New York Times. bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored eight books, both fiction and non-fiction. A Pulitzer-nominated investigative journalist, Rother worked nearly 20 years for daily newspapers, and has made scores of TV and radio appearances as a crime expert. She speaks to professional groups, works as an editorial consultant/book doctor, and teaches narrative non-fiction, journalism, and creative writing at UCSD Extension in San Diego, where she lives. She draws from her years of experience reporting on a wide range of topics -- from addiction, suicide, mental illness and murder to politics and corruption at City Hall and in Congress.
LOST GIRLS, her newest release, chronicles the story behind the rape and murder of San Diego area teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois by sexual predator JohnGardner. According to the Los Angeles Times ., "LOST GIRLS, by veteran journalist and true-crime writer Caitlin Rother is a deeply reported, dispassionately written attempt to determine what created that monster and predator. It is a cautionary tale and a horror story, done superbly by a writer who knows how to burrow into a complex case without becoming captive to her sources."
Also new are the updated edition of the true crime thriller POISONED LOVE, about the Kristin Rossum case, and the paperback version of MY LIFE, DELETED.
Rother is now working on the authoritative, behind-the-scenes story about the murder of Newport Beach entrepreneur Bill McLaughlin, the victim of a love triangle involving his fiancee, femme fatale Nanette Johnston Packard McNeal, and her lover, former NFL linebacker Eric Naposki. It is tentatively titled, I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU.
LOST GIRLS was voted #4 in True Crime Zine's Top 10 True Crime Books of 2012. Two of her books -- DEAD RECKONING and DEADLY DEVOTION, the latter of which she co-authored with Alysia Sofios -- were ranked in the Top 10 in 2011.
Rother On YouTube
I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU
"Looking for an older man, 30+, who knows how to treat a woman. You take care of
me and I'll take care of you."
-- Nanette Johnston's personal ad in Singles magazine
I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU: Femme fatale Nanette Packard had a knack for seducing, manipulating and
victimizing a string of husbands and lovers, often simultaneously. A habitual
liar, cheat and thief, this Supermom con artist was married three times, had
four children, and had spent millions by the time she and her lover, NFL
linebacker Eric Naposki, went to trial for conspiring to murder Bill McLaughlin,
her older entrepreneur fiance. Like an episode of "The Real Housewives of Orange
County Gone Bad," this high-profile fatal love triangle case shows that the
pressures to appear wealthy, cosmetically enhanced, and mega-successful have
only grown stronger. I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU by New York Times bestselling author
Caitlin Rother serves as a lens onto our obsession with celebrity, a national
epidemic of materialism, and a lethal greed that has put so many Americans into
the throes of crippling debt.
LOST GIRLS
"I was out of control ... I was aware of what I was doing and I could not stop
myself. I was in a major rage ... at my whole life and everyone who's hurt me and I
hurt the wrong people."
LOST GIRLS: The desperate search for two lost innocents, Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, led authorities to a brutal predator hiding in plain sight: John Albert Gardner, a convicted sex offender who could have been returned to prison several times over. Pulitzer-nominated writer Caitlin Rother delivers an incisive, heartbreaking true-life thriller about a case that galvanized its community, first by grief and goodwill, then by anger and injustice, as it came to grips with a flawed system that failed ... and adopted a law that will forever change how we keep our children safe.(Kensington/Pinnacle, July 2012)
POISONED LOVE
"A true-crime thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat... a brilliant job of captivating the inner workings of a female killer."
-- Aphrodite Jones, New York Times . best-selling crime author.
POISONED LOVE: Kristin Rossum had everything going for her -- beauty, brains, and the start of a brilliant toxicology career. But the 24-year-old San Diegan was torn between three relationships: one with her husband, who was found not breathing and covered with red rose petals; one with her married boss; and one with her old friend, crystal meth. This cautionary tale illustrates how an obsession for passion and easy access to narcotics can devastate not just one life, but many others in the process. In this updated edition, 16 pages of new developments about Rossum's appeals raise forensic questions about her conviction. (Kensington/Pinnacle, December 2011)
MY LIFE, DELETED
"A fascinating glimpse into how the loss of memory can erase who we are but how the love of family can create us anew."
-- Susan L. Smalley, author of "Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness"
MY LIFE, DELETED -- Former NFL player Scott Bolzan lost all 46 years of his long-term memory to a severe head injury. With his college sweetheart Joan at his side, Scott had to rebuild his whole world, starting with the definition of "wife." This is his inspirational memoir of hope, love and a medical mystery that gave him a rare opportunity to become a new man. (HarperOne, October 2011)
DEAD RECKONING
"We've finally found the next Ann Rule! Caitlin Rother writes with heart and suspense. DEAD RECKONING is a chilling read by a writer at the top of her game."
DEAD RECKONING is the authoritative story behind the high-profile murder of Tom and Jackie Hawks by a clan of outlaws led by Skylar and Jennifer Deleon. Skylar Deleon, a charming conman and hermaphrodite wanna-be, tied the Hawkses to the anchor of their yacht and threw them overboard -- alive -- near Newport Beach, California, to steal their boat and pillage their bank accounts. (Kensington/Pinnacle, February 2011)
BODY PARTS
"Using a reporter's edge, novelist's eye, and a crime-scene investigator's nose for evidence, Rother's latest is all at once riveting, unbelievable, fast-paced, and sure to keep you up at night wondering how evil seems to top itself time and again."
-- M. William Phelps, author of "I'll Be Watching You"
BODY PARTS is the true story of serial killer Wayne Adam Ford, a long-haul trucker who was convicted of killing four women -- and dismembering two of them -- in four California counties. He was sentenced in 2007 and is now sitting on Death Row in San Quentin state prison. Rother will offer a comprehensive look at the case, which took eight years to get to trial, and reveal new and exclusive details about Ford and his family. (Kensington/Pinnacle, March 2009)
TWISTED TRIANGLE
"Hitchcock wishes he'd dreamed it up. Capote wishes he'd written it. Rother's mesmerizing narrative chronicles a wife's heroic struggle against great odds to survive her psychopath husband's elaborate scheme to make her murder the perfect crime. This spellbinding tale offers an added treat -- it's true."
-- Marcus Stern, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-author of "The Wrong Stuff"
TWISTED TRIANGLE:A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Violent Revenge TWISTED TRIANGLE: A Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband's Violent Revenge is the crazy but factual account of a kidnapping, an attempted murder and a love triangle involving two married FBI agents, Margo and Gene Bennett, and crime novelist Patricia Cornwell. This story made national headlines when it broke in 1996, but Rother is the first writer to tell Margo's exclusive story. (Wiley/Jossey-Bass, April 2008. Now out in paperback.)
DEADLY DEVOTION
"Please pick this book up and read it. It is well written and it is an inspirational story of courage."
DEADLY DEVOTION: One Family's Journey Out of Tragedy and the Reporter Who Helped Them Make It -- TV reporter Alysia Sofios risked her entire career to help the surviving female members of the Marcus Wesson family recover from a cult-like life of polygamy, incest, abuse -- and the mass murder of their nine children. Together, they helped each other grow and bond into a new resilient family with a hopeful future. (Pocket, July 2011)
NAKED ADDICTION
"With a journalist's eye for the telling details of life, Caitlin Rother is a keen architect of the most important part of storytelling: character. The people in her prose grip you tightly with their truth."
-- Michael Connelly, Edgar-winner and NYT best-selling crime novelist
NAKED ADDICTION: In a lethal confluence of sex, drugs and the murder of young beauty school entrepreneurs in the wealthy beach community of La Jolla, undercover narcotics detective Ken Goode confronts his own demons during a homicide investigation that brings him into contact with a drug ring and an escort service while he tangles with a seductive witness and worries that his missing sister will be the next murder victim. (Dorchester, January 2012)
