Serial Killers Books

Killer Clown is an intense, well- written true-crime story. Filled with shocking details of the John Wayne Gacy murders, it was difficult to put this book down. The book starts with the abduction and murder of his final victim and the discovery of some 29 bodies in Gacy's crawl space, and then works backwards to look in detail at how such an atrocity could have happened.

This book would have been very well written, if it were a work of fiction. I really didn't sense that the events depicted in this book actually occurred.

But I will say that the author went into great detail in all aspects, including the investigation leading up to the arrest of John Gacy, the search of his property (the most shocking and vividly described part of the book), right down to the nitty-gritty details of the jury selection, defense, and prosecution.

I have read Killer Clown and some other books on the John Wayne Gacy serial murders, and can unequivocally tell you that the book by Terry Sullivan is the most accurate. I should know. I was the Assistant State's Attorney to whom John Wayne Gacy made several confessions, and I testified for the State of Illinois in the trial. Additionally, I spent several hours with the authors as the book was being prepared. If you are looking for a true chronicle of the events leading up to the arrest, trial and conviction of that animal, this book is what you want.

I read (and still have!) the very first paperback version of this book way back in the autumn of 1985. I am old enough to have watched the initial TV news broadcasts of this case from back in December of 1978! This book is a very interesting and entertaining read about the subtle (and sometimes NOT so subtle)surveillance,tracking, taunting and eventual arrest of this man who had been raping,murdering (and sodomizing AFTER they were dead) boys throughout the seventies. While the book does NOT go into very much detail at all about Gacy's private life (other than a few brief glimpses into his marriage and some scattered observations from a neighbor, co-worker, employee and such)it is still a very good book on Gacy, the man and the monster. I am an AVID collector of all things Gacy and will be putting some of my very valuable collection on display up on YOUTUBE very soon.

Very informative, thorough, factual, and fast-paced. Covers the period from Gacy's last victim through his trial, written from the law enforcement perspective in engrossing detail.

Miami attorney Jack Swyteck is emotionally devastated when he learns that Mia Salazar, his girlfriend of the past three months, is a married woman. Mia's husband, Ernesto, a wealthy businessman, finds out about the affair shortly before Mia is kidnapped. The kidnapper's ransom notes demands payment for what Mia is worth, and the betrayed Salazar decides his wandering wife is worth nothing. FBI agent Andie Henning has been tracking this serial kidnapper and contacts Jack after being (facetiously) told by Salazar that he is his attorney. When Jack learns that Salazar is refusing to make payment, he is initially reluctant to become involved but eventually does and negotiates with the kidnapper for Mia's release. Andie, Jack and his good friend Theo Knight begin to unravel Mia's past in hopes of discovering the identity of the kidnapper and learn that she may possibly be connected to a controversial trial several years before. Meanwhile, the kidnapper is sending videos of Mia being tortured, which makes for a frantic effort to find her before the kidnapper kills her.

Got the Look is by far not the best of the Jack Swyteck series. Theo is an engaging character and offers humorous relief among a cast of unlikeable characters. Andie Henning is interesting and looks to play a part in future books in the series. The identity of the kidnapper and his reason for kidnapping Mia were not very plausible and hard to grasp. Of concern is Swyteck's propensity for allowing murderers to, well, get away with murder.

This is a riveting page-turner with lots of twists, great dialogue, and some excellent action pieces. The Jack Swyteck series is an underrated one, but one that usually delivers solid entertainment, just like this entry does.

Suffice it to say that like all thrillers, there are a few too many coincidences to believe, but that is a common fault of the genre.

Recommended.

This is not the best "Jack Swyteck" book I have read, and I have read them all. BUt I would definitely give it a read, although it is a bit slow at times, it does end with a bang. If you like Grippando's writing you will still like this book.

I read the first 75 pages and just gave up - nothing was happening! This was my first Grippando and I'll never waste time on him again. I cannot believe the five star ratings for this book! There are so many good mysteries out there, why waste your time on this one? It it NOT GOOD!

Hot shot Miami attorney, Jack Swyteck, is stunned when he discovers that his latest girlfriend, Mia, has not been honest with him. Not only has she been vague about her past, but she is also married. And when she is kidnapped and her wealthy husband decides that his unfaithful wife is worth nothing the kidnapper requests Jack to pay the ransom. Jack is not one to sit still and take orders from the FBI, and so he takes matters into his own hands as Mia's fate rests on his head. In a race against time and the kidnapper's demand to pay what she is worth, Jack uncovers Mia's secret past as he tries to negotiate with a kidnapper who killed his previous victim when he was not paid what she was worth.

