The Spider and the Fly - A Writer, a Murderer and a Story of Obsession

Winner of the Washington State Book Award for Memoir

“Extraordinarily suspenseful and truly gut-wrenching. . . . A must-read.”—Gillian Flynn, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Gone Girl

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 twenty-seven-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 with 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.

Reaching out after Francois was arrested, Rowe 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.

What happens when a reporter’s search for a story becomes a search for herself?

Serial Killer Interviews: Based on a dizzying four-year correspondence, Claudia Rowe engages with convicted killer Kendall Francois in a provocative dialogue about cruelty, control, and the nature of humanity. Criminal Psychology: Go beyond the headlines of the Poughkeepsie murders to explore the abyss of a killer’s mind—and the chilling discovery of eight bodies hidden in the home he shared with his unsuspecting family. A Reporter's Obsession: Consumed by the case, Rowe confronts her own long-held fascination with darkness, forcing her to examine a past that drew her inexorably toward danger. Investigative Journalism: A masterful work of literary true crime where the journalist becomes the story, blurring the lines between objective reporting and a perilous personal quest for understanding.