Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman and her sister were babysat while her mother worked days and danced nights. To Liza, the babysitter—a handyman at the motel where her mother worked—was one of the few kind and understanding adults in her life. But there was one thing she didn't know: He was a serial killer.
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.
