Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, a Mother's Sacrifice

Written by Ann Rule

Narrated by Mary Beth Hurt

True crime icon Ann Rule presents a “must-read” (People) New York Times bestseller—and inspiration behind the Lifetime movie A House on Fire—following a woman whose apparent perfect life hides a harrowing and deadly madness.

Debora Green, a doctor and mother in a picturesque and exclusive Kansas town, seems to have the perfect life with her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, and three lovely children. It seems like a horribly tragic accident when a raging fire destroys her home and takes two lives. But a trail of clues leads investigators to an unthinkable conclusion.

In this “tour de force from America’s best true crime writer” (Kirkus Reviews), Ann Rule reveals the disturbing secrets—including infidelity, suicide, revenge, and murder—hiding beneath a façade of paradise in the American heartland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Feb 1, 1998
• ISBN: 9780743541961

Ann Rule

Ann Rule wrote thirty-five New York Times bestsellers, all of them still in print. Her first bestseller was The Stranger Beside Me, about her personal relationship with infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. A former Seattle police officer, she used her firsthand expertise in all her books. For more than three decades, she was a powerful advocate for victims of violent crime. She lived near Seattle and died in 2015.

Reviews for Bitter Harvest

[Rachel Grant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like the narrator. She did a really good job ‘acting out’ the dialogue.

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I vaguely remember reading about the trial of Deborah Green in the Kansas City Star a number of years ago so I was fascinated when I discovered this book. Dr. Deborah Jones Green was in a second marriage to Dr. Mike Farrar with three children. Their marriage was unhappy but to the outside world everything seemed fine until Dr. Farrar went on a trip to Peru with some students and parents of their children's private school. Here he fell in love with a very attractive woman who was also in an unhappy marriage.Dr. Green was exceptionally intelligent; however, she had many difficulties getting along with people and had changed medical specialties a number of times. In her youth she was attractive and vivacious; now she had gained weight and let her appearance go. She was an at home mom with three children: Tim, the oldest who was especially angry with the father; Lessa, who was also an angry child; and Kelly, apparently the happiest. After Dr. Farrar asked for a divorce, Dr. Green's actions became violent and all of a sudden Dr. Farrar was suffering from some kind of unspecified disease which caused him great pain and weight loss. Dr. Farrar moved out of the mansion in Prairie Village and into an apartment.In October, 1995, the mansion caught on fire and Tim and Kelly were killed in the fire; Lissa managed to escape. Dr. Green's initial interviews with the police and fire personnel was extremely strange never even asking about her children. Soon charges are filed against her for murder. During this time, Dr. Farrar has figured out that he has been gradually poisoned by the use of an extreme poison found in castor beans. Charges of attempted murder were added.The book goes into great detail regarding the lives of Dr. Green, Dr. Farrar, the children and Dr. Farrar's lover, Celeste Walker, whose husband committed suicide. Intriguing story of someone with so much intellect, yet without any kind of sensitivity to others. One psychiatrist claimed she had the emotional level of a toddler. Today she is still held in the Kansas Correctional facility in Topeka after she did plea guilty to all charges thus avoiding the death penalty.

[sbenne3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While a little longer than necessary in some sections, this is a very well written account of true crime. I was very wrapped up in the story and continued to wonder about how and why Debra Green got into the position she was in. A must read if you love true crime and/or are from the area.

[ecw0647 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rule is well-known for her true crime writing and justifiably so. Ever since Truman Capote popularized the form in In Cold Blood, true crime has become a popular genre.

This harrowing book tells the story of Dr. Debora Green, a very bright Kansas physician whose life unraveled into a nightmare of murder and virtual insanity. After her trial for the murder of two of her children and the attempted murder of her husband, Michael Farrar, psychiatrists attempted to answer why something like this could have happened. Their diagnosis was that Dr. Green had a limited ego, was a very immature person with the emotional responses of a small child. Ostensibly, she was able to function quite well, until her marriage and the pressures of raising a family began to stress her life. She had an IQ of 165 and had zipped through medical school, married a brilliant cardiologist, and borne three children. The family lived in a large house in the Kansas City suburbs.

By the end of the story Debora had become a violent and irrational monster who had driven away her husband, as she descended into a maelstrom of alcohol, drugs and invective. In hindsight, a house fire that destroyed an earlier home was probably her doing. The final straw was apparently her husband's affair with Celeste Walker, a nurse whose physician husband had committed suicide. The family had returned from a long-awaited vacation to South America, when Mike became deathly ill. He could keep no food down and suffered constant diarrhea. His condition puzzled the clinicians because the symptoms did not seem to match anything in their knowledge base. The only thing they could think of was that perhaps Mike had picked up some kind of virulent bug while traveling, but none of the others who had been on the trip had suffered anything beyond the normal traveler's stomach problems that quickly disappeared.

Bouts of his illness always seemed to come after he had been released from the hospital and had eaten food served by his wife. After what seemed - to me - an interminable period he began to suspect that perhaps Debora might be trying to poison him. One afternoon when she was out, he searched her purse and discovered several packages of Castor beans. Warnings on the package labels revealed that these beans contain a very toxic poison called Ricin. Normally, the beans could be swallowed whole without much difficulty because they had such a hard shell, and the beans would pass through the system without causing any ill effects, but if crushed, they could be terribly destructive. Mike also realized his wife had just finished an Agatha Christie novel in which the murder is committed using Ricin.

Several months later, a fire, clearly arson, broke out in their house. Mike had moved out in preparation for a divorce. Two of the children died, trapped in their bedrooms by a fire, fed with accelerants, that blocked access to the hall and the stairs. The responding police and firemen were immediately struck by the mother's bizarre behavior, talking of her children in the past tense, even before anyone knew whether they had been killed or not. Eventually, she confessed to all charges and escaped the death penalty with a guilty plea.

A truly tragic story spellbindingly told by Rule, a master of the genre.

[loubigfish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In Depth and riveting. Amazing characters and a chilling story that makes your heart ache and trying to understand what went wrong. The storyline is laid out perfectly and tell how each one interlocks together. Interesting interview with the main character at the end.

[thorswitch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This case happened very close to where I live and was covered pretty thoroughly in the media, but Ann's book provides a much more detailed look at both Deborah and Mike Green individually and as a couple, and makes it clear just how manipulative and truly dangerous Deborah Green can be.

[bookheaven_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

True story about a crazy mother and her crimes.