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The Spider and the Fly: A Reporter, a Serial Killer, and the Meaning of Murder
In this superb work of literary true crime—a spellbinding combination of memoir and psychological suspense—a female journalist chronicles her unusual connection with a convicted serial killer and her search to understand the darkness inside us.
"Well, well, Claudia. Can I call you Claudia? I’ll have to give it to you, when confronted at least you’re honest, as honest as any reporter. . . . You want to go into the depths of my mind and into my past. I want a peek into yours. It is only fair, isn’t it?"—Kendall Francois
In September 1998, young reporter Claudia Rowe was working as a stringer for the New York Times in Poughkeepsie, New York, when local police discovered the bodies of eight women stashed in the attic and basement of the small colonial home that Kendall Francois, a painfully polite twenty-seven-year-old community college student, shared with his parents and sister.
Growing up amid the safe, bourgeois affluence of New York City, Rowe had always been secretly fascinated by the darkness, and soon became obsessed with the story and with Francois. She was consumed with the desire to understand just how a man could abduct and strangle eight women—and how a family could live for two years, seemingly unaware, in a house with the victims’ rotting corpses. She also hoped to uncover what humanity, if any, a murderer could maintain in the wake of such monstrous evil.
Reaching out after Francois was arrested, Rowe and the serial killer began a dizzying four-year conversation about cruelty, compassion, and control; an unusual and provocative relationship that would eventually lead her to the abyss, forcing her to clearly see herself and her own past—and why she was drawn to danger.
"Well, well, Claudia. Can I call you Claudia? I’ll have to give it to you, when confronted at least you’re honest, as honest as any reporter. . . . You want to go into the depths of my mind and into my past. I want a peek into yours. It is only fair, isn’t it?"—Kendall Francois
In September 1998, young reporter Claudia Rowe was working as a stringer for the New York Times in Poughkeepsie, New York, when local police discovered the bodies of eight women stashed in the attic and basement of the small colonial home that Kendall Francois, a painfully polite twenty-seven-year-old community college student, shared with his parents and sister.
Growing up amid the safe, bourgeois affluence of New York City, Rowe had always been secretly fascinated by the darkness, and soon became obsessed with the story and with Francois. She was consumed with the desire to understand just how a man could abduct and strangle eight women—and how a family could live for two years, seemingly unaware, in a house with the victims’ rotting corpses. She also hoped to uncover what humanity, if any, a murderer could maintain in the wake of such monstrous evil.
Reaching out after Francois was arrested, Rowe and the serial killer began a dizzying four-year conversation about cruelty, compassion, and control; an unusual and provocative relationship that would eventually lead her to the abyss, forcing her to clearly see herself and her own past—and why she was drawn to danger.
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First published January 24, 2017
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About the author
Claudia Rowe
2 books8 followersClaudia Rowe is a journalist who currently works for The Seattle Times. In the past, she has worked for The New York Times, Mother Jones, Woman’s Day, The Huffington Post and The Stranger and other newspapers and magazines. She has been a member of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 424 reviews
September 10, 2016
I have so much to say and it's hard to know where to start, so let's start with what you know about this book before you read it: the title and summary. This is not a book of suspense, as nothing actually happens. There is no spider and no fly. This book will frustrate readers of true crime and bore readers of memoir. I'm not saying the two can't go together, but in this book the combination goes very wrong. The pitch of this book may sound great, but I highly doubt most readers will find it satisfying.
Here is what this book is about: Claudia and Kendall. Claudia, the author, is someone we don't actually know all that much about even after reading this book. It's clear she hates her life and it often seems she hates herself. But beyond her obsession with Kendall, she never comes into focus. One minute she identifies with a killer, the next she identifies with his victims, one page has her scared, the next page has her aloof. There are vague stories of her difficult life growing up amid privilege in Manhattan, but not much to illustrate any real difficulty. Ultimately there is no story in her story.
As for Kendall, he's an odd figure to pick for the story of a serial killer. He is not a mastermind. He is not a plotter or a planner. While the author and the police all seem to categorize him under a psychopathic profile, it's pretty clear that this is a man who was angry and insecure and who chose to let his rage and aggression out by victimizing prostitutes, who he sees as less than human. There isn't really any more to it than that, but Rowe continues to search for some explanation, some sign, when there is no grand plan, no special clue. She seems astounded that a man who kills women can also smile and be polite and enjoy science-fiction, as if killers are only defined by their killing. (The author and others theorize in the book that Kendall killed other women and hid their bodies, though the fact that he left their bodies in his own home with as little effort and care as possible makes this incredibly unlikely. They are so caught up in the idea of a "serial killer" they don't seem to see Kendall for what he is.)
This book has no suspense because nothing actually happens. Claudia and Kendall correspond, though we see very little of their actual letters. Sometimes there are long stretches where Rowe lays out the facts of the case or interviews people who knew Kendall. None of the people who knew Kendall are close friends or people with a useful perspective, a few teachers, a few acquaintances, no real insight. There doesn't appear to be much method to the structure, which jumps around and doesn't let you get very comfortable. Rowe cannot decide whether Kendall is a person worthy of empathy or a monster, and that is pretty much the entire book, watching her go back and forth, waiting for her to make the fairly straightforward realization that he is both a person and a killer. (It's unclear whether she actually does.)
The decision to write this as both memoir and true crime is a bad one. There is not enough memoir to make much sense of Claudia and her life, and not enough narrative around her to understand her obsession with Kendall. Then as soon as the book makes a move towards true crime, Claudia's opinions keep coming in to throw it off. Rowe regularly makes assumptions about what Kendall thinks, though it's clear she has no real understanding of him. Her reporting on the true crime has too much of herself and doesn't end up being chilling or suspenseful. Her efforts to compare herself to Kendall and his victims strain credulity (having sex with people you don't particularly care for isn't the same as prostitution and poverty, for one).
The prose is oddly flat. Rowe seems to have very little respect or empathy for anyone she writes about, unable to fully embrace memoir, but not giving the kind of reporting worthy of journalism. In an effort to embrace both worlds she has failed to get either of them right.
Here is what this book is about: Claudia and Kendall. Claudia, the author, is someone we don't actually know all that much about even after reading this book. It's clear she hates her life and it often seems she hates herself. But beyond her obsession with Kendall, she never comes into focus. One minute she identifies with a killer, the next she identifies with his victims, one page has her scared, the next page has her aloof. There are vague stories of her difficult life growing up amid privilege in Manhattan, but not much to illustrate any real difficulty. Ultimately there is no story in her story.
