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Rating: 
Summary: Biased By Far
Review: Became a recent Ann Rule fan after reading an article about her in Readers Digest. Have read 8 of her books in less then 2 months, with Bitter Harvest being the 8th. I can't begin to tell everyone how disapointed I was in her portrayal of Debora Green. I'm not in anyway siding with Dr. Green but Ann Rule had no right to appoint herself judge and jury from page one and try to get her readers to go along with her. I always do my own follow-up of the cases after I've read her book and I'm glad to learn that Debora may get a new trial and that her daughter Kate(Lissa) is by her side. Ms. Rule has updates on her website on all her books also but has neglected to mention this one. Shame on you ANN RULE!!!
Rating: 
Summary: To Bookworm
Review: Debora Green and her surviving child are vary close friends of my family and have been for many, many years. You notice I leave Mike Farrar out of the equation. There are reasons, and for those of you bright enough to spot the overwhelming bias in this book, bravo for you. I am a huge Ann Rule fan, mostly because I have always found her to be fair and unbiased when she writes these horrific tales, however, upon reading Bitter Harvest, I found myself disturbed, yes, but not just because of the terrors in the lives of these people. My disturbance came from the fact that it leans so heavily to Dr. Farrar being Mr. Wonderful and completely innocent.Anyone around knows the real story. I'm not saying Debora was, by any stretch of the imagination, perfect. Yes, Debora was a raging alcoholic. That is not a fact that she has ever denied. Yes, there were many problems in that family, but to Debora, her children always came first and formost, however, alcoholism is a serious disease and there were times she was ill-equiped to handle motherhood. That didn't mean she wanted her children dead. There are many things I could say about that night, the night of the fire, and how the investigation was handled. There was a disturbing lack of evidence in this case, and Debora is now serving a "hard 40" which in Kansas, is considered life. But the big thing I will say is, if you read this book, if you waste your time on this biased and completely unfair story, while you read of "Lissa," who is my friend, think of this...Lissa loves her mom dearly. She still does and always has. She visits her almost weekly, making the hour-and-a-half each way drive to spend just a few hours talking with her. She still has many demons to overcome and has had a hard road to trsvel. But she supports and stands by her mother steadfastly. I believe Ann Rule usually gets to know the people she writes of, but in this case, she has no idea about these people, Debora or Lissa, and she only knows of Mike the fascade he put on for her. Keep your eye on this case. There are new developments in arson investigation and some of the top experts in the world are interested in Debora. If you want to know, please feel free to email me. It is my hope that the truth of this story gets out someday.
Rating: 
Summary: I like the book but....
Review: I agree with some of the folks on here who say that it came off as biased. Ann Rule has one bad habit of describing people as "handsome" and "beautiful" when they are most certainly not! Michael Farrar was/is geeky-looking, not at all anything to write home about. Although I don't believe he deserved to be poisoned or his kids murdered, he is not a saint. He seemed more attracted to Debora Green's sports car and her income as a doctor than to her. He comes off as sex-obsessed (he USED "Celeste Walker", I think), and his need for "order" struck me as pathetically anal! He expected an antiseptically neat home with three children around. Moreover, an adulterer is far from a paragon of virtue. Sorry, but Farrar just struck me as a guy who thinks women (wives or girlfriends) are there to make HIS life wonderful. That said, Ann Rule did her usual job of telling the story and trying to get a handle on what makes someone like Debora Jones Green tick. I think Green was molested as a child, even though she continues to insist her childhood was idyllic. I guess we will never know.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Harvest
Review: I thought that the book was very well written on the facts that were presented. Maybe Ann presented Mike a little too well. But in the face of something so evil I can see the fault of this. Debora Green has not faced up to the fact of ANY of her faulty behaviors. NONE, ABSOLTUELY NONE! She thinks she is perfect. Mike admitted to his short comings. If Deora would have admitted to just ONE of her faults I would have a lot more sympathy for her.
Law Enforcement is not perfect. However, they do not make things up. They do not make up lab reports (ricin antibodies) or what a highly trained canine, Avon, detects (accelerants).