***** Awesome read with nonstop action and suspense from the first page to the last! James Grippando has created a cast of interesting characters in this book and there is never a dull moment. Got the Look has got me hooked. I cannot wait to read the rest of Grippando's Jack Swyteck stories. *****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

Ian Rankin's THE NAMING OF THE DEAD receives James Gale's award-winning voice and theatre training as it tells of Inspector Rebus, who begins work on a simple suicide case during a pre-conference dinner at Edinburgh Castle and finds his probe leads to some dangerous and unexpected venues of higher power and murder. Politics and drama come to life in this audio drama, a recommended pick for any collection strong in audio murder thrillers.

How you rate this Inspector Rebus story may depend to some extent on what you think of the solution to the mystery, which is obviously something a reviewer ought not to give away. On the other hand it will take you nearly 500 very enjoyable pages before you get there. So far as this reader is concerned, there is nothing much wrong with the solution. I can't persuade myself that it is the job of a detective story to turn out like a factual police investigation in real life, and although the outcome should not be preposterous it ought to be imaginative, and it is imaginative here.

I have no idea whether Ian Rankin belongs to the Agatha Christie school of whodunit plotting, or to the Raymond Chandler school. We know from Chandler himself that he wrote most of his Marlowe tales without knowing who the murderer was: Mrs Christie was not so forthcoming so far as I am aware, but surely she must have had the final denouements in mind from the outset and structured the rest of it round them so that we can be as amazed as the respectful and silent gatherings who listen to Poirot or Miss Marple explaining all over ten or a dozen pages. Where Rankin seems to me to side with Chandler is in making the rest of the story and the characterisation more significant in their own right than they are in the solution-focused Christie style, and I find that to my own liking. In fact this is the first Rebus story I have ever read, but it will not be the last. The glum, dogged and cantankerous old corner-cutter is getting on in years, now within a year of compulsory retirement and obviously facing a bleak outlook when that comes, as there is nothing much in his life except the job. His portrayal is sympathetic and quite convincing if not exactly delineated in as much depth as Hamlet, so is that of his oppo Siobhan Clarke, and convincing also, if less sympathetic, is that of the other main players. The storyline is absolutely excellent in my own opinion, and it held my interest completely through what is quite a long book. Rankin has true storytelling technique, the result of experience as well as of talent. Links between episodes are very artfully done and if one's attention wanders at all it is liable to mean rereading a couple of paragraphs. The background in July 2005 - the Gleneagles summit of the G8, the British Olympics bid for 2012 and the 7/7 bombings in London - is inspired, and the scene-setting in the author's native Edinburgh is as authentic as we would expect. The writing is of high quality, but in case anyone was wondering, a `rammy' is a fight and `Shug' is `Hugh'.

One detail in particular has not worked out in quite the way Rankin obviously expected, and Mr Blair's brainwave of obtaining `loans' rather than donations to the Labour party (the idea being to avoid declaration) blew back in his face in spectacular fashion. This very excusable misprognostication does affect the credibility of one aspect of the final outcome, I suppose, but at the end of the day this is fiction, and the historical backdrop is very convincing by and large. I don't believe I would have wanted the story to resemble the miserable real-life murder investigations that I have become all too familiar with. There is an appropriate standard for different kinds of things, or `Est modus in rebus' as they say in the Classics, and that suits me very well provided the narrator is good enough at his job. I was sorry to come to the end of this book. Dear old Rebus may be bowing out, but I have all his previous adventures to get to know, and I am looking forward to it.

The latest installment in a long-running series featuring the alcoholic policeman and outsider John Rebus. This is another variation of the classic Raymond Chandler device of an alienated hero who is an obsessive seeker of the truth. In this case, set in the mildly exotic locale of Edinburgh. This book is as much about Rebus' partner, Siobhan Clarke, as Rebus himself, and deals with issues of revenge and temptation. Rebus' long time gangster nemesis makes an appearance. The quality of writing is above average. The plot, however, is excessively complex with a somewhat strained ending.

Remember the G8 conference and the tube/bus bombings in London? Inspector Rebus' latest case revolves around those incidents, which captured the attention of the world. In addition to the hellacious security problems, Rebus is faced with the death of his brother, a serial killer, the apparent suicide of an MP, and the death of a local politician. The higher ups have had it with him anyway, and forbid him to rock the boat while the eyes of the world are upon Edinburgh.

Rebus and his protege, Inspector Siobhan Clark, aren't the type to just let things go, and they forge ahead, under the radar, regardless of what the chief constable thinks. They lose their way quite a few times, and it when they finally figure out what's what, they are astonished. Author Rankin brings his readers on a crawl through Edinburgh, from the richest to the seamiest, from the powerful to the punks. Nothing cozy here, nothing fancy, just gritty, dogged, intelligent police work. And real, multidimensional characters.

Naming of the Dead is worth a second perusal, just to pick up on all the missed cues and clues. Great crime fiction.

"The Naming of The Dead," by Ian Rankin, current, highly-successful dean of Scottish mystery writers, is 18th in his "tartan noir" Detective Inspector John Rebus series, and is set in and around the beautiful-to-the-tourist, but not necessarily to the locals, east coast Scots city of Edinburgh. It takes place in July, 2005; Rebus's younger brother Michael, of whom we occasionally heard, has just died at 54, victim, Rebus proposes, of "Scotland's mortality rate that of a Third World nation. Lifestyle, diet, genes - plenty of theories."

The Group of Eight (G8) summit, of political and economic leaders of the most industrialized eight countries, is set to open in the famous golfing resort of Gleneagles, near Edinburgh. Leaders as diverse and famous as American President George Bush, British Prime minister Tony Blair, and Russian premier Putin are about to converge here, and all the British intelligence services, particularly Edinburgh's, and its police brass, are determined to keep a lid on things. They've warned off trouble-making Rebus, and buried him as far from the action as they can. But crowds of protesters, led by Sir Bob Geldorf, record industry figure/philanthropist; Bono, lead singer of the Irish band U2, and Bianca Jagger are coming too. The last thing they want to do is keep the lid on.

Then Ben Webster, British cabinet undersecretary, dies in a mysterious fall from his hotel room. It could be murder, and it could be suicide, and, suddenly, Rebus and his protégé, DI Siobhan Clarke, are on the scene, too, much to the horror of the mighty. Furthermore, there's soon another, apparently interconnected, serial murder case: someone's killing off really unpleasant sex offenders. Rebus and Clarke are on the case, no two ways about it; the brass is really unhappy.

This book is, unfortunately, complex and confusing. Rankin's reportage on the G8 summit is accurate and vivid: furthermore, we get the -imagined-- pleasure of watching a hung-over Rebus knock President Bush off his bike. Then, towards the end, Rebus veers off into the horrific London underground bombings that also happened that July, killing more than 50 people. I consider myself an intelligent reader, but I've no idea why he felt it necessary to do that. Any serious author wants to extend his skills; but the Politics and Current Affairs books are on whole different shelves, aren't they? The music books too, come to that. And when reviewers talk about a mystery transcending its genre, I worry.

However, the mystery as such is quite passable; the characterizations of the major characters, Rebus, Clarke, and Morris Gerald (Big Jer) Cafferty, Edinburgh's crime czar, continue to be enriched. The author can still deliver that city in lively, accurate detail. At one point, he discusses an Edinburgh neighborhood, "Once an area of breweries and factories, where Sean Connery had spent his early years, Fountainbridge was changing. The old industries had all but vanished. The city's financial district was encroaching. Style bars were opening. One of Rebus's favourite old watering-holes had already been demolished, and he reckoned the bingo hall next door - the Palais de Danse as was -- would soon follow. The canal, not much more than an open sewer at one time, had been cleaned up. Families would go there for bike rides, or to feed the swans."

Or: "The City Chambers had been built on top of a plague street called Mary King's Close. Years back, Rebus had investigated a murder in the dank underground labyrinth - Cafferty's own son the victim. The place had been tidied up and now was a tourist haunt in the summer." Guilty as charged; tourist, me. I do love Rankin's work, and a few years ago, did make a pilgrimage to Edinburgh, where I found the relevant tour, right under the City Hall.

This is the second book in the Raintree triology that was written by three women who were able to work so well together so well that this fascinating tale goes very smoothly and is a must read for good light reading. The combination of romace, phychic powers and charactors will keep you interested from page one right up until you finish the very last word.

This is the worst Linda Howard book I have read. SPOILER-In the first third of the book, the woman is mind raped, mind controlled-she couldn't speak or move, kidnapped, and her clothes are ripped off-by Dante. Ms. Howard spends the next part of the book having Dante justify what he did-although 'he would do it again'. I'm glad I have read other Linda Howard books. If this was my first, it would have definitely been my last.

Neither Hope nor Gideon appear to have much reason for what they do. The premise of "I see dead people" has been done to death also. The characters were cardboard. There was no mystery. The evil woman wasn't even interesting. I should have known when the Linda Howard first book wasn't that good that the series was not going anywhere. I recommend spending scarce reading hours elsewhere.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the chemistry between the two strong characters of Gideon and Hope - even though the romance moved a bit too quick to be completely believable, this IS a romance, after all, so that made it kind of fun.