As for Kendall, he's an odd figure to pick for the story of a serial killer. He is not a mastermind. He is not a plotter or a planner. While the author and the police all seem to categorize him under a psychopathic profile, it's pretty clear that this is a man who was angry and insecure and who chose to let his rage and aggression out by victimizing prostitutes, who he sees as less than human. There isn't really any more to it than that, but Rowe continues to search for some explanation, some sign, when there is no grand plan, no special clue. She seems astounded that a man who kills women can also smile and be polite and enjoy science-fiction, as if killers are only defined by their killing. (The author and others theorize in the book that Kendall killed other women and hid their bodies, though the fact that he left their bodies in his own home with as little effort and care as possible makes this incredibly unlikely. They are so caught up in the idea of a "serial killer" they don't seem to see Kendall for what he is.)
This book has no suspense because nothing actually happens. Claudia and Kendall correspond, though we see very little of their actual letters. Sometimes there are long stretches where Rowe lays out the facts of the case or interviews people who knew Kendall. None of the people who knew Kendall are close friends or people with a useful perspective, a few teachers, a few acquaintances, no real insight. There doesn't appear to be much method to the structure, which jumps around and doesn't let you get very comfortable. Rowe cannot decide whether Kendall is a person worthy of empathy or a monster, and that is pretty much the entire book, watching her go back and forth, waiting for her to make the fairly straightforward realization that he is both a person and a killer. (It's unclear whether she actually does.)
The decision to write this as both memoir and true crime is a bad one. There is not enough memoir to make much sense of Claudia and her life, and not enough narrative around her to understand her obsession with Kendall. Then as soon as the book makes a move towards true crime, Claudia's opinions keep coming in to throw it off. Rowe regularly makes assumptions about what Kendall thinks, though it's clear she has no real understanding of him. Her reporting on the true crime has too much of herself and doesn't end up being chilling or suspenseful. Her efforts to compare herself to Kendall and his victims strain credulity (having sex with people you don't particularly care for isn't the same as prostitution and poverty, for one).
The prose is oddly flat. Rowe seems to have very little respect or empathy for anyone she writes about, unable to fully embrace memoir, but not giving the kind of reporting worthy of journalism. In an effort to embrace both worlds she has failed to get either of them right.
March 5, 2017
This was a bait and switch. It was not about the killer, it was about the author.
April 12, 2017
It's easy to see how the author (and her agent) pitched this book: a real-life version of the "Silence of the Lambs" in which a novice reporter takes on a serial killer, trading quid pro quo information. The kicker was that it would be written like "In Cold Blood," Capote's masterpiece of creative non-fiction.
The result is unreadable. The book opens with an embarrassing ode to, of all things, the post office. The author enters a small town post office to pick up her mail. That would be the short way to describe it. Instead, we are forced to wade through pages of overwrought descriptions of the tiny metal boxes holding all manner of secrets. The trend to over-describe and make small things "meaningful" unfortunately continues throughout the book, all in the guise of "creative" non-fiction.
For reasons that will be made painfully clear over hundreds of pages, a small-town reporter decides to write to a serial killer, who offers a predictable deal: for every 20 pages the reporter types about herself and her background, the killer will answer 4 questions. The author (sadly) choses to include both sides of the correspondence and the result is a memoir about a reporter you've probably never heard of - her background, childhood traumas and personal defeats. The equation holds throughout the book: for every 20 pages Rowe writes about herself, we see four short sentences about the killer. The narrative is unbelievably dull.
The exchanges between Starling and Lecter worked in "Lambs" because Harris created tension. There was something at stake: the FBI needed information which Hannibal could provide and therefore the deal made a certain amount of sense (at least in a fictional world). Here, the killer is already in jail. No stakes, no drama.
While I can admire the author's ambition, the result is not successful. Once again, I am reminded of Anne Lamott's advice to memoire writers: just because it happened to you doesn't make it interesting.
The result is unreadable. The book opens with an embarrassing ode to, of all things, the post office. The author enters a small town post office to pick up her mail. That would be the short way to describe it. Instead, we are forced to wade through pages of overwrought descriptions of the tiny metal boxes holding all manner of secrets. The trend to over-describe and make small things "meaningful" unfortunately continues throughout the book, all in the guise of "creative" non-fiction.
For reasons that will be made painfully clear over hundreds of pages, a small-town reporter decides to write to a serial killer, who offers a predictable deal: for every 20 pages the reporter types about herself and her background, the killer will answer 4 questions. The author (sadly) choses to include both sides of the correspondence and the result is a memoir about a reporter you've probably never heard of - her background, childhood traumas and personal defeats. The equation holds throughout the book: for every 20 pages Rowe writes about herself, we see four short sentences about the killer. The narrative is unbelievably dull.
The exchanges between Starling and Lecter worked in "Lambs" because Harris created tension. There was something at stake: the FBI needed information which Hannibal could provide and therefore the deal made a certain amount of sense (at least in a fictional world). Here, the killer is already in jail. No stakes, no drama.
While I can admire the author's ambition, the result is not successful. Once again, I am reminded of Anne Lamott's advice to memoire writers: just because it happened to you doesn't make it interesting.
November 16, 2017
This memoir was not written in the "true crime" ilk. It was more about the writers journey to finding where she fit in this world.
Rowe wrote about her daemons, realizing that she had them, and had to change her life. And it makes you realize we all have things about us that need changing for the better.
I would suggest this book to those who are interested in Psychology. Especially if you thing is studying the criminal mind and The Stockholm Syndrome. Abusers and criminals know how to turn their words, so that a person going through a vulnerable time in their will fall into the victimizers trap.
Rowe wrote about her daemons, realizing that she had them, and had to change her life. And it makes you realize we all have things about us that need changing for the better.
I would suggest this book to those who are interested in Psychology. Especially if you thing is studying the criminal mind and The Stockholm Syndrome. Abusers and criminals know how to turn their words, so that a person going through a vulnerable time in their will fall into the victimizers trap.
August 24, 2018
Author Claudia Rowe, a newspaper reporter, was obsessed with evil and serial killers since she was a child. She begins a correspondence with a convicted serial killer, Kendall Francois, supposedly for a newspaper story or a true-crime book. She hopes to learn why he did it, analyze where evil comes from, and at the same time, figure out why she is obsessed with evil and serial killers for her own personal edification.
Eighteen years later, she writes this stupid memoir. It is completely stupid on all levels. I have no other word for it.
The desire of Kendall - to kill prostitutes and hang on to their rotting bodies, stacking them up to rot in his parents’ attic like broken furniture - is the only way Kendall explored his desire, as we already know, publicly. He refused to reveal anything much about his parents or childhood, only reiterating the girls deserved it since they were prostitutes. Since he confessed, there was no trial and thus there are no reams of public evidentiary documentation.
