On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women

One of the more interesting books I've read about serial killers. I first heard of Willie Pickton on the Last Podcast On The Left and found the case so fascinating I had to pick this book up.It's extremely detailed and examines the case from the perspectives of the cops, the families of the victims and the people who knew Willie Pickton.All in all it's a very good book but I feel a lot of the details are repetitive which makes the book feel overly long. I seriously feel like this book could have been 200 pages shorter and it would've been a more addictive interesting read. My other complaint is it's pretty common to see a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. I'm generally not a grammar nazi but when a book is being professionally published it's pretty important to not have so many errors in the final print. In the picture I posted I'll give an example of this.Still it's a very good book and worth picking up if you're interested in the case.

I love reading books about serial killers and have read many. This book however is probably one of the most fascinating in that it goes deep into the killer's background and humanizes him rather than demonizes, as some books have done. In addition to plenty of background information on Robert Pickton, there are interviews and in-depth chapters written about his victims, which to me is the most important part of reading about the killer himself. More often, we remember the serial killer and never his victims, but in this book, Stevie Cameron does an excellent job of chronicling the lives of Pickton's victims, as well as his female friends. Interestingly enough, like Ted Bundy's friendship with Ann Rule, someone he once worked with and who ultimately became his biographer, Robert Pickton shared a deep friendship with more than a few women in his life, women who did not become his victims.This book is not always an easy read as of course, if you are aware of Pickton's crimes, he used his pigs and a rendering plant to dispose of his multiple victims, all of whom were prostitutes from Vancouver's worst neighborhood. In some sick way I found myself actually feeling sorry for Pickton and how he was raised, but ultimately ended up as I always do, wondering, what the heck makes these people tick to be able to commit such horrible crimes? The book also chronicles Robert Pickton's tumultuous relationship with his brother as well as the lengthy process and amount of time and incredible cost that it took to bring this man to justice.I highly recommend this book as a fascinating and chilling look into the mind of a killer, his family, friends, and victims all combined.

The book was awesome and well laid out but it will put a permanent pit in your stomach as you will be sad and angry at how something like this could have gone on for so long. As sickened as I am about all these sickening deaths I can relate and understand to an extent because we have all witnessed laziness, office politics, ineptitude, etc but in this case it was to the extreme. Sad and sickening.

Well written, gave the victims a real voice, dignity and humanized them. The author did a great job with their back stories, showing that they were well loved and missed. It showed they were mothers, daughters, sisters etc...which is more than the police did at the time of the disappearances. It brought out a lot of emotions, anger towards the police and how they allowed their ego, arrogance and plain ignorance get in the way. It made me feel an incredible amount if compassion for the victims and their friends and families. It gave me a better understanding of addiction and the effects the disease had on these women. It delivers a horrible story, one that needs to be told as a warning to everyone but it is done with out describing the gruesome details.

Very well written and detailed.

I enjoyed the flow of the story

Although the book is long I really enjoyed the details in the case and the researcher done an amazing job covering the case.

I have read some of Stevie Cameron's other books and knew her to be a great reporter, which is why I bought the book. In some ways I regretted it as it is the stuff of nightmares. On the other hand, it is extremely well written and can certainly recommend it if you have a strong stomach. A thorough indictment of our police force here in B.C. - scandalous! Those poor women - my heart went out to them and their families.

Some books have an emotional impact that stays with you forever. Never a lover of fiction, I've read true crime books which have been sensationalist, poorly written, and frequently insensitive. Some authors stand out and they frequently happen to be the journalists who were present when events were unfolding and who were able to do more research than those lazy hack writers who write books using pre-existing material.Three books have haunted me. One is Mildred Savage's The Knives Of Justice. Another is Kirk Makin's Redrum The Innocent. If you want to be stirred, then read these accounts of awful miscarriages of justice, because they may just make you alter the way you think about things. The latest book to stir me is On The Farm by Stevie Cameron. The book tells the story of missing drug addicted prostitutes. Expertly written and thoroughly researched, the book is a triumph in humanising those women polite society labels as worthless. By showing that each woman had her own story, her own family, and her own tale of woe which forced her down a dangerous path, the author immediately makes you face your own preconceptions. The police didn't care about these women, until they were forced to act, but you will empathise with them from the start.Secondly, what happened to the women is horrible beyond words. Having watched some of Hollywood's torture-porn films, I thought I would be immune to reading about similar real-life events. The author's talent is not to lay the horror on thickly, like less able writers would, but to carefully and accurately describe events as they happen and, rather than speculate on what took place, present the facts to the reader. My own imagination filled in the gaps and - for the first time in my life - I could not sleep at all, the night after I finished the book.The book is terribly unsettling but a triumph nevertheless.

One of the best true crime books I've ever read, on a par with Ann Rule. Background on the victims was well researched and the writing was fluent and uncomplicated - extremely readable. I couldn't put the book down.

Good read, good price and fast delivery

Very shocking book

Great read.