Prairie Murders: The True Story of Three Murders and the Loss of Innocence in a Small North Dakota Town

by Robert Dodge

It was the safest state in America, where a single murder in a year was the usual. People there descended from hearty settlers who had withstood a challenging life by cooperating. When a growing young town with recently paved streets was struck by annual murders for three consecutive years, something had changed. Each crime was more violent and heinous than its predecessor, beginning when one of the town s favorites, a personable high school cheerleader, was murdered in her family s home in a sex-related attack. Within months came the bloody bludgeoning to death of a young mother in her own home. As one homicide was prosecuted and investigation moved forward on the second, a young man s body was found bisected, with the halves floating in bags in a river.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

267 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read about three very unfortunate and interesting murders. The author really painted a picture of how utterly normal, wholesome and likable the community was and gave a hint of how shattered people were by the killings. I do have to say that the book reads as if the copyeditor quit in exhaustion halfway through -- along with Spellchecky errors like substituting "waste" for "waist," there were many words left out of sentences entirely. With a thorough going-over this book would be a real beauty, even including the bizarre left turn into the life history of Lawrence Welk.

[Tom Foss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was 13 years old when these murders took place so the book has a lot of history to me I thought it was riveting and told the story very well. It really explains why when I was growing up as a teenager my mom and dad were fanatics about making me come home before got dark

[Sara Wieck · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I enjoyed reading this book given I'm from ND. I found it very hard to follow. The author several times went off on sides stories that jumped ahead in time and then back to where he was. All in all was still a fascinating book.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad but kept going over some points over and over again.

[Tanya T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as i was expecting it to be. Dragged on in too many places that i skipped over alot of it.