Rowe tells about her research process - discussing her internal thoughts and her professional yet fitful investigation - but it feels as if she leaves much unsaid. I think she is keeping back too many of her applicable issues and thoughts, despite that this book supposedly is a literary tell-all memoir about her self-examination of her inchoate motives and life.
This book is not much of a memoir. As a true crime investigation it is a complete switch-and-bait by both author and publisher. The book is a beautifully written in spots but there is nothing to see. Move along, gentle reader.
My recommendation for you is if you want to read this book, borrow it. The only question I have left is WHY was it published?
Eighteen years later, she writes this stupid memoir. It is completely stupid on all levels. I have no other word for it.
The desire of Kendall - to kill prostitutes and hang on to their rotting bodies, stacking them up to rot in his parents’ attic like broken furniture - is the only way Kendall explored his desire, as we already know, publicly. He refused to reveal anything much about his parents or childhood, only reiterating the girls deserved it since they were prostitutes. Since he confessed, there was no trial and thus there are no reams of public evidentiary documentation.
Rowe tells about her research process - discussing her internal thoughts and her professional yet fitful investigation - but it feels as if she leaves much unsaid. I think she is keeping back too many of her applicable issues and thoughts, despite that this book supposedly is a literary tell-all memoir about her self-examination of her inchoate motives and life.
This book is not much of a memoir. As a true crime investigation it is a complete switch-and-bait by both author and publisher. The book is a beautifully written in spots but there is nothing to see. Move along, gentle reader.
My recommendation for you is if you want to read this book, borrow it. The only question I have left is WHY was it published?
November 30, 2018
This is an extraordinary book in pretty much every way. The writing is superb, the revelations are gut wrenching, and the author's cut-to-the-soul honesty is heroic. It's not so much about the serial killer whom the author gets to know as it is about the author's journey to understand how she became who she is today. It's terrific and I can't say enough good things about it.
November 8, 2016
I was looking forward to reading a true crime, non-fiction title but was disappointed. I found the writing style to be rambling, and repetitive, and flipping back and forth between situations. This was more an unhealthy obsession about a serial killer, not a memoir, with details of the crimes committed thrown in.
February 15, 2018
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
The Spider and the Fly is a blend of memoir and true crime. You can’t help but wonder how it could be possible. Maybe the writer is the criminal? That would definitely would be interesting, but this book has something just as bewitching. This piece of literature is journalist Claudia Rowe’s first book in which she chronicles her connection with serial killer Kendall Francois. Working for the New York Times in Poughkeepsie, New York, Claudia Rowe’s fascination for the mystery behind the discovery of a serial killer who is arrested for the murder of eight prostitutes stashed in the attic and the basement of his home has brought her to embark on an ambitious and dangerous adventure. In fact, her curiosity brings her to maintain a four year mail correspondence with a serial killer behind bars. While her decision to decipher a serial killer’s motive to take lives also brings ruin to her own life, The Spider and the Fly discloses a journalist’s road to self-discovery and her attempt to understanding her deepest pains and passions.
Media loves to point their spotlights on criminals and learn anything and everything about them. Being able to extract a bit of information that had never surfaced before is a moment of glory for plenty of journalists. After all, we’re all human. We seek for answers where every thing is blurry and incomprehensible. Finding answers to our questions is what drives a lot of our actions. Kendall Francois’ life-course is one of those mysteries that drove Claudia Rowe to contact him. This killer had a past that made him stand out from everyone else. Not because he had criminal behaviors since his young age or because his childhood was filled with hate and violence. Simply because his size and ethnicity made him stand out from every other person in his neighborhood. It’s his sudden drift to picking up prostitutes, to trying to make them clean and then to draining the life out of them by holding their necks with his giant hands that causes many to wonder on his motives. Desiring to find answers, Claudia Rowe commences a mail correspondence with this killer, trying to get him to talk to her as a person who’s more than just a journalist.
While the book isn’t in the form of an epistolary, Claudia Rowe does however tease us with excerpts from their letters. Her writing does commend a round of applause as it does a magnificent job in installing an eerie and suffocating atmosphere. While often sharing her thoughts on the events that unfold during their communication, she brings to light a lot of her own past and the problems she has once had with the people in her own network. I had some trouble with the way the author transitioned from a moment from the past to one in the present, as it felt too sudden and sometimes simply killed the flow. While it took some getting used to, the story still managed to cover as much on the life of both key characters as possible. The most unsettling moments in this book where the constant self-analysis by Claudia Rowe that lead her to sometimes see herself as one of the victims of Kendall Francois or to even relate similarities between her past and the serial killer’s. Her hunt for answers and her attempt to befriend a killer (or at least pretend for the sake of establishing a connection with him that will open him up, figuratively) are the driving forces of the whole journey told by the author. Even if Kendall Francois requires Claudia Rowe to unveil her life to him as genuinely as possible if she wants him to do so himself, the struggle of the journalist to do something that she knows seems repulsive to the eyes of others doesn’t stop her from playing the game and potentially find herself in a deadly trap.
Readers who expect The Spider and the Fly to satisfy their cravings for a pure true crime will surely not find everything they desire in this. This book explores a journalists attempt to understand her own darkness through her exploration of a serial killer’s. While the book leaves you with more questions on both Claudia Rowe and Kendall Francois, it also shows you that answers are not to be found whenever we fancy them. Diving into this game with a serial killer has costed her her own personal life and brought her to lose a lot in the process. Although the damage to her own life were visible, she persevered and continued to knock at the doors of teachers, friends, and the family of the victims in search of the trigger that could explain everything. Claudia Rowe also conveys the story of Kendall Francois’ family since they also lived under the same roof that held all the rotting bodies for years. Wondering how the family never wondered to check on the nasty smell of corpses, countless questions on Kendall Francois’ life arises from the dark. Buried in questions that are often gone unanswered by the killer himself or simply ignored, one can’t help but search in the past for something that could explain the trajectory of a killer who was often referred to as a giant and kind bear.
Kendall Francois is not the typical serial killer that you find in your fair share of fiction. His actions are incomprehensible and his ways are not meticulous or planned. It doesn’t however take away anything despicable from his acts. The book doesn’t sly away from making his every presence a menace and a giant threat to Claudia Rowe’s own life. With a beautiful in-depth analysis of the journalists past and self, The Spider and the Fly is an exploration of a provocative and dangerous relationship between Claudia Rowe and Kendall Francois. While a tiresome game of power and control envelops their every contact, their relationship also leads the protagonist to understanding what drives her to find fascination within anything close to danger since her childhood. This combination of memoir and true crime is a thrilling and excellent piece that portrays the ugly in all its raw form. The best part of this book is not about getting the answers to the questions we ask. It’s about the process of hunting for answers and all the enlightenment that you get from it.
Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for sending me an Advance Copy for review!
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: http://bookidote.wordpress.com
The Spider and the Fly is a blend of memoir and true crime. You can’t help but wonder how it could be possible. Maybe the writer is the criminal? That would definitely would be interesting, but this book has something just as bewitching. This piece of literature is journalist Claudia Rowe’s first book in which she chronicles her connection with serial killer Kendall Francois. Working for the New York Times in Poughkeepsie, New York, Claudia Rowe’s fascination for the mystery behind the discovery of a serial killer who is arrested for the murder of eight prostitutes stashed in the attic and the basement of his home has brought her to embark on an ambitious and dangerous adventure. In fact, her curiosity brings her to maintain a four year mail correspondence with a serial killer behind bars. While her decision to decipher a serial killer’s motive to take lives also brings ruin to her own life, The Spider and the Fly discloses a journalist’s road to self-discovery and her attempt to understanding her deepest pains and passions.
Media loves to point their spotlights on criminals and learn anything and everything about them. Being able to extract a bit of information that had never surfaced before is a moment of glory for plenty of journalists. After all, we’re all human. We seek for answers where every thing is blurry and incomprehensible. Finding answers to our questions is what drives a lot of our actions. Kendall Francois’ life-course is one of those mysteries that drove Claudia Rowe to contact him. This killer had a past that made him stand out from everyone else. Not because he had criminal behaviors since his young age or because his childhood was filled with hate and violence. Simply because his size and ethnicity made him stand out from every other person in his neighborhood. It’s his sudden drift to picking up prostitutes, to trying to make them clean and then to draining the life out of them by holding their necks with his giant hands that causes many to wonder on his motives. Desiring to find answers, Claudia Rowe commences a mail correspondence with this killer, trying to get him to talk to her as a person who’s more than just a journalist.
While the book isn’t in the form of an epistolary, Claudia Rowe does however tease us with excerpts from their letters. Her writing does commend a round of applause as it does a magnificent job in installing an eerie and suffocating atmosphere. While often sharing her thoughts on the events that unfold during their communication, she brings to light a lot of her own past and the problems she has once had with the people in her own network. I had some trouble with the way the author transitioned from a moment from the past to one in the present, as it felt too sudden and sometimes simply killed the flow. While it took some getting used to, the story still managed to cover as much on the life of both key characters as possible. The most unsettling moments in this book where the constant self-analysis by Claudia Rowe that lead her to sometimes see herself as one of the victims of Kendall Francois or to even relate similarities between her past and the serial killer’s. Her hunt for answers and her attempt to befriend a killer (or at least pretend for the sake of establishing a connection with him that will open him up, figuratively) are the driving forces of the whole journey told by the author. Even if Kendall Francois requires Claudia Rowe to unveil her life to him as genuinely as possible if she wants him to do so himself, the struggle of the journalist to do something that she knows seems repulsive to the eyes of others doesn’t stop her from playing the game and potentially find herself in a deadly trap.
Readers who expect The Spider and the Fly to satisfy their cravings for a pure true crime will surely not find everything they desire in this. This book explores a journalists attempt to understand her own darkness through her exploration of a serial killer’s. While the book leaves you with more questions on both Claudia Rowe and Kendall Francois, it also shows you that answers are not to be found whenever we fancy them. Diving into this game with a serial killer has costed her her own personal life and brought her to lose a lot in the process. Although the damage to her own life were visible, she persevered and continued to knock at the doors of teachers, friends, and the family of the victims in search of the trigger that could explain everything. Claudia Rowe also conveys the story of Kendall Francois’ family since they also lived under the same roof that held all the rotting bodies for years. Wondering how the family never wondered to check on the nasty smell of corpses, countless questions on Kendall Francois’ life arises from the dark. Buried in questions that are often gone unanswered by the killer himself or simply ignored, one can’t help but search in the past for something that could explain the trajectory of a killer who was often referred to as a giant and kind bear.
Kendall Francois is not the typical serial killer that you find in your fair share of fiction. His actions are incomprehensible and his ways are not meticulous or planned. It doesn’t however take away anything despicable from his acts. The book doesn’t sly away from making his every presence a menace and a giant threat to Claudia Rowe’s own life. With a beautiful in-depth analysis of the journalists past and self, The Spider and the Fly is an exploration of a provocative and dangerous relationship between Claudia Rowe and Kendall Francois. While a tiresome game of power and control envelops their every contact, their relationship also leads the protagonist to understanding what drives her to find fascination within anything close to danger since her childhood. This combination of memoir and true crime is a thrilling and excellent piece that portrays the ugly in all its raw form. The best part of this book is not about getting the answers to the questions we ask. It’s about the process of hunting for answers and all the enlightenment that you get from it.
Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for sending me an Advance Copy for review!
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: http://bookidote.wordpress.com
February 7, 2017
Read my review here: https://bookbumzuky.wordpress.com/201...
As you may have noticed from the other reviews, this book is not a retelling of a serial killer's crimes, how he did them, how he got away for so long, and eventually, how he got caught. This is much more about a (platonic) relationship between journalist and killer.
Rowe is a journalist who becomes obsessed with Kendall, a convicted convicted serial killer of eight women, and at times, reading about this deep fascination gets a little uncomfortable. Openly admitting that she feels a sense of importance and flattery at having so much on Kendall’s attention seems pretty disgusting, but she then admits that she now knows these feelings were inappropriate and has come to realise that her obsession got the better of her.
I have to agree with other reviews, that this book is a little all over the place. Rowe’s writing is absolutely gorgeously put all the way through, it’s really poetic, it’s just that the structure is a bit off. Topics skip all over the place and it can sometimes be hard to grasp how one thing connects to the next.
In the end, I actually really enjoyed this novel even though it wasn’t a classic true crime kinda novel. It was interesting seeing the correspondence between the two of them and getting the feel for how someone like Kendall works in a different way to us. I’m not really interested to read all about the Attica riots, so that will be a new addition to my bookshelf soon, I’m sure!
If you like going through a true crime novel finding out what the killer did in chronological order, what drove them to do it and some of the more gruesome details of their crimes, then this probably isn’t the novel for you, but if you like something a little more personal and moving I would recommend giving this one a try.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for a review!
As you may have noticed from the other reviews, this book is not a retelling of a serial killer's crimes, how he did them, how he got away for so long, and eventually, how he got caught. This is much more about a (platonic) relationship between journalist and killer.
Rowe is a journalist who becomes obsessed with Kendall, a convicted convicted serial killer of eight women, and at times, reading about this deep fascination gets a little uncomfortable. Openly admitting that she feels a sense of importance and flattery at having so much on Kendall’s attention seems pretty disgusting, but she then admits that she now knows these feelings were inappropriate and has come to realise that her obsession got the better of her.
