<i>A False Report</i> is a well-written and compelling account of a series of rapes, at least one of which is considered a false report. It is a good look into how cops treat rape cases, the historical tendency to not believe women and even a look into how rape cases are investigated, at least these particular ones. It was also, creepily, a look into the mind of a serial rapist. I won't say this was anything near a pleasant read, but it was definitely compelling and important reading. I do, however, not recommend reading it in the middle of the night, particularly when you live right where they're talking about! That was not something I was expecting and it added a whole other level of creep-factor for me.

My only real complaint is that they unnecessarily generalized locations in Colorado with a laughable inaccuracy. They didn't even need to do it, they were literally just a few words added on to a sentence, that inaccurately described the cities. They also detailed numerous times cops and others saying how they didn't think something like this could happen "here" in specific CO and WA areas and I just do not understand why people think this way? Was this inaccurately positive detailing used to further convey the contrast of the crime to the location? Regardless, annoying.

What a stunner of a book!!! It might sounds like a dry subject matter, but don't be fooled. I couldn't put it down. The storyline switching back and forth and eventually weaving together kept me turning to pages to see how it would all come to an end. My only disappointment is them never bring able to crack the Wretch. I'm sure there are many secrets on there. Hopefully one day there will be there technology to crack it. Read this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

One of the best Nonfiction books I've read in ages. This is a must-read for everyone! The brutal honesty and detailed events are eye-opening and disheartening. I found myself unable to stop reading. I cried and raged as I read this story about these women and their experiences, along with the cops who bungled everything along the way - except for the ones who actually did their jobs and investigated the violent crimes these women detailed. Such a powerful read!!

This book blew me away. Incredibly well-written. It tells the story of a serial rapist through his own eyes, the eyes of his many victims, the eyes of many law enforcement officers and the families and friends of the victims. The great message is in how law enforcement needs to do a better job in speaking with victims. But, the entire story is moving and compelling. Must read.

A fine example of narrative non-fiction, and an astonishing inside look at the mechanics of a rape investigation. The authors share perspectives of the victims, the accused, the investigators, and one accuser whose path doesn’t mirror the others. An important, masterfully crafted work.

It is a shame a few rape victims are questioned in their authenticity. Victimized twice by the system and their mistreatment. Such a disgrace those conjuring up false rape allegations, absolutely abhorrent. My heart broke for Marie despite the fact there was compensation let alone her name cleared in the end. For all the other survivors it is a shame the rapist wasn't apprehended sooner all because a young girl with a turbulent background was branded an attention seeker known to embelish the truth. I am curious to know the number of women filing false claims of rape, certainly woild be interesting to learn , I hope percentage incredibly low. A book all should read, an eye opener to say the least.

With the "#MeToo" movement constantly on the front pages lately, awareness about sexual harassment and rape is at perhaps an all-time high. So T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong's book A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America comes at a timely moment to add to the conversation. Miller and Armstrong tell the story of a young lady who was raped, but who ended up being charged with falsely reporting a crime. They also tell the story of a serial rapist who, despite his careful and meticulous planning, eventually gets caught. The zinger is that these two stories collide.



In a readable and detailed narrative, the two stories develop: a rape in Washington, a serial rapist in Colorado, and, eventually, a dedicated team of investigators who put the puzzle together. The biggest tragedy is that this poor young lady, living on her own for the first time, suffers rape and the indignity and trauma that comes along with that. She immediately reports the crime and tells friends and her support network about it. As the investigation proceeded, the police think they see holes in her story. Under stress, she eventually recants, admitting that she made it up. But she quickly reverses herself and insists that she was in fact raped. The police latch on to her confession that she made it up, and turn the investigation on her. They find reasons not to believe her and charge her with a false report.



Meanwhile in Colorado a number of women are raped, crimes spread across several jurisdictions. Investigators put the crimes together, noting the similarities. A few lucky tips point them to the rapist, and once they gather evidence at his house, including computer files that contained pictures of his victims and his acts, they file charges. (I was troubled by the revelation that this serial rapist traced his compulsion to rape back to when he saw Princess Leia in her bikini, a slave to Jabba the Hutt. This led to him fantasizing about dominating women.) Among the Colorado victims, investigators discover pictures of an unknown victim, who turns out to be the victim in Washington. Puzzle solved, and the Washington victim is vindicated.



This is a memorable true-crime story, but the authors' agenda is larger than simply telling this story. Placing these crimes and investigations in historical context, they recount how the law has been inclined to disbelieve women who accuse men of rape. "The criminal justice system has long embraced the 'cherished male assumption that female persons tend to lie,' . . . In courtrooms throughout America, the historical default setting has been doubt." What a travesty. This is the great strength of #MeToo and related awareness campaigns.


