The Spider and the Fly: A Reporter, a Serial Killer, and the Meaning of Murder

Poughkeepsie, New York, 1998.

Eight women had gone missing over the past two years and few were looking for them. The police had a lead?Kendall Francois, a large, awkward African American man that detectives had largely written off because he didn't fit the familiar serial killer stereotypes. One evening, Francois shook the region to its core by confessing to a prosecutor that he had eight bodies stored in his home.

The town became consumed with a desire to understand how this man could have committed such brazen crimes. Claudia Rowe, a young reporter living in Poughkeepsie, wanted to understand too, with a desperation that stunned her. Over nearly five years and through a series of letters, phone calls, and visits that consumed her life, Rowe engaged with a killer in a dizzying conversation about cruelty, compassion, and control.

A search for the origins of the darkest parts of human nature, a beautifully written tale of a reporter's relationship with her subject, a coming-of-age story that forces a deep reckoning with ourselves, a sociological dissection of class, race and crime, The Spider and the Fly is a multifaceted reading experience that will chill you to the bone.