The Spider and the Fly

A Reporter, a Serial Killer, and the Meaning of Murder

By: Claudia Rowe

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In this superb work of literary true crime - a spellbinding combination of memoir and psychological suspense - a female journalist chronicles her unusual connection with a convicted serial killer and her search to understand the darkness inside us.

"Well, well, Claudia. Can I call you Claudia? I'll have to give it to you: When confronted, at least you're honest, as honest as any reporter.... You want to go into the depths of my mind and into my past. I want a peek into yours. It is only fair, isn't it?" (Kendall Francois)

In September 1998, young reporter Claudia Rowe was working as a stringer for The New York Times in Poughkeepsie, New York, when local police discovered the bodies of eight women stashed in the attic and basement of the small colonial home that Kendall Francois, a painfully polite 27-year-old community college student, shared with his parents and sister.

Growing up amid the safe, bourgeois affluence of New York City, Rowe had always been secretly fascinated by the darkness and soon became obsessed with the story and with Francois. She was consumed by the desire to understand just how a man could abduct and strangle eight women - and how a family could live for two years, seemingly unaware, in a house with the victims' rotting corpses. She also hoped to uncover what humanity, if any, a murderer could maintain in the wake of such monstrous evil.

Rowe reached out after Francois was arrested, and she and the serial killer began a dizzying four-year conversation about cruelty, compassion, and control, an unusual and provocative relationship that would eventually lead her to the abyss, forcing her to clearly see herself and her own past - and why she was drawn to danger.

©2017 Claudia Rowe (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Riveting

One of the best true crime novels I’ve ever read. She writes with a mix of stark clarity and dreamy pathos that really works for me. I truly identified with what she experienced as a child, and I found so much of myself in this book. I think I learned more about myself and why I consume so much true crime than about Kendall Francois.

Gut Wrenching Honestly, superb narration

When I purchased this book I thought it would be just another quick factual story about a serial murderer filled with a courtroom Drama and descriptions of the devastation caused to the family members left behind. Never did I expect it to be what it is, a woman’s journey to know herself through this serial killer. I was initially intrigued because I had read another book about this man years before and because I now lived close to the area, so it was more of a curiosity that wound up becoming a profound experience of honesty about not only Kendal but about the writer herself that touched on so many of my own raw nerves on so many levels. Not only could I identify with her but with every family of those young woman because at anytime in the last 18 years my daughter may have very well fallen victim to this man or one just like him via the lifestyle she was then living. This story touched many places deep within, with a fitful honesty and a soulful sadness the writer fills her pages with a very poignant story, well I guess about as poignant as we can be when it comes to the subject of Serial Murderers. She has also done something I’ve always wanted to do.. she got as close to the answers I’ve sought regarding this subject for many years. The narration of this book was also done with such beauty I guess is the only way that I can describe it..she made you feel each feeling whether disgust, fear, sadness or her own profound realizations about herself, about myself... I did not expect what I received from this book... the understanding as to why this subject has always intrigued me so much and the knowledge that there are others out there who have paralleled my life so closely... It was excellent. Keep writing you do it so beautifully.

Good read, actual words overwrought

Author is a great story teller. Good introspective deep dive but every sentence has one or two too many descriptive words for my particular taste. Your mileage may vary.

Opaque. Shorter Treatment Called For

Although Ms. Wells writes well, as a listener I felt a tension. She seemed to want the personal insight that comes from cracking the code on herself and someone who behaved with extreme depravity. Yet in the telling she hedged. She did commit to the story even to the point of obsession but the same criticism she had François , lacking self-awareness seems to be something she herself has in short supply. Frustrating.

Wow

It was very interesting to hear the other side to the story about the murders.

I was obsessed, just like the author!

I finished listening within two days. The intertwining stories of victims, killer, and author/survivor of her own past, had me entranced.

Interesting except for the white guilt

Rowe is a very skilled writer and it's a compelling book. But I could have done without her annoying insertions of her liberal white guilt. It's an uninteresting and unproductive way to discuss the racialized aspects of this story. Also the narrator does a terrible I guess...attempt at a black accent? When she's reading as Kendall. It's pretty cringe worthy. Overall, a good true crime type memoir with some faults.

Very intriguing

this story definitely left me wanting more. The acts of the guilty are disgusting. however, the attempt to peer into his mind and learn his plight were captivating. the reader and author did a great job. I couldn't give the story a 5 bcuz of the unanswered questions. 😔 But well worth the purchase

Such an amazing story!!

Oh my gosh I can’t elaborate enough just how great of a book this is. It may have made me curious to post to some convicts though 👀

good story

enjoyed listening as I drove to and from work also while running errands. need to get more