our intellect, I will say for some it is true but for the rest, like Caroline and I, we had the last gasp of the best public education on the planet as our success in all fields is hard to miss.
For the record my first exposure to Deception Pass was just this past summer and I had my doubts about my Captain of the Boat as he was a Doctor with a twin diesel set up so I can only imagine the terror of making that trip with her father at the helm of their boat.
In short, Lead (Pb) made the whole world worse but it fell especially hard on the industrial cities and surrounding suburbs. The people that fail to see the total impact of this exposure are perpetuating myths about human behavior that are clearly not true.