“Down The Road” by Lee Blessing

"Down The Road" centers on a convicted serial killer and the husband and wife writing team hired to help him write an account of his crimes. The killer, Bill Reach, has admitted to the murders of nineteen women, but there may have been more. Over many weeks of interviews, the couple—Dan and Iris Henniman—grow more and more uncertain of the ethics of what they are doing. Are they simply relating terrifying events, or are they helping readers consume rape, murder, and mutilation as if they are consuming any other product of our society? Are they, in fact, helping to turn Bill Reach into a celebrity?