SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/128404_tf227.html

Olsen's true-crime tale a best seller ... after 13 years
Friday, June 27, 2003

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

Thirteen is suddenly a lucky number for Gregg Olsen, the true crime writer from Olalla on the Kitsap Peninsula.

That's because his account of an Amish serial murderer in the 1980s, "Abandoned Prayers," will be No. 7 on The New York Times' paperback best-seller list this Sunday, 13 years after its initial publication.

It is Olsen's first appearance on the vaunted list and a mystifying development for the author of six books because there is no known engine driving sales of the new paperback edition.

"This is a complete fluke," Olsen says. "It got there by sheer sales -- no promo, no nothing. No TV connection. The funny thing about it is that publishers put big bucks behind books to get on the list and seldom make it. So this is kind of cool."

© 1998-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer