The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
₱1,269.00
Product Description
*** A NEW YORK TIMES “100 Notable Books of 2020” ***A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia—and the writer determined to put the pieces back together.
In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the “Rainbow Murders” though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. As time passed, the truth seemed to slip away, and the investigation itself inflicted its own traumas
—-turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming the fears of violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries.
In
The Third Rainbow Girl, Emma Copley Eisenberg uses the Rainbow Murders case as a starting point for a thought-provoking tale of an Appalachian community bound by the false stories that have been told about.
Weaving in experiences from her own years spent living in Pocahontas County, she follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, revealing how this mysterious murder has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their fears, fates, and desires. Beautifully written and brutally honest,
The Third Rainbow Girl presents a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America—divided by gender and class, and haunted by its own violence.
Review
*** A NEW YORK TIMES “100 Notable Books of 2020” *** *Winner of the Pinckley Prize for True Crime* Edgar Award Nominee in “Best Fact Crime”
Apple Books, “Best Books of January”
Amazon, “Best Books of January 2020” in Nonfiction and History
Amazon, “10 Best Mysteries & Thrillers of the Month” BookRiot, “Best Audiobooks for Nonfiction November”, “Best Books on Appalachia”
Indie Next Pick for February 2020
O Magazine, ”
16 of the Best Books to Read this January!”
Electric Lit, “20 Most Anticipated Debuts of Early 2020”, “Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2020”
The Millions, “Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2020 Book Preview! ”
Library Journal, “Editors’ Fall Picks for 2019″Marie Claire, “Best True Crime Books of 2020”
Publishers Weekly, “New True Crime Books 2019-2020”
Southern Independent Bookseller Association, “Okra Pick for Winter 2020”
SheReads, “Most Anticipated Memoirs of 2020”, “Ten True Crime Books to Read Under the Covers”
Esquire, “The Best Books to Elevate Your Reading List in 2020,” “24 Best Books of 2020”
Mary Sue, “Books in 2020 That Will Make You Want to Smash the Patriarchy”
Booklist, “Chills with a Thrill” The Book Maven, “10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020” The Lineup, “Jaw-Dropping True Crime Books (Roundup)” Oxygen, “Best True Crime Books of 2020”
CrimeReads, “Best True Crime Books of 2020,” “Best New Paperbacks of the Month (January 2021)” BookRiot, “The Best Books We Read October-December 2020”
“Headlines only deliver digestible tropes: Backcountry hicks confront hippie celebrants, two dead. But for the indefatigable Emma Eisenberg, approaching the murders at Briery Knob is about more than who fired the gun. An affection for this law-resistant corner of West Virginia enables her to transcend the simple formula of white male rage. Stepping into darkness, she extracts a nuanced sense of place and draws a map with historical connections.”―
Nancy Isenberg, New York Times bestselling author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
“Part crime narrative and part soul-searching memoir, Emma Copley Eisenberg’s
The Third Rainbow Girl has
