The Babysitter is a captivating book that examines its setting as much as its characters. Rodman and Jordan go further in their research than anyone else has done on the Costa case and have located women whom Costa was believed to have killed decades ago. The story is gripping, tense, harrowing and balanced with a careful and thoughtful narrative style. The authors move it beyond mere entertainment and toward a challenging exploration of family and dysfunction. In the end, this is a story of Liza Rodman’s survival and strength. The Babysitter is a unique and welcome addition to both the true crime and memoir genres.
While the writing is sometimes rough and unpolished, the story itself is captivating and heartbreaking, making The Babysitter a quick read—but certainly not an uplifting one. Readers with a history of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse should know that these themes are woven throughout this book, so proceed with caution.
The authors smoothly blend Rodman’s affecting account of her childhood with thorough research into Costa’s crimes. This tragic tale of a dysfunctional family and a psychopath is a page-turner.
For a book about vulnerable children—a topic that usually tugs the heartstrings—the narrative is not as affecting as one would expect ... The two threads alternate in a briskly written text that isn’t for the faint of heart ... Yet the story is curiously lacking in drama, in part because the book doesn’t reveal the author to have been in serious danger of harm from Costa ... The most noteworthy material appears in an epilogue, where, after excellent detective work, Jordan and Rodman establish conclusively that Costa did not kill three women he was suspected of murdering—a payoff that for followers of the case may be worth the 300-page wait. A grisly but low-impact tale of horrific crimes and their impact on the author.
