I read a review of this book (can't remember where) and thought it sounded intriguing. I'm not a big fan of the true-crime genre, but this really doesn't fall into that category. Starting more or less chronologically from the beginnings of the Interstate Highway system, Strand takes actual cases of highway-related violence, and uses them to illustrate how our increased mobility has nurtured an increase in sociopathic and psychopathic crimes.

These crimes aren't just limited to serial killings. She also explores how highway construction has destroyed communities in places like inner-city Atlanta and Juarez, Mexico and contributed to their poverty, racial segregation and income inequality. She doesn't mention my own city of Austin, but we have a prime example in IH35, which has long divided the city by race and class.

Strand writes thoughtfully on this topic without being too heavy-handed. I've always admired the Interstate Highway system and from childhood was fascinated with which roads linked up varoius cities. I'll never look at a map of that system in the same way again. And I'll have a very different outlook the next time I take a long road trip, that's for sure.

I might look into some of the other titles from the Discovering America series by the University of Texas Press. If they are all as well-written as this one, they should be worth it.