I would have liked to have found out more about the dark forces working against them. Why did Cael send Tabby to kill the Raintree heirs, what the heck was she going to do with her trophies? But, I liked this book about Gideon and his unique powers over electricity.

This book was very good. It had great pacing and was quite good at holding my interest (which is not always easy). Although it is not the first in the series, it makes you want to get the trilogy.

Seattle was gripped with another serial killer in the mid-eighties which wouldn't be solved until about twenty years later. The killer was known as the Green River Killer and he killed about 50 women who were mostly prostitutes and drug addicts. At first, nobody seemed to notice these missing transients. As they piled up in certain spots, the Seattle Task Force had another monstrous serial killer on the loose and didn't know who it could be without the use of technology or DNA evidence. Anyway, Keppel who wrote this book gets the most unlikely help and assistance from somebody who knows about serial killing, Ted Bundy, on death row in Florida. Despite the obvious reasons that anybody would associate with Ted Bundy, Keppel has his reasons and motives to get inside the mind of a serial killer without going insane and to prevent an end to the murders. Bundy is useful with some of his ideas. He calls the victims in the Green River cases as bottom-feeders. Most of Bundy's victims were not prostitutes or drug addicts but college students, wives, and pretty young women. Bundy does confirm that the Killer and himself were involved in necrophiliac acts on the victims after their deaths. The murders were not so much the act as to get the victim. For Bundy, he needs to possess them. For Ridgway, he doesn't clarify his actions. The book is well-written, researched, and graphic at times. It's not for children or adults who get sqeamish at such acts of horror.

I read another reviewer point out that the title of the book should be
"How I tried to outwit Bundy, and lost". in my opinion, there couldn't be a better title. There are so many logical fallacies in the book that it really makes Keppel look quite unprofessional. He makes assertions and states as fact, information that is nothing more than suspicion speculation. Some of the information in this book has been proven completely inaccurate since its publishing date. All I ask is that a non-fiction writer present me with a review of the FACTS...NOT long winded, delusional, self promotion. One of the last things Robert Keppel writes is something about Ted being a truly insignicant creature. Well, the fact that you've written books about the guy would indicate otherwise, BOB!

in reality, keppel was at best tangential to the hunt for the green river killer. this book comes across as nothing more than a self-aggrandizing attempt to milk some personal publicity out of a horrific murder case. those expecting for details about the search that ultimately led to the arrest of gary ridgway will likely be disappointed. those interested in ted bundy or bob keppel will fare better. sadly, i was not one of those readers. the title is misleading, and i was one of those suckered in. oh well. one star it is.

In this book Kepple kind of goes off on a tangent, more about Bundy rather than the Rivermam himself who is the title of the book. It may have been more aptly named "my interviews with Ted Bundy". I guess I cant blame him though, he persued Bundy for a long time and his blatant dislike (to put it mildly) of the man shows through, thus objectivity is not something to be expected. I much better liked his book "Signature Killers" there his experience and wisdom of the subject shows through making it a very enlightening read on the subject. I found Riverman to be more drawn out, and somewhat more disorganized than "Signature Killers". Kepples treatment of his subject is more personal but for anyone studying serial murder it is still a worthwhile read.

The reason that this book was written was to teach. I am finishing up a class taught by Keppel, and it is called Serial Murder. When I read the book for the first time, I thought it was bland and fragmented as well. But that is becuase he wrote it not for the general public but for those learining about the investigative aspect of serial murder, and what the Bundy-Ridgeway-Keppel connection could bring to light in the criminal justice world. When he implemented the book into his lectures, it all made perfect sense. In actuality, if you paid attention to the book, and knew enough about criminal investigations, you realized that Bundy was actually giving the criminal justice field valuable information on the way a serial killer thinks. The book was a little tough to get through, but if you go through and read it a second time, and watch the TV movie on A&E, its really a fascinating subject.

This book is slow to start "police detecting wise" if one can say that. A lot of space is used in describing what is going on from everyone's point of view but not much is being elucidated, as in information collected, or progress is made on the case by cops. Finally the end is somewhat surreal and unconvincing. This is still a worthwhile book to read compared to what is awailable out there on the market.

p.s. To the author, please just make the two of them a couple and stop mudding the waters with endless lack of sexual arousal stories and teenage kind of love troubles.

As a work of genre fiction, I found The Mermaids Singing an enjoyable read.

As with A Place of Execution (the other book by Ms McDermid that I've read), she holds back a major surprise toward the end. (Don't worry no spoiler here.) One can almost imagine her while writing thinking, "ooh this is a good one." By holding this back, however, she strains some of the credibility that she's built up throughout the story. While this type of thing is common in this genre, it leaves the reader with the feeling of having been deceived.

