Killer on the Road by Ginger Strand
Starting in the 1950s, Americans eagerly built the planet's largest public work: the 42,795-mile National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. This book tells the entwined stories of America's highways and its highway killers.
[P]art true-crime entertainment, part academic exegesis, part political folk ballad..Strand’s cross-threaded tales of drifters, stranded motorists, and madmen got its hooks into me. Reading Ms. Strand’s thoughtful book is like driving a Nash Rambler after midnight on a highway to hell. -- Dwight Garner * New York Times *
Draws startling parallels between the inexorable advance of the Interstate System and the proliferation of killers who were pathologically stimulated by that long, open road. -- Marilyn Stasio * New York Times Book Review *
[A] hybrid of cultural historian and indefatigable roving reporter, who can't help taking quirky pleasure sometimes in what ought to be an utterly grim story. * Newsweek *
Ginger Strand is in possession of a sharp eye, a biting wit, a beguiling sense of fun—and a magnificent obsession. * Bloomberg *
The grim stories of murder on the highway may do for road trips what Jaws did for surfing. * Kirkus Reviews *
Who knew that these marvelously engineered clover-leafed roadways would not just drive the economy but also create a deadly combination of social transience and personal anonymity, destabilizing sociopaths and psychopaths while making them feel invulnerable to legal consequences? . . . Killer on the Road merges the chilling appeal of true-crime stories with compelling social history. * American History *
Draws startling parallels between the inexorable advance of the Interstate System and the proliferation of killers who were pathologically stimulated by that long, open road. -- Marilyn Stasio * New York Times Book Review *
[A] hybrid of cultural historian and indefatigable roving reporter, who can't help taking quirky pleasure sometimes in what ought to be an utterly grim story. * Newsweek *
Ginger Strand is in possession of a sharp eye, a biting wit, a beguiling sense of fun—and a magnificent obsession. * Bloomberg *
The grim stories of murder on the highway may do for road trips what Jaws did for surfing. * Kirkus Reviews *
Who knew that these marvelously engineered clover-leafed roadways would not just drive the economy but also create a deadly combination of social transience and personal anonymity, destabilizing sociopaths and psychopaths while making them feel invulnerable to legal consequences? . . . Killer on the Road merges the chilling appeal of true-crime stories with compelling social history. * American History *
Ginger Strand is the author of Inventing Niagara, a Border’s Original Voices choice, and Flight, a novel. Her nonfiction has appeared in many places, including Harper’s, OnEarth, The Believer, and Orion, where she is a contributing editor. She grew up mostly in Michigan and now lives in New York City, but spends a lot of time on the road.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780292757523 |
| ISBN 10 | 0292757522 |
| Title | Killer on the Road |
| Author | Ginger Strand |
| Series | Discovering America |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Texas Press |
| Year published | 2014-02-15 |
| Number of pages | 264 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |