The I-5 Killer: Revised Edition (Signet True Crime)

Features

• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 304 pages
• Published by: Signet March 1, 1984
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0451165594
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0451165596
• Book Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 5.6 ounces

Book Description
As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all--a star athlete, good looks, and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

Praise for Ann Rule:

"VividExtraordinaryA page-turner!"-- New York Times Book Review, for Small Sacrifices

"Rule has an instinct for suspense, knowing just what information to leak to the reader and when."-- Washington Post Book World, for Small Sacrifices

"A shattering storycarefully investigated, written with compassion but also with professional objectivity."-- Seattle Times, for The Stranger Beside Me

Reader Reviews
Although I have read a considerable number of true crime novels, this is the first Ann Rule book I've ever read. I generally avoid books that have covers where the author's name is in bigger print than anything else, but as the saying goes, "don't judge a book by its cover." Sure enough, Rule has crafted a very suspenseful story about serial rapist and murderer Randall B. Woodfield. I've seen a number of ...reviewers bemoan the absence of a rigid chronological approach in this book, but I feel that this book would not have been nearly as successful in conveying the horror of Woodfield's crimes if they had simply been discussed one after another. By first introducing us to various women who had the misfortune to become involved with Woodfield, we are even more shocked when some of them turn up dead. Also, this book is generally oriented around the investigators who were hunting an unknown serial rapist and murderer; these detectives were not able to piece together a complete catalog and timeline of Woodfield's crimes until late in the investigation. There seems to be no consensus about Rule's body of work -- whether or not she's getting better as time goes on, or whether or not she's "lost it." Regardless of what you think about her writing career as a whole, "The I-5 Killer" is a gripping true crime story. Woodfield's life and crimes are introduced and explored from a variety of perspectives. This certainly isn't the best true crime story I've ever read -- at times it feels like the story wanders a bit, and sometimes there seems to be extraneous detail -- but this is still an above-average book. Comment | | (Report this)