Deadly Secrets: From High School to High Crime--the True Story of Two Teen Killers

by Putsata Reang

Inseparable friends and outcasts in their affluent suburban home town of Bellevue, Washington, teenage high school dropouts David Anderson and Alex Baranyi were going nowhere fast – and soon they would be convicted of a terrible crime. After they lured former schoolmate Kim Wilson to a local park where she was beaten and strangled to death, they went to the victim's home and slaughtered her mother, father, and younger sister. Newspaper reporter Putsata Reang covered the crime, the investigation, the trial, and it's aftermath. And now she masterfully illuminates some of the darkest corners where a shockingly increasing number of America's youth hides it's rage, pain, and a madness that can explode at any time, in Bellevue, at Columbine, or anywhere across the nation.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Putsata Reang is an author and a journalist whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, Politico, The Guardian, Ms, and The Seattle Times, among other publications.

Putsata was born in Cambodia, and raised in rural Oregon, surrounded by berry farms where she and her family hustled to earn their middle class existence. Her memoir Ma and Me explores the glades of displacement felt by children of refugees, and the overlay of emotional exile that comes with being gay.

Putsata has lived and worked in more than a dozen countries, including Cambodia, Afghanistan and Thailand. She is an alum of Hedgebrook, Mineral School, and Kimmel Harding Nelson residencies. She is a 2019 Jack Straw fellow. In 2005, she received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship that took her back to Cambodia to report on landless farmers. She currently teaches memoir writing at the University of Washington School of Professional & Continuing Education.

Reviews

[♥ Marlene♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darn. I see this is another one I did not register here. Alas I did not write a review back then but I do recall I very much liked it and I see that on bookcrossing I gave it 8 out of 10 and I wrote : I thought it was a very good book a very interesting read"

Might re read because it has been about 10 years or more since I've read this book.

There is a list on Goodreads which I very much like which is called Kids that Kill.
My favorite subjects in the true crime genre are serial killers, moms that kill or hrt their children and kids that kill. Especially teens that kill teens so I love to have people add more books to that list so I can get recommendations.


This is the list
Kids that Kill List

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was OK, but nothing special. It could have been a really compelling read if the author had had any access to any of the principal characters in the case; instead she had to fall back on ye olde Video Game Theory of why teenagers turn violent. The writing was pretty clumsy considering that this was written by a professional journalist; the prepositions were pretty random, the author uses "could care less" when she meands "couldn't care less" and she really, really needs to look up the word "ironic." She didn't use it appropriately even once.

[Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy true crime however, I felt like the most interesting and climactic parts were rushed through and crammed into the last 1/5 of the book. Many times there were editors mistakes that were irritating and stuck with me as I read. (Eg-repeated lengthly facts or overuse/repeat use of an embellishment word within only several pages rather than spread over say, chapters. I’m nitpicking but a newspaper journalist wrote it and it’s obvious.

[Ila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing... like watching a REAL law & order episode for several hours, without the relief of knowing it was "just TV..." My amazing journalist friend wrote this after work as a beat-journalist when she was only 20 years old or so. I'm surprised by how many people have forgotten about this murder case where 2 high school boys murdered a family of four...

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.......scary.....