Serial Killers Books

For me, Peter Straub's most interesting phase was the Blue Rose short stories and novels (including "The Buffalo Hunter") which culminated in The Hellfire Club. Don't get me wrong, The Hellfire Club doesn't belong to the Blue Rose series, but coming after it, is able to utilise its dense and imagistic style. The Hellfire Club is the best type of experimentation - it's a great story which also creates a series of stories-within-stories in an absolutely authentic way. So Straub is able to ventriloqise a Djuna Barnes-style poetry in "Unwritten Words", mimics a frustrated housewife's gargantuan roman a clef written partly on hotel stationary and bar coasters from around the world, and most pivotally creates a pastiche of Lord of the Rings in a "talking trees" fantasy trilogy which inspires insane cult devotion and a whirlpool of litigation and pre-Internet Internet-style exegesis. It's also the best serial killer novel that doesn't feature Hannibal Lecter. The more I try to explain this book, the more convoluted I seem to make it. But it's hilariously funny, deadly serious, deeply emotional, scathingly satirical, is a fantastic mystery with an endangered and endearing female amateur sleuth (think Rosemary's Baby - piecing together a tapestry of clues while in extreme danger), and has some beautiful and lyrical descriptive writing that makes scenes spring to life. While Hellfire Club sets up its main characters in the first hundred pages, and we grow to know and like Nora Chancel, the book goes completely ballistic when Nora is kidnapped by Dick Dart, a DIY surgeon (he's not a serial killer - that's libellous talk!) with some refreshing and not altogether wholesome social philosophies. When Dart first explodes on the scene, there is a long section of the novel which I think is one of Mr Straub's most incredible achievements.

Straub has written some fine, atmospheric thrillers. This one was tough to like. The villain is over-the-top evil. The heroine maddeningly endures the indignities of her nasty in-laws and her spineless husband. It was a relief for her to be kidnapped. And the Hellfire Club? Didn't seem to have much to do with anything.

Every fine writer is entitled to lay an egg now and then. I hope this one never hatches and reproduces.

Well, I was convinced by Stephen King's endorsment on the back cover, where he says, 'Dick Dart alone is worth the price of admission'. I'll take King's reccomendations with a grain of salt from here on. Dart was certainly the highlight, and I was looking at my watch waiting for him to appear, because the rest of the book didn't have all that much 'zap' to it. It's a novel that does all the little things right: plot fits together, characterization is competent, prose is okay, though nothing special. It does these technical things well, all the 'platform' things, but never really delivers much payoff. I was waiting for this secret hellfire club to become relevant - maybe Davey's in secret league with Dick Dart and so on - but it's just a chunk of backstory that never really comes into play. Oh well, I only paid $2 in a second hand book store, no great loss.

This was decent, i guess. Haven't read a lot of Peter Straub - only Koko (which I thought was marginally better than this), and his collaborations with the great Steven King (The Talisman, Black House). I enjoyed The Hellfire Club overall, but Straub's dialogue (in this and Koko as well) just isn't completely believable for some reason. And I had a hard time really accepting Davey and Nora Chancel (and Dick Dart, for that matter) as real, fleshed-out characters. Again, I enjoyed the book overall, and if a friend asked me about it, I would recommend it, but I don't think I'll ever regard Mr. Straub as one of my favorite authors. Good story-teller, though; if I was huddled around a campfire listening to him spin some spooky ghost-story, I would most likely be delighted. I'll definitely read more Straub in the future (hopefully more creations with Steven King, who I suspect must handle all the technical guts of their joint efforts: dialogue, character development, etc.). One last thing, not a big deal: how many times in one book do I have to read "..she padded into the kitchen," or "she padded into the living room," or "she padded back into the kitchen," or "she padded upstairs." ugh...quit "padding" around and just walk once in a while. Anyway, if you're thinking of buying and reading the book, I say go for it. i don't think you'll be dissapointed, but I don't think it will change anybody's life, either.

I was hoping Straub would treat us by tossing in a few mentions to Floating Dragon, since the setting in this book, wealthy Connecticut suburbs of New York City, was about the same, but nope, no such luck.

The title of this novel comes from Straub's version of a certain infamous Yale fraternity, only in this case he dubs it the Hellfire Club. The main character here is Nora, a Vietnam veteran and a woman suffering through menopause (no joke). Nora has, at the novel's start, been falsely accused of kidnapping a frumpy loser of a neighbor lady of hers who basically makes the claim up to add excitement to her life. While at the police station sorting through the charge, Nora, is herself abducted by a wisecracking millionaire serial killer called Dick Dart. Dick (it comes clear later that the nickname is not without reason) takes Nora with him on his flight from justice. He brags to her about his life, deeds, how he never makes love to a woman under sixty, even his secret motive for killing a number of rich local women (they were all connected to his father's law firm as clients, and the negative publicity and client-flight should ruin the old man, whom Dick Dart hates). Nora is a shrewd woman who holds her own against the arrogant, oddball Dick Dart, son of one of the wealthiest lawyers in town. She presents herself as one criminal relating to another, and Dart buys her act and is amused by her show of toughness. They drive through New England, steal cars and lay low, have discussions about a Lord of the Rings-like novel they both love, and Nora manages at one point to escape, but since she's a suspect in a kidnapping back in Connecticut, she cannot go to the police.