I have to agree with other reviews, that this book is a little all over the place. Rowe’s writing is absolutely gorgeously put all the way through, it’s really poetic, it’s just that the structure is a bit off. Topics skip all over the place and it can sometimes be hard to grasp how one thing connects to the next.
In the end, I actually really enjoyed this novel even though it wasn’t a classic true crime kinda novel. It was interesting seeing the correspondence between the two of them and getting the feel for how someone like Kendall works in a different way to us. I’m not really interested to read all about the Attica riots, so that will be a new addition to my bookshelf soon, I’m sure!
If you like going through a true crime novel finding out what the killer did in chronological order, what drove them to do it and some of the more gruesome details of their crimes, then this probably isn’t the novel for you, but if you like something a little more personal and moving I would recommend giving this one a try.
Thanks to the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for a review!
August 17, 2019
Kendall Francois was an American serial killer who raped and strangled 8 women; he stored them in stacks in his parents attic for over 2 years before being arrested for the crimes… His crimes are extremely heinous and as morbid as this sounds, they make for a great true crime book.
Sadly this is not the story that The Spider & the Fly tells, yes you get to hear tidbits of what happened with the murders, his arrest and prison sentence but essentially this book is a story about a reporter obsessed with a psychopath and the friendship she strikes up with him. Claudia Rowe may try and say that she was fascinated by him for professional reasons but the way I read it was as a woman obsessed with a serial killer, just because she is an educated woman and has written a book about it doesn’t mean she’s any better than those crazy women you would see on Sally-Jesse Raphael or Ricki Lake in the 90s.
I have a big problem with the current trend of true-crime books, in particular American true-crime, not actually being true-crime books but actually being quasi memoirs of the author. If they want to write a memoir just do that, don’t try and combine their story with true crime, this book and another recent book called The Fact of a Body have done this and I’m really not a fan. Especially this one as the authors story is really not worth telling, privileged white woman who has had a pretty darn good life, yeah I’m sorry but that to me doesn’t go well the murder of 8 women by an African American man.
It’s not all bad, there are some rather tense chapters, one in particular sent a shiver down my spine, Rowe goes to prison to visit Francois and the entire interaction had me on edge, and then at the end he asks for a hug, chilling stuff. It’s also rather well written, however all the great writing in the world can’t save this book from being the boring waste of time that it is.
Definitely an opportunity lost big time.
Sadly this is not the story that The Spider & the Fly tells, yes you get to hear tidbits of what happened with the murders, his arrest and prison sentence but essentially this book is a story about a reporter obsessed with a psychopath and the friendship she strikes up with him. Claudia Rowe may try and say that she was fascinated by him for professional reasons but the way I read it was as a woman obsessed with a serial killer, just because she is an educated woman and has written a book about it doesn’t mean she’s any better than those crazy women you would see on Sally-Jesse Raphael or Ricki Lake in the 90s.
I have a big problem with the current trend of true-crime books, in particular American true-crime, not actually being true-crime books but actually being quasi memoirs of the author. If they want to write a memoir just do that, don’t try and combine their story with true crime, this book and another recent book called The Fact of a Body have done this and I’m really not a fan. Especially this one as the authors story is really not worth telling, privileged white woman who has had a pretty darn good life, yeah I’m sorry but that to me doesn’t go well the murder of 8 women by an African American man.
It’s not all bad, there are some rather tense chapters, one in particular sent a shiver down my spine, Rowe goes to prison to visit Francois and the entire interaction had me on edge, and then at the end he asks for a hug, chilling stuff. It’s also rather well written, however all the great writing in the world can’t save this book from being the boring waste of time that it is.
Definitely an opportunity lost big time.
June 14, 2019
RATING: 1.5 STARS
2017; Dey Street Books/HarperCollins
(Review Not on Blog)
I really really wanted to like this one! The cover, the synopsis, and the title all led me to think this was going to be a good one. There was no spider and fly, no suspense/tension, no intrigue and no meaning of murder...only part that was true was the serial killer. This book seemed to be all over the place. The first bit sets you up thinking it's going to be a true crime suspense but then it just turns flat. The communication between the two does not reveal anything new about the case or Francois. They don't really have a bond of any kind just two random people communicating - both out of boredom. It does not really motivate a true crime reader to continue. So then I decided to read it like a memoir as Rowe talks a lot about her and her boyfriend...but once he goes the small amount tension goes with him (oops was that spoiler that he leaves this very situation). Again, there is no motivation to read as we do not learn anything new about Rowe, nor does she change. My question after all this is...what is the meaning of this book, never mind murder. Sorry, I had to rant a bit as I held all that in while I read the book...I finished it (huge pat on the back).
***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***
2017; Dey Street Books/HarperCollins
(Review Not on Blog)
I really really wanted to like this one! The cover, the synopsis, and the title all led me to think this was going to be a good one. There was no spider and fly, no suspense/tension, no intrigue and no meaning of murder...only part that was true was the serial killer. This book seemed to be all over the place. The first bit sets you up thinking it's going to be a true crime suspense but then it just turns flat. The communication between the two does not reveal anything new about the case or Francois. They don't really have a bond of any kind just two random people communicating - both out of boredom. It does not really motivate a true crime reader to continue. So then I decided to read it like a memoir as Rowe talks a lot about her and her boyfriend...but once he goes the small amount tension goes with him (oops was that spoiler that he leaves this very situation). Again, there is no motivation to read as we do not learn anything new about Rowe, nor does she change. My question after all this is...what is the meaning of this book, never mind murder. Sorry, I had to rant a bit as I held all that in while I read the book...I finished it (huge pat on the back).
***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***
November 1, 2020
I love true crime and had just finished “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” by Michelle McNamara, before starting this one. It’s hard not to compare books and authors, but it happens. I loved that both of these books were written by females. Serial Killers, is a scary subject, especially when most serial killers’ victim’s are women. There is a strength gleaned from facing a fear like that. I respect them for their defiance of gender norms and jumping into this “mans world” of death and decay. However, because of the comparison of a really well written true crime to this...”Spider and the Fly” self neurosis breakdown, I’m rating this book 2.5 stars
Claudia Rowe grew up with self-loathing. Never thought she was good enough, but trudged through her life with a determination to prove herself. I joked that the title of this book should have been: Serial killer psychotherapist: one women’s journey to understanding her past.
There are many examples from this book where Claudia talks about how Kendall and her were similar in some degrees. And how because of Kendall, Claudia was about to seek what she truly wanted...a family and a home.
