Caroline Fraser's 'Murderland'
Caroline Fraser talks about her new book Murderland, which takes an ecological lens to serial killers, and finds a connection between PNW plants and killers like Ted Bundy
By LARB Radio HourJanuary 16, 2026
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Kate Wolf and Eric Newman speak with Caroline Fraser about her new book, Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers. Taking an ecological approach to true crime, the book explores how decades of industrial pollution from large smelting plants in the Pacific Northwest may have shaped the social and environmental conditions that coincided with an unusually high number of serial killers in the region during the 1970s and 1980s, including Ted Bundy, Randall Woodfield, and others.
Fraser discusses how she came to draw connections between environmental contamination and these terrifying killers, while also considering the wider human costs of unchecked corporate power and deregulation on vulnerable communities.
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LARB Contributor
The LARB Radio Hour is hosted by Eric Newman, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf.
Did you know LARB is a reader-supported nonprofit?
LARB publishes daily without a paywall as part of our mission to make rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts freely accessible to the public. Help us continue this work with your tax-deductible donation today!