Caroline Fraser The Pulitzer Prize-winning author on her new book about serial killers, the Pacific Northwest, and toxic chemicals

Your last book was a biography of Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder. How do you go from that to serial killers? I was born and raised in Seattle and remember growing up with the presence of Ted Bundy. Even though I wasn’t touched by the case directly, having it happen so close was a big deal. Bundy kidnapped and killed two women on the same Sunday afternoon from Lake Sammamish— just six miles from me. It was all anybody could talk about. And then there were so many others...

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Did it feel like suddenly serial killers were everywhere? By the time of [Richard] Ramirez, people were thinking, “What the hell is going on here?” It’s striking that nobody was asking why. Nobody was asking, “Are there more killers than before? Is there something about the Pacific Northwest?” The FBI was presenting themselves as the experts, but they weren't explaining the phenomenon.