That being said if you like crime/suspense/mystery novels, I think you'll enjoy reading The Mermaids Singing.

This is the first in the series of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan books that BBC made into a series, called "Wire in the Blood," the name of the second book. Fortunately for viewers, the characters on the screen are not as flawed as the ones in the book. Tony Hill is one messed up shrink - we know why HE chose his career! and Carol has her own problems as a woman in the CID. A serial killer strikes the mid-sized community of Bradford, and appears to be killing gay men. But is he? or could they just seem to be gay? The Bradford CID is working on a Home Office project to use profilers with the police, so this is the perfect opportunity for Tony Hill to practice his specialty. He tends to get a little too involved in his work. This is not for the squeamish - the violence is graphic. But the writing is compelling, and it's a real page-turner. It isn't until after you've finished the book that you start to see holes in the plot - small ones in this book, but they get larger as the series progresses. But, I don't want to be a spoiler! If you can handle graphic violence, torture, and gore along with page-turning prose, and you like watching the workings of the psychotic mind, then this is the book for you. It's un-put-downable once you pass the first two pages.

The Good: The Mermaids Singing starts off well and feels like a good read. The killers narrative works out fine and hooks you early. Unfortunately as the book progresses it shows its age and in the end fails horribly. The book is about a psychological profiler and perhaps that alone made it interesting in 1995. Unfortunately nearly ten years later I needed more.

The Bad: I will put forth no spoilers here but I will say there is little build up to the ending and it is over in a blink of an eye. I felt like Val needed to have the book done by 400 pages and she wrapped it up just before she over shot the mark.

I love how she references Silence of the Lambs more than once and then liberally borrows plot points from it.

Bottom Line: Read Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs both are way more fun.

Van McDermid, a first-rate writer of psychological thrillers, can be tantalizing in her detail and measured pace. I'm just used to fast paced, gory stories.

This book introduces the Tony Hill and Carole Jordan characters and the uncertainty of their relationship is believable. The characters gradually develop depth and start a reltionship that will last for a number of books and TV movies.

I can't tell you how it ends, but you will be surprised.

The pace of the book presented the only negative part of the experience. The TV movies don't waste any time, but McDermid, much like P.D. James, takes a lot of time building characters and settings.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I did find it tiring.

I read this book when it was first released and it still sticks with me. The best aspect of the book is the interweaving of the author's personal story and that of the man who supposedly killed his family then fled the country. When he was caught, he was using Michael Finkel's name and identity at a Mexico resort area living the good life.

Imagine getting a call to find out someone was using your identity -- and that person was suspected of murdering his family. Wouldn't you be compelled to find out why?

The author is looking for redemption from his own journalistic mistakes by finding and writing the truth of a news-worthy event. Other reviewers found Finkel to be self-serving but I'd have to disagree with that. He was PART of the story itself because the suspected murderer identified with him enough to use his identity. Gradually, that identification allowed him to open up to Finkel through the taped conversations. If they had not shared that link, there would be no story.

Maybe readers of murder mystery are accustomed to having an "aha moment" when the crime is solved and all the pieces of the puzzle are revealed. This book reveals more of the main characters' inner selves without having a tidy ending. I love ambiguous endings.

Well worth a few intense nights of reading.

There were times throughout this CD when I wanted to just turn it off, but somehow I made it through. The events depicted are well worth knowing about, and Mr. Finkel can ply the skills of his trade when he wants to. The research and facts are all done quite well.

But long before the story was finished, I had complete understanding of why the author had gotten in trouble at the NY Times. He can't see past his own shiny self-image. The same ego that caused a talented young reporter to throw his career away while attempting to make a name for himself is the driver of the hubris that bloats this book. We know he's being taken in by a lifelong con artist ages before he can admit it to himself.

The author tried to build up suspense that would lead to a moment of truth at the climax of the story, but just like his fabricated articles for the newspaper, there was no truth to be told. We know not to trust a habitual liar, but apparently another habitual liar doesn't. I would get so frustrated with his naiveté while driving in my car listening that I'd yell at Finkel as if he was a pedestrian stopped in the middle of the street before me, trying to decide whether to continue crossing the road or head back to the curb he just came from!

Despite the unique nature of this bizarre tale I can't recommend the book. I'm all for author involvement ala Ira Glass' "The New Kings of Nonfiction", but in this case you'd be better off reading someone else's coverage of the same material.

A thoughtful, well written description of a horrendous crime that explores the psyche of the killer; the author's growing understanding of the killer's psyche as he gets to know him; and the author's own travails while all this is going on.