On the other hand, Miller and Armstrong neglect to address men who are in fact falsely accused. They choose a case study in which a woman was not believed, and in which the rapist fits the profile of a small portion of rapists. He stalks women, breaks into their homes, and rapes them. Very few rapes fit this profile, yet it's the rape scenario which garners the most sympathy. The majority of rapes, committed by someone close to the victim, tend to be much grayer. Given the grayness, they are also more likely to bring the veracity of the victim and the aggressor into question. I certainly don't want a rapist to go unpunished, but plenty of compelling case studies can be written about men who have been unjustly accused of rape and, whether convicted or not, see their careers, reputation, and livelihoods crumble.



As they say, hard cases make bad law. The case of A False Report wants to reader to believe the woman, every time. The abuses of the past are real and unjust. But let us not proceed without believing that every person deserves to have his or her story told. Let us proceed with a conviction that every man and every woman deserves a fair trial, and that reputations and jobs and livelihoods should not be destroyed without reliable evidence. As much as I felt compassion for the victims in A False Report, especially the one who wasn't believed, I came away having heard only a part of the national story.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

This was a well written, well told story of what can happen when a rape victim is not believed. Marie's story is one of sadness, despair and finally validation. This story made me angry, rape victims should always be believed until there is real and substantial proof that they are lying.

"Where homicides were black and white, rape was filled with grays. And rape victims were alive and hurting. Their pain was always in your face – and you could never, ever look away."

A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America was a powerful look at rape culture in America. We follow the story of Marie, a young woman who was raped in 2008 in her own apartment in Washington. Only a few days later, she recanted her statement to police, claiming that she falsely reported her rape. When she tried to re-report her rape, she was “bullied” into recounting her statement again and was later criminally charged for wasting police time and resources.

Concurrently with Marie’s story, we follow the investigation as it unfolds in 2011 – now in Colorado – as more women came forward to tell of their own experiences, eerily similar to those of Marie. Detective Stacy Galbraith and Sgt. Edna Hendershot realized the connections between the reports, and in an important case of interdepartmental cooperation, worked together to hunt – and eventual capture – the serial rapist.

A False Report tells the story of Marie in the hopes that similar mistakes will be avoided by police departments in the future. After Marie recanted her rape allegations, her friends refused to have anything to do with her. All of her (albeit limited) evidence collected by the police department was destroyed. She was criminally charged with false reporting, a “gross misdemeanor,” though it was later expunged from her record. I cannot fathom how difficult this period in her life must have been – to lose your entire support system just when you need them the most is unconscionable.

Toward the end of the book, the authors explored the history of women reporting rape and how they were often not believed. For example, there was a case in 1793 where a seventeen-year-old seamstress accused an aristocratic man of raping her. To cast reasonable doubt on the validity of the victim’s claims, the five defense lawyers focused on attacking the character of the woman, calling her morals and actions of that night into question. One lawyer had the gall to ask, “Is it probable that a girl who had thus abandoned the outworks of her chastity, and left every pass to it unguarded, would be long in surrendering the citadel?” Needless to say, the accused man was not convicted.

Unfortunately, even 225 years later, the narrative is unnervingly parallel. In many rape cases, the focus seems to shift from determining the motives of the accused rapist to questioning the validity of the victim. Common probing questions include inquiries into what the victim was wearing, how much they might have had to drink, whether they were alone, if they initially agreed, etc.

But this story wasn’t just Marie’s. By also relaying the stories of other victims of this serial rapist, the authors drive home the message that not every case is the same. Some victims might seem cold while others might be more emotional; some might remember many details while others might mix up the chronology or details themselves. Minor inconsistencies not automatically mean that the victim is lying.

This was an important story that needed to be told.

If you are interested in a summary of these events, there was an article published in December 2015 entitled “An Unbelievable Story of Rape.” This article was expanded into this book to include more details as well as an overall commentary on the history of falsely reporting rape.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an advanced copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review. *Please note: the above quotes have not been verified with the final copy of this book.*

Every person who encounters rape victims should be required to read this book. This is a meticulously reported look at a serial rapist, who was getting better and better at his craft leaving a trail of damaged women behind him. That he was caught at all was due to amazing police work. Unfortunately not all women are looked at equally or with that same competence. The police in Colorado never gave up. The police in Washington state never even got started. A terrifying look at monsters and how they operate.

Truly important in today's climate. This was an in-depth look at the world that women live in. Claim rape and no one believes you - claim nothing happened and you are shamed. This book enraged me. It made me want to go home and never allow my teen daughter out of the house. So much focus is spent on why it happened to the victim and not enough time is taken to look at the root of the problem - men's view of women. I wish all men could read this and understand.

This is a true and disturbing story. In August 2008, 18-year old Marie reports a man breaking in to her apartment and raping her for hours. In the initial days of the investigation, detectives begin to have doubts and Marie finds the tables have turned and she is now being charged with filing a false report. Two years later, women in Colorado start reporting that their homes were broken into and they were raped repeatedly. Each rape takes place in a different jurisdiction but word starts to get around and a task force is formed. While investigating their own cases the team finds evidence of the rape of a young lady in Washington. This young lady is Marie.