It seems as though there is a proponderous amount of evidence to prove that Debora comitted these crimes and I feel she should cop to it. Another words...be honest! If she is truly concerned about her daughter *Lissa, then she should be totally honest! And deal with it from there.
Ann Rule wrote as true an account as was possible from an objective stand point as one human being can. Remember...There is no reality only perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting but disturbing
Review: It's been several years since I've read an Ann Rule book, but I remember liking her writing style. So, when this story didn't get off to a running start, I trusted Rule to have chosen an interesting story to tell and knew it would soon turn into a riveting tale. I was not disappointed. The cliché, "you can not make this stuff up", applies here. This is not a feel good story, but it's a very interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Ann Rule, Rules
Review: Loved the book...Like the "victim" wife in Rule's book, "Last Dance" (who I just wanted to slap) I wanted to slap Green's husband for leaving those kids with her for a minute. This book is keenly written, and it is yet another book by her that I could not put down.. Great story..Way worth the time and money.
Rating:
Summary: To Bookworm
Review: Out of curiosity, how are we supposed to e-mail you without an address?
Rating:
Summary: Bitter Harvest is a very good attention getter book.
Review: The true-life crime book Bitter Harvest, written by Ann Rule, was quite unreal. As soon as I started reading Bitter Harvest, I was constantly waiting to see what happened next. I believe that Ann Rule writes well, but that she is to repetive at times. This is a story of a woman who is so intellectually gifted and normal acting, yet she has the ability to poison her husband and kill her children. Although the conclusion claims that this woman's mental capability has not developed past the age of an infant, it seems hard to believe that she could have lived a normal life as an adult without anyone knowing she had these problems. The main reason that I was so interested in this book was the fact that I knew it was a true story, and it easily kept my attention. For the most part, the book was well written, but the last hundred of pages or so seemed to say the same thing. I think that Ann Rule dragged it out too much. I feel that she could have condensed the long upcoming conclusion some and get to the point quicker. Overall, I liked the book's story. This was my first Ann Rule book, and I would like to read another one to compare my thoughts.
Rating: 
Summary: Referring to the abridged audiobook - Not Very Good
Review: This is my first True Crime book ever and an audiobook at that, but I was very disappointed by the experience and if I hadn't been trapped in the car with the choice of listening to PBS interview some flute player from blabistan or these tapes I would never have made it through.
First of all, the writing is pretty sad.
"Deborah is a vivacious funny woman with a great sense of humor,
but she was prone to fits of rage, but she was a good mother, but she used the kids as a wedge against mike, but she was an alcoholic, but they both stuck together never really knowing why they got married in the first place....." Seriously, it goes on like that for pages and pages.
Second, the lady reading the book, I forget her name, is a bit of a stuffed shirt, sort of like the lady interviewer on PBS radio and the one really funny moment in the book is :
"Deborah was an articulate speaker who was always the life of the party, but she was an introvert prone to fits of rage where she would use profanity such as A-hole and F-hole" when the narrator had to swear it clearly was uncomfortable for her and the result was so funny I laughed so hard I had to rewind.
Anyway, it pretty much fell on its face and the worst part of it all, is we never find out what really happened for sure because its a true story and nobody knows the answer.
Rating:
Summary: held my interest until the end
Review: This isn't one of Ann's best but is still very good. Dr. Debora Green was, in my opinion, either under the influence of drugs /and or alcohol if she really did set fire to her beautiful house, killing two of her three children. I'm not excusing her, according to this book she didn't make a very desirable wife or mother, but this didn't give her husband an excuse to cheat on her. Dr. Green was supposedly a brilliant woman, but on her wedding night she supposedly chose to retire with a book. This sounds almost like me. I SAID ALMOST! I believe there really is a fine line between genius and insanity. I love Ann's books, but in this one she seems to take the side of the adulterous husband, who should have just left if he didn't want his family anymore. Some people have the psychological makeup that causes them to snap under extreme pressure, especially when they are substance abusers. I hear
Dr. Green may be getting a new trial, due to the discovery of new evidence. I hope she is proved innocent, if only for the sake of her remaining daughter, Kate.
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