The Search for the Green River Killer

This reckoning of the deaths of almost 50 women in Seattle is distressing not only for the gruesomeness of the crimes but also for reasons probably not intended by Smith and Guillen, who reported on the murders for the Seattle Times. The descriptions of decomposed corpses are nauseating, and the blundering and so far unsuccessful police attempts to find the murderer are irksome. Readers are likely to be equally angered by accounts of how the media hampered the investigation by meddling in it and exploiting it, and by a nagging sense that this book is just one more example of that exploitation. Unable to secure the cooperation of two primary police investigators (who wouldn't comment because the cases are still open), the authors rely on sources as diverse as an FBI agent, a psychic who is investigating the cases on her own and a former suspect with a demonstrated ability for manipulating the media. Moreover, the book offers abundant chaff with the wheat as when, for example, it discusses unrelated murders committed in Canada and Hawaii. Maps. (Mar.)