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WINNER OF 2026 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME
LONGLISTED 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