Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, A Mother's Sacrifice

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On the night of October 23rd-24th, 1995, in Prairie Village, Kansas, a fierce, wind-driven fire devastated the luxurious mansion of Dr. Debora Green and her husband, Dr. Michael Farrar. Trapped and burned to death in the flames were twelve-year-old Tim Farrar and his six-year-old sister, Kelly. Lissa, ten, was barely able to leap to safety from the garage roof while her mother, arms outstretched, urged her to jump. When Michael Farrar arrived on the scene, he had lost more than his children and his home. His entire life was in ruins. The fire was the climactic event of Michael and Debora's lives. Until that summer, they seemed to have it all - a happy marriage, successful medical practices, three bright and beautiful children. Then they went on a trip to Peru with their son. There, they met attractive, blond Celeste Walker, whose husband, John, was also a successful doctor. But after that trip, nothing was the same again for either couple, and all the dark, submerged forebodings in Debora and Michael's marriage bubbled to the surface in a series of almost unbelievable horrors. First there was Tim's rebellious behavior, which erupted into physical violence against his father. Then there was Michael's illness - mysterious episodes so violent that he had to be hospitalized and came close to death. Then John Walker was found dead in his garage - was it suicide or murder? Perhaps most inexplicable of all was Debora herself, whose personality and even appearance underwent dramatic changes that summer. Bitter Harvest is the chronicle of this tragedy in the heartland of America, the true story of the disintegration of a marriage and its horrifying consequences. Ann Rule has no equal in the delineation of the aberrant criminal mind. As in her earlier books, she takes her readers deep into the psyche of a killer whose behavior, so twisted and so evil, defies belief. Her book is also the story of the tireless and skillful arson investigators, forensic scientists, and pros.

SYNOPSIS

"A tour de force from America's best true-crime writer." --Kirkus Reviews

Dr. Debora Green and her husband, Dr. Michael Farrar, seemed to have it all: a happy marriage, successful medical practices, and three bright and beautiful children. This image was maintained until a fire broke out at the luxurious mansion owned by the couple, taking the lives of two of their children. When the fire was labeled arson, the police began to focus on Deb Green, who is the fascinating subject of bestselling author Ann Rule's most recent true-crime epic, Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, A Mother's Sacrifice.

A chronicle of a tragedy that took place in the posh suburb of Prairie Village, Kansas, Bitter Harvest is the true story of the disintegration of a marriage and its horrifying consequences. Rule follows the arson investigators, forensic scientists, and prosecutors who had to untangle Green's intricate puzzle of psychopathology. Could a mother and a doctor, committed by the Hippocratic oath to "do no harm," deliberately set a fire that took the lives of her 13-year-old son and six-year-old daughter? Were the near-fatal episodes of intestinal distress suffered by her estranged husband caused by his wife? Could a woman be so full of vengeance that she would destroy her children and watch as her husband grew deathly ill from the poisoned food she fed him?

None of Rule's previous subjects -- not Diane Downs of Small Sacrifices nor Brad Cunningham of Dead By Sunset -- have inspired such an enthralling study of the criminal mind.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Dr. Deborah Green was a brilliant, wealthy, married mother of three who was convicted of repeatedly trying to poison her husband and of killing two of her children in a fire she methodically set in the family home. Rule (A Fever in the Heart, LJ 11/1/96) proves once again that she is a master of the true-crime genreshe builds the narrative from Green's days as a student of superior intelligence through her years in an increasingly unhappy marriage to her physician husband. Rule carefully chronicles Green's bizarre behavior and takes the reader through the arson investigation as well as Green's husband's illnesses, surgeries, and attempt to rebuild his life with his remaining child, who escaped the fire. Peppered throughout the narrative are quotes from Green herself, which expose her twisted thinking and her attempts to rationalize her behavior. An outstanding chronicle of a crime investigation as well as a riveting profile of a brilliant mind and empty soul. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/97.]Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie County P.L., N.Y.

Kirkus Reviews

A tour de force from America's best true-crime writer (Dead by Sunset, 1985, etc). Rule's fans will recognize shades of the pretty poisoner Pat Allanson in Dr. Debora Green, a Kansas woman with a lot of anger. She envies her husband, Mike Farrar, his youthfulness, his successful medical career, and his easy manner with women. Though the two have been married for 18 years and have three children, their relationship has always been rocky. Debora is cruel, vindictive, and has at various times been dependent on pills and alcohol. In 1995, with the family in quiet disorder, Mike and Debora plan to go to Peru. The trip is, in Mike's mind, their final act as a couple. While there Mike meets Celeste Walker, the beautiful wife of an unhappy doctor and an old friend of Debora's. After the trip, they begin an affair; Debora finds out, and Mike suddenly begins to suffer debilitating stomach problems, causing him to be frequently hospitalized. Mike eventually discovers several packets of castor beans in Debora's handbag. The bean is the source of ricin, a deadly poison that is later discovered in Mike's bloodstream. As he begins to recover, he moves out of the house and announces plans to divorce Debora. Only weeks later, a suspicious house fire occurs, the second to strike the family. This time it's fatal: The couple's son and younger daughter die; Debora and the middle daughter survive. An investigation leads back to the furious, defiant Debora, who confesses to both the poisoning and the arson after a carefully rendered and gripping preliminary hearing. She is now in a Kansas prison doing "a hard forty." Impossible to put down (though a little skimpy on psychiatric details), this is,thanks to the vivid, fascinating portrait of Debora and of the slow unraveling of her homicidal schemes, one of Rule's best. (24 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)