Back in December 2001, a heinous act occured along the Oregon coast that would forever alter the lives of the people involved with it. Christian Longo, newly relocated to the area a few months back, savagely took the lives of the people closest to him, and then fled the country. The shock and horror of the crimes reverberated strongly through the community and the state. While in Mexico, Longo assumed the identity of disgraced NY Times reporter Michael Finkel. Thus, this unusual pairing of these two men was born, and the end result, this quite unusual recounting of the Longo murders in "True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa".

Michael Finkel was once top of his game, reporting on serious stories with serious implications. However, due to frabrications made in an "child slavery" story, he quickly fell from grace, retreating to his life in Montana. No sooner than that happened, his phone rang, and a reporter calling from the Oregonian fills him in on the Longo story. Having nothing better to do with his time, Finkel contacts the now-captured Longo, who responds, creating a very strange, symbiotic relationship during the time Longo was awaiting trial for the murders.

This whole book is quite amazing. From Finkel's complete, honest confession to his fabrications, to the letters that Longo writes to him, the story is quite the page turner. Finkel's writing style is uncluttered and easy to read. He builds his story well, from the introduction to the final, horrifying conclusion. Finkel's honesty is compelling; he cuts himself no slack for his fabrication. You must forgive him for his mistakes, and hopefully, he'll find himself back to writing.

This story is chilling, in so many aspects. Longo, a merciless killer, sits on Oregon's death row, living with his crimes. You wonder how he does, but after reading Finkel's book, which provides an unusual insight into the distorted mind of a killer, more light is shed on this subject. In short, it's a great read.

This book is about a murderer's theft of the author's identity to help him escape police apprehension. The author makes much of this fact,seeing himself as a victim, but an account I read of the actual murders has no mention of the author, nor does it need any for the purpose of telling its story.

Nor is the author a very sympathetic character, having announced at the beginning of the book that he has been fired for fictionalizing a news story for the New York Times. (a practice becoming more and more popular, it seems)

My main complaint, however, is that the book is just not that interesting unless you're fascinated by the inner workings of a journalist's mind.

I really found this book interesting. The details of Brookey and Christine's lives are incredible. Hard to believe it took so long to find Christine's body, sounds like some episode of Cold Case or CSI. Great book for True Crime fans.

This is one of the best true crime stories I've ever read. Not only was it well-written, but the story itself was fascinating. Mr. Puitt found just the right mix of background history, police procedure, and courtroom drama to keep the story clipping along at an even, interesting pace. The imagery, even if there had been no pictures, was so vivid you felt you were right there, even where you wished you weren't. Very, very good! Looking forward to more from this author.

The book did not explain too much about Brookey herself. I wanted more on the withcraft, more on her Dad etc. Fast easy read, just not enough for me.

I was really quite surprised to find such a strange and deceitful person.a real woman could do such horrifying things to her own family. I never thought that true life could be worse than a fiction murder mystery.

Really good book - I got it from some Amazon.com reader's 10 best true crime novels and if this one was any indication of the rest of them - he/she right on the money!! Very graphic - pictures are definitely NOT for the faint of heart. I still can't get them out of my head

The feeding tube guy is very quiet. Coleman is perpetually stoned. A second killer is on the loose and making trouble for Serge. The manic pair travel through the eyes of hurricanes during hurricane season to execute justice of their own brand.

They "kidnap" a newspaper reporter to resuce him from the second killer, the self proclaimed "Eye of the Storm", also travelling through the eyes killing Floridians. Eye of the Storm writes the newspapers claiming that Serge is the copycat killer and is inadequete. Mahoney is convinced that Serge's personality has finally split and he is both killers. Serge is beside himself with rage and goes in search of the Eye of the Storm.

The story twists and turns all over the state of Florida during hurricane season in 2006, although it is a fictional season. Serge scores chicks. Coleman scores pot. The plot scores with a wonderful surprise ending.

Two things are slightly different in Hurricane Punch form the other Dorsey books I've read. First, the language is cleaned up a bit; nearly to the point of being PG-13. That's fine and good, but a slight change from his usual style. Second, the imaginative killing is missing. Usually Serge offs a menace to society in a most creative and outlandish way. There is a murder near the end that is typical Serge, but lacks the oomph that Dorsey gives him.

That being said, Hurricane Punch is five stars with a wonderfully woven plot, reduced cast of wacko's and a great ending you could never guess.

Rock on, Serge.