I was riveted by this story. These Pulitzer prize winning authors relate the events in this case in a very relatable way. I felt like the actions of those involved in the various investigations were presented fairly and objectively. In the end it is obvious where mistakes were made and I was pleased to see that those responsible not only admitted the errors but took steps to ensure they would not happen again. I think this book is timely, given current events, and points out the places in our society where more work needs to done in how we approach rape. This story is very moving and, quite frankly, I think everyone should read it.

Terrible true account of a 2008 rape involving a serial rapist and the LONG, LONG, TWISTING ROAD to justice.

When I learned of this book, I knew it was either going to be really good or really awful. I loved the concept of this book. I've worked as a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Coordinator and I was a Victim Advocate so this book was completely up my alley. I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader copy from NetGalley so I jumped right in the second I could.

T. Christian Miller & Ken Armstrong were able to show all of the intricacies that go into investigating a rape. They also showed how one wrong move on an investigator's part can derail an investigation. Though I liked how detailed they were, I felt that they got stuck too much in certain areas. It seemed that they would go off on a tangent on how or why something was created. This pulled you out of the story and most of the time, I would ask myself why this was in the book. It really dragged down the flow of the book and in the first half of the book, it almost made it unbearable.

I did almost DNF this book. I felt that the first half dragged on and on and jumped from tangent to tangent. I understand that some of the details needed to be in there but not everyone here needs to know how a rape kit was invented or how other tools were created. Several pages could have easily been written as a paragraph explaining why this was important and how it was useful to investigators. I found myself thinking "we got it, move on" on more than one occasion. Honestly, it broke up the story and made it less powerful.

One of the things that I did love about this book is how it portrayed the victims. It didn't vilify them. It was matter of fact and I really appreciated it. Though the authors focused on details, I truly appreciated how they did not give too many details on the sexual assaults. I think that too many authors would sensationalize what these victims went through so it was refreshing to get a "this is what happened" without going into the gory details.

Once the first half was over, the last half was quick paced and fascinating. I enjoyed learning more about the story and how it unfolded. I remember seeing this on the news (I live in Colorado) and being thankful that they caught the guy. The last half of this book salvaged it. I'm glad I stuck with this book. It was insightful though slow.

Ultimately, I would rate this book 2 1/2 stars which is why I rounded it up to 3 stars.

Good investigative book about rape, how it is looked at and investigated. Marie notified her police department that she had been raped. Her story was not believed and she was charged with lying. There were other rapes and 2 detectived worked to peice the stories and evidence together to find the rapist. When he is caught, they find pictures that show Marie was telling the truth. This book makes you ask: " How can those that are to protect and serve decide to not believe someone that reports a crime"? This book was well written. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

This was a very well researched and written true story about rape in America. This particular case is one that I was unaware of. This book covers many issues within the criminal justice regarding rape and rape victims, but it does a particularly good job of describing why victims hesitate to report to police after an attack. I hope that marie’s case will at least have the effect of teaching police officers and other emergency personnel how to NOT to treat anyone who reports a rape.

A most interesting story, well written and well documented. The authors have covered seemingly every angle of the reported rapes in various communities and then tied them all together into the story of a disturbed serial rapist. I had originally felt this would be the study of reported vs. unreported rapes, but found that their weaving of this story gives a greater personal look at the topic. The authors are to be commended for their research and writing abilities. Recommended reading.

This is a book to read. It's a little freaky but it's very well written. Being the subject matter what it was, you can't say is was a "good" book but it was well done and enlightening. Also the book was done in a way to give the reader an understanding on all sides involved in cases like this. Good job with such a tough subject!

This is a powerful book that chronicles an incredible travesty of justice: a young girl reports a rape, police charge her with false reporting, and years later the rapist is caught in a different state. It sounds like a bad made-for-television movie, yet it is a true story. Well-researched and written by two outstanding journalists, Miller and Armstrong begin their story in Lynnwood, WA where a young girl, just aged out of foster care, experiences a horrifying rape, made more tragic by the investigation into the belief that she is lying. This timeline follows the victim's struggles, the aftermath and public humiliation of being accused of a false report, and the consequences of her 'crime.' Juxtaposed with this story is the opposite tale of the Colorado investigation where police work with other detectives in neighboring jurisdictions, follow leads, and never give up to find justice for the victims. A False Report is an important book to add to the library of 'must-reads' when it comes to justice, sexism, and crimes against women, and most importantly, how our justice system can do better.

Expanding on their Pulitzer-prize winning article, Miller and Armstrong recount attacks by a serial rapist, investigations undertaken by multiple police departments of varying quality, and the impacts the events had on the assault victims. An excellent book that handles a difficult subject with care. While so many people involved in this story were plagued by biases, the writers are thoughtful and non-judgmental. Highly recommended.