What’s annoying is the attempt to hook readers into a story called Spider and the Fly: A reporter, a Serial Killer and the Meaning of Murder. Spider and the Fly suggests that Kendall is the spider, but that is actually Claudia herself. Kendall and us the readers, are the fly trapped in her whining web of whoa is me upbringing. It’s embarrassing to compare yourself to a murderer. She thought, well they both had loveless childhoods. His upbringing of immense neglect and poverty is not the same as her need for attention. There’s neglect and then there’s being ignored.
A reporter is 70% of the book. We learn all about Claudia. As mean as it sounds, I don’t care. If i wanted to read a memoir of a women who corresponds with a murderer over six years, I would have sought out that book. The Serial Killer aspect takes up 25% of the book. We learn that Kendall Francois is just like all serial killers...good at hiding in plain sight and a great manipulator, but nothing really of what makes him tick. The last part of the title, the meaning of murder made up maybe 5%. Kendall really took no responsibility for his actions as if he was just a vehicle for someone else.
I was very disappointed in this book. Its like McNamara was the zenith of true crime written by women and Rowe is the nadir, the lowest point because it was too heavily saturated with her own miseries.
She writes well enough, I give her credit for that. If she just stuck to fiction, I think she’d do great. Overall the book was lackluster and slightly boring.
Claudia Rowe grew up with self-loathing. Never thought she was good enough, but trudged through her life with a determination to prove herself. I joked that the title of this book should have been: Serial killer psychotherapist: one women’s journey to understanding her past.
There are many examples from this book where Claudia talks about how Kendall and her were similar in some degrees. And how because of Kendall, Claudia was about to seek what she truly wanted...a family and a home.
What’s annoying is the attempt to hook readers into a story called Spider and the Fly: A reporter, a Serial Killer and the Meaning of Murder. Spider and the Fly suggests that Kendall is the spider, but that is actually Claudia herself. Kendall and us the readers, are the fly trapped in her whining web of whoa is me upbringing. It’s embarrassing to compare yourself to a murderer. She thought, well they both had loveless childhoods. His upbringing of immense neglect and poverty is not the same as her need for attention. There’s neglect and then there’s being ignored.
A reporter is 70% of the book. We learn all about Claudia. As mean as it sounds, I don’t care. If i wanted to read a memoir of a women who corresponds with a murderer over six years, I would have sought out that book. The Serial Killer aspect takes up 25% of the book. We learn that Kendall Francois is just like all serial killers...good at hiding in plain sight and a great manipulator, but nothing really of what makes him tick. The last part of the title, the meaning of murder made up maybe 5%. Kendall really took no responsibility for his actions as if he was just a vehicle for someone else.
I was very disappointed in this book. Its like McNamara was the zenith of true crime written by women and Rowe is the nadir, the lowest point because it was too heavily saturated with her own miseries.
She writes well enough, I give her credit for that. If she just stuck to fiction, I think she’d do great. Overall the book was lackluster and slightly boring.
July 1, 2017
If you're going to spend a fair chunk of your time corresponding with a serial killer, you'd expect a great tale to be the end result of it.
The Spider and The Fly wants you to compare the tale of Claudia and Kendall to Lector and Clarice - a symbiotic relationship where the serial killer allows the naïve young woman to uncover the truth about themselves. However Claudia is no Clarice, and Kendall is a killer who was convenient to Claudia's tale and got stuck on the ride with her.
There is little structure to the way the correspondence is unveiled. Sometimes it moves the narration forward, but more often than not it's sprinkled in between tales of Claudia's own stories and that horrific scene between her and her mother (where said mother yells that 9 year old Claudia is a narcissist) begins to ring sadly true. Why do we care about her journey to self discovery? Readers are here as lovers of true crime, and we want those questions answered, not how privileged she was growing up.
So fear not, serial killer lovers. There's still a wonderful opportunity for the right writer to strike up correspondence with the right serial killer and provide depth and insight into the darker side of human psychology. This book wasn't it.
The Spider and The Fly wants you to compare the tale of Claudia and Kendall to Lector and Clarice - a symbiotic relationship where the serial killer allows the naïve young woman to uncover the truth about themselves. However Claudia is no Clarice, and Kendall is a killer who was convenient to Claudia's tale and got stuck on the ride with her.
There is little structure to the way the correspondence is unveiled. Sometimes it moves the narration forward, but more often than not it's sprinkled in between tales of Claudia's own stories and that horrific scene between her and her mother (where said mother yells that 9 year old Claudia is a narcissist) begins to ring sadly true. Why do we care about her journey to self discovery? Readers are here as lovers of true crime, and we want those questions answered, not how privileged she was growing up.
So fear not, serial killer lovers. There's still a wonderful opportunity for the right writer to strike up correspondence with the right serial killer and provide depth and insight into the darker side of human psychology. This book wasn't it.
July 9, 2018
man this is everything i hate about true crime where its whole premise is designed to ruminate over the complexities of a misogynistic murderer while also painting all of his victims as stupid wh*res who got what they deserved.... fuck this lmfao. every time shes SHOCKED that one of his victims isnt poor white trash but from a life of privilege much like her own is hilarious. also this isnt her fault but i love how the poughkeepsie police force had a known serial sex offender who repeatedly assaulted sex workers and they couldnt piece two and two together... just like shrug thats normal totally fine nothing we can do about it! all of the derision in their quotes when talking about violence against sex workers is sickening. this is a bad book
February 24, 2017
"They know how they're living is crazy. But they all had their secrets. There was something really bad going on in that family, and everyone was in on it. There's more bodies buries, so to speak, than just the bodies."
Is it bad that I didn't realize this was nonfiction until I finished the whole freaking book? Probably. Hey, it's not my fault I haven't heard of Kendall Francois from the little town of Poughkeepsie, New York! I guarantee most people haven't...maybe. I honestly thought it was just very realistic fiction until I got to the author's note at the end. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
If you're like me and don't know, Kendall Francois is a serial killer. He targets prostitutes and kills them after having sex with them. By the time he is caught, he has eight women stacked in his attic, unbeknownst to his parents who he still lives with. Claudia Rowe, a journalist who resides in Poughkeepsie, wonders what could possess a man to want to kill eight innocent women, and then turn himself in. She begins to correspond with him through letters, phone calls, and even meets in in jail.
This book isn't the easiest to get into. When I started, I felt very disconnected from the characters and plot. I trudged through thirty pages, hoping that it would get better. It eventually began to interest me more, but there was always this feeling of disconnect, which might have been because the story jumped a lot. It would go from past to present without really addressing when and where the portion was occurring.
