Murderland

Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers - 'I highly recommend it' (R. F. Kuang, Observer)

By: Caroline Fraser

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Paperback | 11 June 2026 | Edition Number 1

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12.6 x 19.7 x 3.2

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WINNER OF 2026 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME
SHORTLISTED FOR CWA'S ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

'Murderland reads like a true crime thriller' SUNDAY TIMES

'Haunting, elegant and fiercely intelligent' OBSERVER

'I highly recommend it' R. F. KUANG, author of KATABASIS, OBSERVER

A terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond - from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Prairie Fires
Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial killer in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and 80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise of an epidemic of serial murderers?

As Murderland maps the lives of Bundy and his infamous peers - the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalker, the Hillside Strangler, Charles Manson - Fraser begins to uncover a deeper mystery and an overlapping pattern of environmental destruction. At ground zero in Ted Bundy's hometown stood one of the most poisonous lead, copper and arsenic smelters in the world. And it was only one among many that dotted the area.

Gradually, evidence mounts that the plumes of western smelters not only sickened millions but also warped young minds - potentially spawning a generation of serial killers.

'Lyrically luminescent' NEW YORK TIMES

'Compelling' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

'Breathlessly propulsive' JOYCE CAROL OATES, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

'Extraordinarily well-written and genre-defying . . . a moody masterpiece' NEW YORKER

'A powerful plea' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Compelling, beautifully written . . . at heart, a cry of outrage' WASHINGTON POST

'Wonderfully propulsive and hard to put down' ATLANTIC

'Brooding and often brave' BOSTON GLOBE

'Not to be missed' CHICAGO TRIBUNE

'Sharp, incandescent' SEATTLE TIMES

'A great writer can make art of the most grotesque material, and Fraser does' WALL STREET JOURNAL

Industry Reviews

A big, ambitious story . . . as hauntingly compulsive a nonfiction book as I have read in a long time. It gets into your blood - The Guardian

Extraordinarily well-written and genre-defying . . . akin to Patrick Radden Keefe's genealogy of the Sacklers in his book Empire of Pain . . . a moody masterpiece - New Yorker

Murderland reads like Rachel Carson's Silent Spring meets Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, told through the hypnotic, unwavering gaze that is entirely Fraser's own - Vulture, Best Books of 2025

It reads like a novel, with all of the juicy details and propulsive plot we love in our favorite thrillers - People

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