The Riverman

Two boys riding bikes along a Washington State waterway made a grim discovery on July 15, 1982: a woman's body, with a pair of blue jeans knotted tight around her neck and caught on the river's pilings. Within about eighteen months, investigators suspected a serial killer nicknamed the Green River Killer in at least 49 deaths, many of them sex workers. Yet the early inquiry made little headway, and the first body in the water was only the beginning of a case that would frustrate the detectives assigned to it.

Robert D. Keppel, a King County detective, was among the investigators drawn into the hunt. His account follows the Green River case from its troubling first clues, through the dead-end leads and the strain on the task force, and into the wider search for the person responsible. He also draws on his earlier work on the Ted Bundy case, which shaped his view of how serial killers are pursued.

Written by the lead investigator himself, the book suits readers interested in police procedure and the inside workings of a major homicide investigation.