Since I've read all of Carl Hiassen's books, Tim Dorsey was recommended to me. Both authors love Florida (especially Everglades City and the Keys) and offer bizarre characters, but Dorsey seems to be lacking Hiassen's finesse in writing. I find the character Serge A. Storms bizarrely amusing in his quest to punish "bad" people. Dorsey is imaginative in Storms' murder methods (particularly with the cooler and MREs heating fuel) yet his writing style leaves me to guess what Storms has done. While the murder method is later revealed, I'm more interested in what else in happening in the story. Given a choice, I'll take Hiassen over Dorsey, but Hurricane Punch is a better read than some of the other Dorsey novels--Hammerhead Ranch Motel, for example.

These books are an excellent example of how the reader can influence the story. When Serge goes on a manic rant, George Wilson's interpretation makes you want to sell your house buy a six pack and get in the car with him. When Oliver Wyman reads the same monologs you want to stop the car and throw the irritating little motor mouth out on the street and leave him there. Wilson's Serge comes off as a big eccentric genius who you want to listen to and learn from. Wayman's Serge is an irritating nut case Joe Pesci character who just won't shut up.
When he started my wife said "That's not Serge, that's a little New Jersey guy named Vinnie." Coincidently, a little guy from New Jersey named Vinnie shows up later in the story and when they start talking it gets very confusing because you can't tell which voice is which.

I loved these stories, but I will always look closely at the readers name and I won't by anything else read by Wayman.

Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey is another hilarious adventure with Serge the serial killer. Dorsey has the rare talent of being able to make you laugh at the absurdities of modern living, if it's annoying, offensive, revolting, ugly or just plain evil, Dorsey can make it funny.
In this story Serge gets into the relationship thing, (among other things) and the quest for love raises ridiculous to epic heights. Serge is busy trying to be all things to Molly, but there's another serial killer on the loose. Mahoney is trailing him, sure it's Serge, but Serge is playing house with Molly. Meanwhile a hurricane is coming and Serge is trying to protect his new friend from the serial killer and give him the low down on how to handle women and there's this parrot guy...
Serge's buddy Coleman is along for the ride, and the drugs and the partying and be prepared for a really surprising ending.

Serge and Coleman are off on another whirlwind tour of Florida. More of a hurricane tour this time though. Serge's obsession with hurricanes leads him to drive around Florida in hurricane season within the confines of the eyes of hurricanes. On the trip, Serge tries to rediscover a religious path to follow while squeezing in appointments with his therapist. Meanstwhile, Jeff McSwirley becomes everyone's favorite sympathic tragedy reporter for a 'fair, unbalanced newspaper' of Gladstone Industries. All this and an apparent copycat killer of Serge. Meanst-meanstwhile, recently released Agent Mahoney becomes stuck in 1940s police-noir and thinks this purported second killer is really just a split-personality of Serge A Storms.

In this series by Tim Dorsey, there is a definite step back from the usually murderous ways of the unstable Serge and chemically oblivious sidekick Coleman. I've enjoyed this whole series, some books more than others and I think this is a step up from The Big Bamboo and Torpedo Juice : A Novel. There's less inventive deaths here but Serge striles an ominous one with an amplifier. It's not a socially redeeming series but it's sure fun to read.

This is the story of Tommy Lynn Sells who killed in multiple states and the testimony of a 10 year old girl that survived one of Sells' murderous attacks. It was her determined testimony that ended the slaughter.

Diane Fanning chronicles Sells' childhood,numerous jail stays,and nationwide travels. He even worked on the road for a few carnivals.

Some of his murders overlapped the area and time of the "Railroad Killer",Angel Rosendiz. That caused some confusion for law enforcement early on.

Sells has no sadness or remorse. Even killing a freshly new-born baby in the bizarre murder of an entire family! He seemed to victimize mostly younger girls,although victims could be from any age group or gender.

Another sad aspect of the Tommy Lynn Sells case is the probability that there are more unsolved murders across the country that he committed that won't be solved. He identifies some photos of victims and the place where the bodies are discovered but can't or won't elaborate details. This is in part due to his heavy alcohol and drug abuse during his murderous travels.

Diane Fanning has done her research well and some of the information comes from Sells himself. A real page-turner until the trial part of the book.

Diane has managed to do it again. A well written book that takes you into the demented mind of Tommy Lynn Sells. I can only imagine the research that went into this book. Cross-Country killers are especially hard to write about because their crimes are so widespread.

Fanning wanted to tell a story and wanted to tell it fast. To do that she had to cooperate with the killer to get his version. Tommy Lynn Sells is a con man and he conned this writer. The book is entirely too sympathetic to Sells and has next to nothing about most of his victims and little about the police and prosecutors who worked to put him away.

