
The Third Rainbow Girl
The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
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Narrated by:
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Emma Copley Eisenberg
A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia - and the writer determined to put the pieces back together.
In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For 13 years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders", though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward.
In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. As time passed, the truth seemed to slip away, and the investigation itself inflicted its own traumas - turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming the fears of violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries.
In The Third Rainbow Girl, Emma Copley Eisenberg uses the Rainbow Murders case as a starting point for a thought-provoking tale of an Appalachian community bound by the false stories that have been told about it. Weaving in experiences from her own years spent living in Pocahontas County, she follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, revealing how this mysterious murder has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their fears, fates, and desires.
Beautifully written and brutally honest, The Third Rainbow Girl presents a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America - divided by gender and class and haunted by its own violence.
©2020 Emma Copley Eisenberg (P)2020 Hachette BooksListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"[Eisenberg] reconstructs the case with a brisk pace and a keen sensitivity...offers a nuanced portrait of a crime and its decades long effects. A promising young author reappraises a notorious double murder-and her life." (Kirkus Reviews)
"In The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, Emma Copley Eisenberg uses the unsolved 1980 murders of Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, in Pocahontas County, WV, as a lens through which to consider the effects of violent acts on the communities where they occur." (Library Journal)
"Eisenberg has crafted a beautiful and complicated ode to West Virginia. Exquisitely written, this is a powerful commentary on society's notions of gender, violence, and rural America. Readers of literary nonfiction will devour this title in one sitting." (Booklist, starred review)
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Narration is...odd
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More than I was expecting
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A debut book that appears to be written by a veteran writer.
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This is one to read
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Immersion
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all over the place
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So well written
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Murder Mystery Plus
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unique.perapective dry in parts
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Outsider defining my home state better then I could and justifying why!
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