However, once you get to the interesting bulk of the story (the interviews between Claudia and Kendall) the book is easy to fly through. I found myself admiring how the book examines a variety of topics such as race, psychology, and human nature. There were a few really well executed passages and points that made me think, which is one of the best things a book can do. Learning about Kendall's past was definitely a strong part of Rose's examination. I wish the same would have been done with the family, because I honestly have no idea why his mother and father were always so sketchy.
The main problem I have is this: I don't feel like anything was really solved or concluded through the writing of this book. It's still not completely known why Kendall did what he did. The book is mainly this very thin line that Claudia walks while interviewing him and their strange infatuation with one another. I feel like if someone was a Kendall Francois enthusiast and studied him, this book wouldn't really add anything to their knowledge. I understand that's not entirely Claudia's fault. Kendall wouldn't talk about a lot of things. However, I still feel in the dark about his family and his motives.
I did enjoy learning about the case of Kendall Francois, especially told from the POV of someone who had sat (literally) knee to knee with him at Attica Jail. There were some things I couldn't look past though, so I'm giving it a solid three stars because it does have potential. I wouldn't recommend someone against reading this. It will definitely inform you about a town filled with tragedy, ponder the motives of a serial killer (and make you fear for Claudia's life).
February 8, 2019
If you are looking for a page turner, then this is definitely it. Rowe crosses a lot of boundaries here, and not just by combining true crime with memoir. Both are told compellingly. It’s the personal boundaries she is willing to cross that bother me quite a bit. She sort of knows she is using Kendall Francois for personal gain, and tries to justify this in various ways. She spares no one, not her mother, nor her ex-boyfriend, and you can feel the fury blasting off the page when she talks about them. She admits that she herself is drawn to violence, and questions whether this is the origin of her obsession with a serial killer.
She certainly shares some traits with him. There is the manipulation of the cat and mouse game they play with each other, the willingness to cross boundaries in order to get what you want and a shared belief that they were both more special and often misunderstood by others. There is high risk behaviour in response to emotional triggers. They have quite a bit in common, which allows them to sustain an uneasy relationship for years. Then after feigning friendship for achievement of personal goal, comes the big disappearance act. When folks who have NDP (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) do this it’s called a discard. Now I’m not saying Rowe is a narcissist, because I’m not a psychiatrist, but neither is Rowe, which is why it’s so irritating that she describes the checklist for NPD but then calls it Borderline. Borderline Personality Disorder is very different from NPD. People with Borderline Personality Disorder suffer from mood dis-regulation and impulsivity, but their capacity for empathy is NOT impaired the way it is in NPD. As a psychiatrist once said to me, “Not every narcissist is a sociopath, but every sociopath is a narcissist.” I’m not a doctor, but I am a psych nurse. Oh, and Borderline is the only personality disorder that can be cured with treatment. What Kendall Francois had can’t be.
The ending came quickly and did not make sense. All those years of nothing and then a death bed letter? I don’t know, I’m not buying that. It doesn’t pass my BS meter.
I think I feel very similar to the way I did after reading “True Story” by Michael Finkel. I learned some horrible things about Kendall Francois and racism and misogyny in America. But I also learned about Claudia Rowe, and I’m not sure I wanted to.
She certainly shares some traits with him. There is the manipulation of the cat and mouse game they play with each other, the willingness to cross boundaries in order to get what you want and a shared belief that they were both more special and often misunderstood by others. There is high risk behaviour in response to emotional triggers. They have quite a bit in common, which allows them to sustain an uneasy relationship for years. Then after feigning friendship for achievement of personal goal, comes the big disappearance act. When folks who have NDP (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) do this it’s called a discard. Now I’m not saying Rowe is a narcissist, because I’m not a psychiatrist, but neither is Rowe, which is why it’s so irritating that she describes the checklist for NPD but then calls it Borderline. Borderline Personality Disorder is very different from NPD. People with Borderline Personality Disorder suffer from mood dis-regulation and impulsivity, but their capacity for empathy is NOT impaired the way it is in NPD. As a psychiatrist once said to me, “Not every narcissist is a sociopath, but every sociopath is a narcissist.” I’m not a doctor, but I am a psych nurse. Oh, and Borderline is the only personality disorder that can be cured with treatment. What Kendall Francois had can’t be.
The ending came quickly and did not make sense. All those years of nothing and then a death bed letter? I don’t know, I’m not buying that. It doesn’t pass my BS meter.
I think I feel very similar to the way I did after reading “True Story” by Michael Finkel. I learned some horrible things about Kendall Francois and racism and misogyny in America. But I also learned about Claudia Rowe, and I’m not sure I wanted to.
September 2, 2016
True crime at its best. What happens when the author of a book on a serial killer becomes obsessed with the killer? The question becomes how does the author write objectively about the killer/monster, and that is just what Claudia Rowe has done. True crime is a crazy popular genre, and those who miss author Ann Rule will welcome Claudia Rowe.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book and was not compensated for it.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book and was not compensated for it.
August 28, 2017
I have mixed feelings about this book. While I was completely annoyed by the author's angle and obnoxious narcissism I was still committed to reaching the end. I was glad I did because the author finally came to her senses and it ended up being a really odd story of self discovery. I can understand why some would hate this book.
February 7, 2017
Beautifully written memoir of Rowe's correspondence with the serial killer Kendall Francois. It's a devastating story, but the delicate interweaving of psychological thriller and candid memoir is hard to resist.
April 17, 2017
The subtitle is misleading. There is no answer to the meaning of murder. Most of the book centers on the author and I couldn't care less about her, her marriage, or her jobs.
September 15, 2025
The Spider and the Fly could have been a great book, but it isn’t and I believe the issue of balance, or lack there of, is the problem. Author Claudia Rowe focuses so much on herself, it’s to the detriment of the book itself. The Spider and the Fly chronicles Rowe’s correspondence with convicted serial killer Kendall Francois, but she spends so much of it talking about her own insecurities and her own inner conflict, the stories about the murders and about his victims end up feeling neglected.
The best parts of the book are when Rowe meets with the family members of the victims or when she talk’s about Francois’s past. Rowe opens the former section by remarking Catherine Marsh was her age when she died, which I believe was an attempt by Rowe to show how much she identified with this victim. But the other victims don’t get the same attention as Marsh. They should have. The cynical side of me wondered if the lack of attention to those victims was because Rowe didn’t identify so much with them. In some parts of the book, I read contempt in the way she wrote about sex workers, though she never explicitly says so.
Rowe includes single sentences and the occasional paragraph describing the absolute neglect that occurred in the Francois house, but she never fully investigates it. There was something there, and Rowe almost gets to it when she talks about the superficially of the Francois family appearance: dressing well in public while living in garbage in private, but it’s like we never get to a satisfying moment of analysis.