How distorted is the book? Well, Fanning worries that poor Mr. Sells and his "wife" (he married her while still married to another woman) were cruelly forced apart by the legal system. That is, a judge threatened to to give custody of her children to their father if she maintained contact with Sells. To Fanning this is persecution. To most people it is in the best interest of the children. What kind of parent pines after a serial killer who murdered children?

Fanning even includes a letter from Sells as an afterward to this book.

For those who read this book, google "Tommy Lynn Sells" and see how much Fanning distorted her portrait.

Diane Fanning's THROUGH THE WINDOW is the story of Tommy Lynn Sells, an itinerant thief, con man, and murderer and possibly the most appalling and cowardly serial killer you will ever hear about. The first quarter of the book, which presents the crime for which Sells was finally apprehended, the murder of Katy Harris, is thorough and well researched. Likewise, Fanning provides well reseached and necessary information on Sells' childhood. The last portion of the book consists of a letter, which I found interesting, from Sells to Fanning in which Sells places the blame on everyone and everything he can think of rather than take any personal responsibility for his brutal murders. Finally it is apparent that Fanning has devoted an honest effort to make THROUGH THE WINDOW a comprehensive study. This is not one of the cynical rush jobs too often found in true crime writing.

Unfortunately, for me at least, the negatives outweigh the positives.
While the description of Sells' murderous odyessy is well done, the subject soon becomes repetitive. Sells wanders endlessly by car or train around the country killing and raping, and as the accounts of the crimes are necessarily short because there are so many of them, it becomes difficult to keep them straight. While I understand Fanning's desire to acknowledge as many of Sells' victims as she can, this does not always translate well to a coherent narrative.
It is however considerably more compelling than Fanning's presentation of Sells' trial. In my opinion a good true crime writer will, unless a trial is the high point of the story, seriously condense the trial segment of the narrative to contain only that portion which provides information which is truly necessary for the reader's understanding of the story. Otherwise the narrative will generally grind to a crawl, which is what happens in THROUGH THE WINDOW. Fanning includes verbatim way too much of the trial transcript: is it really necessary, for example, to provide the reader with as much of the almost always boring forensics as she does? In my experience this is a technique used by lesser writers and/or those who need padding to complete a minimum number of pages.

But the worst part of THROUGH THE WINDOW is the writing. The best true crime is professionally and reportorially written. The genre is at its best as TRUE crime. Fanning's writing, however, is often enough dramatic, sometimes to the point of becoming ridiculous, that her book enters the realm of dramatized, rather than true, crime.
On page 29, describing the scene of a kidnapping and murder, Fanning writes "The trilling songs of birds and the rustle of leaves caressed by a breeze provided a harmonic backdrop to the screams of a tormented young woman." Really?? On page 72, we get, "The warmth of the mellow sun competed with the warmth in Nora's heart." Though it may be considered a spoiler, I will tell those who are interested that Fanning does not reveal which source in this warmth competition was victorious. Perhaps it was a tie.

Then there are the silly similies. On page 33, describing a future victim's acquiescience to Sells' manipulation, she writes, "Like a leaf in a whirlpool, she was drawn into his world of uncontrollable violence." And on page 57, "Kent had bled to death - homeless and alone like a dog scavaging the city dump."

On pages 82 and 86 are two irritating examples of semi-pro writing. "Carnival season started early every year in South Texas - 1998 was not an exception." And, "The flood was a traumatic experience for the whole community. This family was no exception." If neither of these occurences was an exception, why mention it? This seems sort of high-schoolish. What would be wrong with a simple period after "South Texas"?
And finally, in a flourish combining the ludicrous soap-opera with plain bad writing Fanning gives us, "And in his hand was a knife from her kitchen. Her gullibility gleamed on its blade." That's just embarrassing, and as I was reading it, I felt my gullibility for having started this book reflecting dully off its pages.

Ultimately, in my opinion, Fanning's style of writing leads to melodrama rather than drama and results in, rather than a true crime book, a work of what is often dramatic fiction based on a framework of fact - fictionalized, as opposed to true, crime. This style of writing would seem to be more appropriate for romance novels or soap operas, but it has come to be representative of much of the catalog of the publisher, St. Martin's Press.
There are thousands of better true crime books available for devotees of the genre.

The information published in Through the Window by Diane Fanning regarding the abduction of Angie Houseman is incorrect. Angie Houseman was abducted from St. Ann, Missouri, not O,Fallon. There is a 20 mile difference in the locations of these two towns. This information should be verified for accuracy before being printed.

I have not read the book. I came across the information about Angie Houseman while looking to see if there was any new information regarding her case on the internet. Sadly her murder remains unsolved 14 years later.