Fatal Photographs

by Jack R. Nerad

Photograher Charles Edgar Rathbun was trying to crack the big time, and so was Linda Sobek, a former Los Angeles Raiders cheerleader turned model. An assignment for Autoweek took them to an isolated location called El Mirage dry lake. At first, it was the shoot of a lifetime. But, when it was over, Linda would be dead. In his unsettling account, Nerad details the stow of an exquisite woman and her collision course with the man who killed her. The book dramatically traces the last hours of Linda's life and the subsequent investigation. From the search for her body to the search for the truth, this is a journey into the psyche of a man who some called a troubled soul, and others a cunning sexual predator.

Genres: True Crime

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

Reviews

[Susan Liston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this while moving and re-read it, as I had forgotten the particulars. This crime was local for me, so it got a huge amount of coverage here at the time. Sad story for sure, and it isn't that the book is terrible, it's well researched. It just does what I hate, which is recreate dialogue and someone's thoughts that can't be known. That always bugs me, and there is something particularly tawdry when it's a murder victim being portrayed thusly.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A photographer, Charles Rathbun, takes a model to a desert photo shoot. She never returns. He is a strange guy. The story was interesting, but not really out of the ordinary. The courtroom scene is repetitive, but thankfully, short.

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this 2 days ago because I thought my kindle had died on me so I grabbed the first physical book near me. The next day I learned that if I hold the on button on my kindle for 20 seconds it would be born back to life so I could go back to reading on my kindle, but this book had grabbed me so I decided to keep on reading.

This brings me to a question I have. Do any of my true crime friends know if there is another book about the death of Linda Sobek? I ask because if not it means I have read this book but at least a decade ago.
I like the writing a lot but to be honest I know this author must have made up a lot cause he is presenting us with a lot of dialogue between Linda and the photographer that happened while driving to the place where she would pose.
It makes for a better read but to be honest if i want to read fake I will read a fictional account. The thing though is that he is very good at it and it sounds very plausible so I do not mind when Mister Nerad does it.
Have read half of it and so far it is a 5 star book.

Update: Finished this book yesterday. At the end of the book we still did not really know what happened but to my surprise the author took even more liberty by also writing what happened when he forced sex on her, what was said just before she died. To me that was a bit much.
It appears we will never know.

4.5 stars.

[Eileen Granfors · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good look at a sad story