When Rowe told the stories of the victims or when she got into analyzing Francois’s pathology, the book was excellent. In such a short book, though, there was way too much musing on the author’s own insecurities, upbringing, biases, and lack of direction. It was distracting, and it felt wrong and misguided rather than insightful. This was such a majorly frustrating aspect to a what could have been a great book.
The best parts of the book are when Rowe meets with the family members of the victims or when she talk’s about Francois’s past. Rowe opens the former section by remarking Catherine Marsh was her age when she died, which I believe was an attempt by Rowe to show how much she identified with this victim. But the other victims don’t get the same attention as Marsh. They should have. The cynical side of me wondered if the lack of attention to those victims was because Rowe didn’t identify so much with them. In some parts of the book, I read contempt in the way she wrote about sex workers, though she never explicitly says so.
Rowe includes single sentences and the occasional paragraph describing the absolute neglect that occurred in the Francois house, but she never fully investigates it. There was something there, and Rowe almost gets to it when she talks about the superficially of the Francois family appearance: dressing well in public while living in garbage in private, but it’s like we never get to a satisfying moment of analysis.
When Rowe told the stories of the victims or when she got into analyzing Francois’s pathology, the book was excellent. In such a short book, though, there was way too much musing on the author’s own insecurities, upbringing, biases, and lack of direction. It was distracting, and it felt wrong and misguided rather than insightful. This was such a majorly frustrating aspect to a what could have been a great book.
didnt-finish
June 26, 2025Okay I changed my mind, I’m not going to finish this because I’m going to read Murderland instead. This author and book were fun in a terrible way.
June 9, 2017
I've read true crime books that stray into the world of the author themselves, often detracting from the primary course of the narrative to resemble self centered memoirs rather than the content promised in the blurb. The Spider and the Fly bucks this trend; it's a book about a serial killer AND a journalist whose steady infatuation is as addictive to read as the heinous plight undertaken Kendall Francois.
A killing spree spanning some four years and change in which 8 Poughkeepsie prostitutes were raped and murdered, for reasons withheld by the murderer provide a glimpse into the macabre madness that rots the heart of the books subject matter. The content is confronting, and disturbing to the uninitiated and the uninhabited alike, I suspect. The depiction of the final resting place of Kendall's victims, his family home (which he shared with a his mother and sister) is the stuff nightmares are made of; walls alive with maggots, a stench of actual death, and an uneasy ignorance by inhabitants that's hard to digest. As the book progresses from investigative journalism to something more I kept hoping to find reason, perhaps it's there, perhaps there is no method to the madness - do yourself a favor and read the book to find out.
A killing spree spanning some four years and change in which 8 Poughkeepsie prostitutes were raped and murdered, for reasons withheld by the murderer provide a glimpse into the macabre madness that rots the heart of the books subject matter. The content is confronting, and disturbing to the uninitiated and the uninhabited alike, I suspect. The depiction of the final resting place of Kendall's victims, his family home (which he shared with a his mother and sister) is the stuff nightmares are made of; walls alive with maggots, a stench of actual death, and an uneasy ignorance by inhabitants that's hard to digest. As the book progresses from investigative journalism to something more I kept hoping to find reason, perhaps it's there, perhaps there is no method to the madness - do yourself a favor and read the book to find out.
October 6, 2017
A good, if sometimes unsatisfying read about the reporter who developed a pen-pal relationship with serial killer Kendall Francois. This book told me much more than Fred Rosen's book about the same guy, but I gritted my teeth more than once because the author never simply told us what she saw in the police reports, the crime-scene photos, or even Kendall's letters to her. She made the book rather too much about her, and even said as much by the end -- she couldn't make sense of all the information about him, so she sat on it for 11 years and then just kind of gave up and made the book about her own issues. This was really odd because she seemed to have great insight into the crimes when she applied herself to it.
January 8, 2017
Part memoir, part psychological thriller, Claudia Rowe's brilliant THE SPIDER AND THE FLY gripped me from the first page, and sent me spiralling into a frenzied read that left me turning pages until I literally couldn't keep my eyes open. In my sleep, the story continued to play out in my dreams, and when I woke, I reached for this book before my coffee, desperate to finish. Claudia Rowe is an incredible writer, and her book left me slack-jawed and brimming with writer envy, but also with a deeper understanding of my journalistic (and somewhat obsessive) self. Few memoirs have left such a startling impact on me.
February 6, 2017
I was sent an Advance Reader’s Edition of Claudia Rowe’s THE SPIDER AND THE FLY from HarperCollins. Thank you!
Every time the news reports a story of a serial killer, there is a part of me (and perhaps you) that is intrigued on some level --What makes a human so inhuman?
For Rowe, she acted upon that intrigue, and as a journalist, she craved assembling psychological insight that might reveal the answer. As Rowe delves deeper, a seemingly inevitable moral and emotional burden blurs her focus and forces an examination of her own life. A mesmerizing memoir!
*** Follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/positively_bookish ***
Every time the news reports a story of a serial killer, there is a part of me (and perhaps you) that is intrigued on some level --What makes a human so inhuman?
For Rowe, she acted upon that intrigue, and as a journalist, she craved assembling psychological insight that might reveal the answer. As Rowe delves deeper, a seemingly inevitable moral and emotional burden blurs her focus and forces an examination of her own life. A mesmerizing memoir!
*** Follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/positively_bookish ***
October 17, 2016
Where to start with The Spider And The Fly. Starting the book I was super excited to be reading a true crime book. the spider and the fly is a mixture of true crime and a memoir. Claudia Rowe dives deep into kendall's past and his crimes and becomes obsessed as she starts to identify with him.
She becomes a little too obsessed when her personal life comes crumbling down around her, she looses her house, boyfriend, and jobs.
I would give Claudia Rowe another shot if I were to come across another of her books, but would not keep an eye out for it.
She becomes a little too obsessed when her personal life comes crumbling down around her, she looses her house, boyfriend, and jobs.
I would give Claudia Rowe another shot if I were to come across another of her books, but would not keep an eye out for it.
February 7, 2017
This is phenomenal. Part "In Cold Blood", part "Silence of the Lambs", and part coming-of-age memoir. Claudia Rowe details the correspondence she had with serial killer Kendall Francois, a relationship she started in the hopes of learning his motivations for murdering 8 women. But, along the way, she explores her own motivations for initiating this relationship, and continuing it over the course of years. So, so good.
January 20, 2019
2 1/2 stars. The author drew me into her quest to understand the motives and find humanity in a serial killer in upstate New York. He teases, manipulates and frightens her. She does the same with the reader regarding the personal motives in her journalistic quest. In the end neither the serial killer nor the author own up to their motives and internal gyrations, leaving the reader in the dark. Not a satisfying read.
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