Rancho Mirage: An American Tragedy of Manners, Madness and Murder

by Aram Saroyan

This is one of the strangest true-crime stories ever a story of murder, reported rape, abduction and multiple personalities. It contains all of the ingredients of a chilling page-turner. Saroyan writes nonfiction as compelling as a great novel. Readers won't stop until the last page.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Aram Saroyan is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright. There has been a resurgence of interest in his work in the 21st century, evidenced by the publication in 2007 of several previous collections reissued together as Complete Minimal Poems. He is the son of author William Saroyan and actress Carol Grace, and the father of Strawberry Saroyan.

Reviews

[Bill reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wealthy sixty eight year-old man in a wheelchair marries a thirty eight year-old call girl and requests that she pick up strangers and have sex with them for $100. What planet am I living on? Robert Sand is dispatched with multiple stab wounds, and, surprise, surprise, his hooker wife is the lead suspect; duh! It only gets stranger as Andrea reports being gang raped by Mexicans on several occasions. After the seventh reported “assault” the woman becomes further unhinged. She marries a born again Christian twenty years her senior and he experiences some extremely troubling behavior from his wayward new bride. Two shrinks determine that the grieving widow is incompetent to stand trial. The third head doc testifies that she is a narcissistic sado-masochist and master manipulator. Robert Sand was a client of a call girl agency. The madam of the agency informed Andrea of the opportunity of a hook up with Bob. Surprise, surprise; just another lonely old man being seduced by a young gold digger. The poor old horny schmuck ended up in a pool of blood next to his wheelchair. The trial is entertaining as hell and Saroyan has an ironic and sarcastic writing style and I appreciate his dry wit. The testimony is quite graphic with elements of S & M and golden showers. Rancho Mirage is not a book for the easily offended reader but I highly recommend it to my fellow true crime fans.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aram Saroyan is an excellent author. I picked this book because I enjoyed some of his other books. This is the story of a beautiful young woman who married an older man and murdered him. This book clearly and meticulously outlines the murder and subsequent odd behavior (rapes with knives left in the rectum the most notable) of the widow, Mrs. Sand.

Leading up to the murder there are a lot of salacious details about the sexual antics between Mr. and Mrs. Sand. There is much dark humor in Andrea Sand's interactions with the police detectives.

Eventually I became exhausted by Mrs. Sand's hysterics. It became hard to continue reading but I finished it. I'm glad I did because I was forced to contemplate what constitutes criminal insanity in a first degree murder case.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because a friend of mine, a detective, is mentioned in it. The story itself is interesting, although both of the principals are basically crazy, but the writing is not up to par. I read another book by Saroyan years ago and remember it as being well-written; what happened here? Much of the latter part of the book is basically court transcription, which is fine as far as conveying facts but doesn't demonstrate anyone's writing talents.

[TMMendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read on the issue of sanity in a horrific murder

Interesting read on the issue of sanity in a horrific murder. Following the course from suspect to convicted is hard to put down.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pity poor put-upon prostitute Andrea, seeking solace, security, social standing, and swank digs. Solution? Marrying a "regular": rich, respectable Bob Sand. But respectable Bob has his...intricacies. Much to the chagrin of Andrea (erstwhile many-aliased bit player and call girl), Bob (wheelchair-bound masochist, thirty years her senior) merely figured out that sometimes it's cheaper to buy than rent. Instead of genteel teas and country club dinners, Bob prefers to spank Andrea silly, and continue their former professional relationship. Enough to drive a girl nuts.
But not all crazy people are interesting, or we never know if they are because so little background is presented. With writing as stiff as Bob's corpse by the time the Indio police arrive, the real "tragedy" here is that author Saroyan did not inherit the talent gene.

[Rain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most true crime, this reads pretty fast. In fact, I read it in a day. There is just so much crazy in the beginning that by the time it gets to the end, and the court case, it becomes redundant and kind of dull.

Also, a quick Internet search reveals that the crazy hasn't stopped!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book...

[Charlene Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Read this in 2008.