On the night of October 23/24, 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 and his six-year-old sister
Kelly. Lissa, ten, was barely able to leap to safety from the garage
roof into the arms of her mother, who was standing outside the house.
When Michael Farrar returned to 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, blonde
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 hidden places in Debora and Michael's marriage bubbled to the
surface in a series of almost unbelievable horrors.
"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. Rule takes us deep in the psyche of a killer
whose behavior was so twisted and so evil that it defies belief.
Gripping, powerful, and ultimately terrifying, "Bitter Harvest" is a
vivid recreation of an unthinkable crime -- and a depiction of the
unimagined depths of a darkness within the human spirit.
Copyright © 1998 Ann Rule. All Rights Reserved
Performance copyright 1998 by Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved
