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BITTER HARVEST: A WOMAN'S FURY A MOTHERS SACRIFICE : "A Woman's Fury, a Mother's Sacrifice"
by Ann Rule
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Audioworks (1998-02-01)
ISBN: 0671577522
EAN: 9780671577520
Dewey Decimal #: 364.15230973
Binding/Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Abridged
SKU: BA09080119a
Condition: New
Comments: Exactly as shown, New, unopened in original shrinkwrap.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
On the night of October 23/24, 1995 in Prairie Village, Kansas, a fierce, wind-driven fire devastated the luxurious mansion of Dr. Debora Green and her husband, Dr. Michael Farrar. Trapped and burned to death in the flames were twelve-year-old Tim and his six-year-old sister Kelly. Lissa, ten, was barely able to leap to safety from the garage roof into the arms of her mother, who was standing outside the house. When Michael Farrar returned to the scene, he had lost more than his children and his home. His entire life was in ruins. The fire was the climactic event of Michael and Debora's lives. Until that summer, they seemed to have it all -- a happy marriage, successful medical practices, three bright and beautiful children. Then they went on a trip to Peru with their son. There, they met attractive, blonde Celeste Walker, whose husband, John was also a successful doctor. But after that trip, nothing was the same again for either couple, and all the dark hidden places in Debora and Michael's marriage bubbled to the surface in a series of almost unbelievable horrors. Bitter Harvest is the chronicle of this tragedy in the heartland of America, the true story of the disintegration of a marriage and its horrifying consequences. Rule takes us deep in the psyche of a killer whose behavior was so twisted and so evil that it defies belief. Gripping, powerful, and ultimately terrifying, Bitter Harvest is a vivid recreation of an unthinkable crime -- and a depiction of the unimagined depths of a darkness within the human spirit. Copyright © 1998 Ann Rule. All Rights Reserved
Performance copyright 1998 by Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Amazon.com Review
Fans of Ann Rule will find much to relish in Bitter Harvest, the tale of a brilliant Kansas physician who holds herself together well enough to put on a decent show for the outside world, but in the heart of her horror-struck family is a violent and baffling monster. She drinks, abuses drugs, spews invective, and even lights fires. At one point she learns from an Agatha Christie novel about a potent toxin contained in castor beans, and she starts poisoning her long-suffering husband. Yet until the final fire that consumes two of her children, they continue to love her and defend her to attackers. Rule tells the story with flair, conveying all of the heady feelings involved, but still the book has a flaw: Rule fails to understand the main character. When a psychiatrist testifies that the doctor is at a younger age than a toddler in her ability to process or sustain emotions, Rule writes, "That was a shocker. Could a woman with an IQ of 165 and a biting, facetious wit, a woman who had zipped through college and medical school, be a child emotionally?"Yes, she could. Bitter Harvest would've been a stronger book if Rule had shown us how.
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Customer Reviews
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Excellent, well-written book
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-11-03
Ann Rule did an excellent job with this story. She accurately recounts the facts of the true crime while managing to make interesting and entertaining. Unfortunately, the crime itself is extremely sad as it concerncs familial homicide but it makes for a good read that you don't want to put down. Lots of little details are included so you know she did her homework on this one.
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It was Great, Page Turner!!!
Rating (5)
Date: 2009-10-02
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
It was GREAT!! Couldn't put it down from the first page. It as about a fire and a crazy mother who was a doctor.
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Entertaining first half, boring second half
Rating  (3)
Date: 2009-01-20
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Most of the second half of this is a very boring recitation of the pretrial hearings and trial of the mother accused of torching her house and killing two of her kids. It's very dull. The first half, however, is a pretty interesting look at the buildup to the crime, involving two wealthy doctors and their dysfunctional marriage. Deborah Green was obviously mentally ill, but she didn't get the correct treatment. The end was tragic. This isn't one of Ann Rule's better efforts, but it's still worth reading.
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A MOTHER'S BETRAYAL
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-10
I have to say that I was more interested in this book than usual because it happened here where I live. So I was familiar with some of the details involved that lead up to the tragedy that builds throughout the book.
