Rope: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Harvey Glatman

Rope is the story of Harvey Glatman, a shy young man with few social skills, who raped and strangled women in California in the 1950s. It is a meticulous account of Glatman's life, from the paraphilia of his youth to the depravity of his adulthood. Michael Newton's telling of Glatman's story shows as much fastidiousness as the killer did in committing his crimes, with every detail painstakingly recounted: from what Glatman wore to what he ate to where he parked his car on the days of his crimes. The book also contains many disturbing posed photographs that Glatman, an amateur shutterbug, took of his bound victims before raping and murdering them. --Lisa Higgins