To be sure, there are multiple victims in the book. The first victim appears to be Deborah Greene's own husband, Dr. Mike Farrar who by all accounts had a glimpse of what hell must be like. Both he and his wife were doctor's in the Metropolitan Area of Kansas City and lived in Prairie Village, Kansas in an affluent neighborhood of mostly peaceful homes. They had moved there after a fire destroyed their previous home. The couple had separated but after the fire in their first home it appears he was motivated to move back to be with his wife and children once again, a grave mistake on his part, but also an indicator of the kind of man he was. He loved his children deeply and he apparently tried to love his wife as well.
At any rate, after moving back home again it did not take too long for their family life to deteriorate once again, propelled forward by Deborah's apparent insecurity, jealousy and delusions. If Mike Farrar had been able to see into the future and recognize the consequences of his well-meaning actions he surely would never have returned.
It seems that he became VIOLENTLY ill and that for quite some time the cause of his illness escaped the physicians who treated him. He wife Deborah witnessed his illness and one has to wonder if she felt pity for him or only vengeance. I think it must have been vengeance because he had come so close to death yet miraculously managed to pull through and had barely been returned to his home to continue his recovery when he again became ill even before he had a chance to appreciate and enjoy his return home. Unsure exactly what is going on that causes such illness it is shocking to discover that the reason for his illness (which included extreme bouts of dysentery and vomiting) is that he was being poisoned with Ricin, a substance that comes from the castor bean seeds his wife acquired at a garden center in a neighboring suburb. It is amazing where the final proof comes from as to her possession and acquisition of the toxic substance comes from.
I know from seeing interviews with Dr. Mike Farrar that, at least according to him, he will have to live with the effects of his poisoning for the rest of his life and can never be sure that he will not be stricken again with its toxic side-effects. one cannot help but be sympathetic for him, and again wonder how anyone could watch him be so ill, someone who purportedly loved him, knowing all the while that it was she who caused him such devastation. He had to have several brain surgeries to try to alleviate some of the damage and he has no guarantees that he will not need it again in the future. If one wanted to torture their spouse then Deborah Greene did an excellent job.
The reader is left spell-bound, waiting for the time when his treating physicians will be able to connect the dots that point to his assailant. But it is in time to save all but one of his children from falling victim to the second part of his wife's madness.
One cannot help but feel sad for the victims. If I was supposed to feel sorry for Deborah Greene I failed miserably. I would have found at difficult at best to feel sympathy but when I heard on the local news that years after her conviction she is attempting to renege on her confession and save herself from a life behind bars forever.
It must have been hard for Dr. Farrar to explain to his remaining daughter the scope of the sad events. One's mind rails against believing that a mother could be responsible for so much sadness.
Through fortuitous events Deborah was discovered and an end put to her reign of terror but not before he a holocaust on a personal level envelopes her children and her husband.
The reader will be mesermerized by the complexity a of the evidence and thankful that it comes out but as always, sad that the victims won't be there to witness their tormentor losing all that she has had to become a nothing behind bars. Children have a remarkable ability to love and forgive, I wonder if they could have, the two who perished. And I wonder how the surviving daughter feels now but of course that is a private matter that perhaps will never be answered.
Anne Rule does an excellent job describing the sometimes baffling and confusing tale and madness. She has no lost her touch on this book and her followers will not be disappointed. She did an excellent job getting "inside" the story and inside the head of a madwoman who her wealth and privilege and family for nothing.
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Non Stop Reading
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-04-07
I have every book written by Ann but unfortunately she can write them faster than I can read. I work a lot and have to fit reading in 10 minutes here or a whole hour there, so it usually takes me a couple of months to get a book read. I took Bitter Harvest on a cruise and could not put it down! The story is so sad, to think that a Mother could kill her own children to hold on to their Father in a failing marriage. Honey, when he doesn't love you, he doesn't love you, you can't make him through the children. This woman had so much intelligence and yet no common sense. Like I said the whole time I was on the cruise I didn't want to do anything but read--how can that be?? I loved my cruise but the book was one of Ann's best. All the time and research that is put into each and every book is evident!!
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