Dick Dart eventually catches up with Nora again, but she trades some information she's obtained about the secret meaning within the Lord of the Rings-ish book in exchange for Dart sparing her life for the moment. The pair make their way to a famous writer's resort called Shorelands, where Dart enters a comical meltdown stage, takes hostages (a group of women, whom he makes strip naked...a bit lurid Mr. Straub) and.....well...the rather flat novel does finally reach its conclusion with order being restored and everyone getting about what they deserve.

This book would probably never have gotten published by a first-time writer and were it not for the lingering fame of Straub as writer of some fine horror novels back in the day, this wouldn't be on bookshelves now. I know that's a stinging comment but it's true and I'm out of patience with Peter Straub for a few too many lackluster books like this. I mildly regret the time I put into The Hellfire Club (by no means a short novel) and wouldn't recommend it to anyone except die-hard Straub fans or those with major amounts of time on their hands. I know that's a little mean but I think Straub could do better than he has with his books since Koko.

Several reviews have spun the "flawed but interesting" angle, and they're right. My only contribution to the body of reviews is that it's my first Ellroy book, my first serial killer book, and even my first real crime book! And I couldn't have been happier reading it.

I didn't find it particularly scary, and only a little bit chilling. Either I'm a psyco sympathiser or -- more likely -- I just didn't find the thriller aspect of it very convincing. There's a gap between the first person description conveyed in the book and what one surmises would be the endless horror felt by an objective witness. Partially that gap is deliberate; the recordings of a screwed-up mind will obviously (hopefully?) seem a bit alien. But partially, I think the writing could be a bit more convincing, and place you more in the "scene" than in the killer's mind. It's a very fine line, and I don't pretend to suggest exactly what Ellroy could have done better. Using newspaper reports and a detective's diary as narratives is clever, useful, and interesting, but I believe Ellroy relies on this technique just a bit too much.

On the other hand, it is a very interesting plot and characterisation, although reviews have been polarised on both these points. Tracking the thoughts and fantasies, highs and lows of such a deviant gives an invigorating and challenging point of view on "normal" society.

I hope that adequately conveys the impressions of a first-timer. It won't be my last Ellroy or serial killer book, and I was certainly happy for this to be an introduction.

Probably only worthwhile to offer readers perspective on one of America's greatest living writers, currently at the height of his powers (can he possibly get better?).

Too long, repetitious, with unnecessary slaughter/clutter, silly at times and without surprise. If you're just getting into Ellroy, maybe - but only so you can later discern the massive heights this guy scales in AT and TC6000. But if you're looking around for the rest of the catalogue and found this re-badged re-issue, don't bother, IMO.

First off, I must state that I am a fan of James Ellroy. This may cause me to appreciate his lesser works more than if they had been written by someone I hold in less regard. While "Killer on the Road" is certainly one of Ellroy's lesser works, there are certain aspects of the book that I find compelling and make it worth reading.

A convention that Ellroy employs throughout his works is to further the plot through the use of newspaper articles. This detached "journalistic" writing can provide a lot of important facts in a short amount of space and also serves as a contrast to the remainder of the novel which is generally presented subjectively through the eyes of one character or another. In general, it is a highly effective approach to develop the action of the story as well as being quite entertaining.

In "Killer on the Road" this convention is taken one step further. Virtually all chapters are preceded with a series of articles describing the discovery of bodies and descriptions of the deceased, police leads or suspects (if any), and other facts related to the crime. The remainder of the chapter follows Martin Plunkett as he perpetrates the crimes the reader has just read about in a "newspaper." I found myself returning to the beginning of each chapter constantly to review the detached account of the slayings in light of the subjective version that Martin has just provided. The juxtaposition of the two accounts is an effective narrative device that adds depth to the story.

Compared to other Ellroy novels, however, "Killer on the Road" is much less complicated and interesting, but it does have its merits. I wouldn't start with this novel as an introduction to Ellroy's works, but neither would I overlook it.

I think it was his best book, even better than L.A. Confidential. Ellroy is an expert on the subject. His mother was murdered when he was ten years old. He's a strange dude (read his piece, "My Life As a Creep" in his collection of stories, articles, DESTINATION MORGUE), but an excellent writer. I like the small touches he adds, like when the main character was working at the Hollywood Public Library (where the true life teen Ellroy used to hang out with his glue sniffing friends). Or when he crosses paths with another serial killer. Almost as scary as BTK.

This is one of the most unpleasant books I have ever read. Nowhere have I encountered a narrative depiction of the crimes and motivations of a serial killer more realisitc than KILLER ON THE ROAD. What worries me about this book is how realistic it is. I am sure that there are readers who are not revolted by the acts portrayed in this book, or worse, find them somehow amusing or exciting. If you know someone like that, someone who says, "Yeah I loved that book, it was really cool," STAY AWAY FROM THEM BEFORE THEY DECIDE TO CUT YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES!

This man neither "assisted the police" nor "was instrumental in the...arrest." He's just another opportunist who inserted himself into this tragedy in an almost laughable way, then cobbled together a true crime book for a quick buck. If you want the real inside story, read "Blind, Torture, Kill, The Inside Story of the Serial killer Next Door" by the reporters who covered the story from the beginning, and who had the cooperation of the lead investigator in writing their fascinating and through account.

Saw an interview with the author on Science Channel, and ordered from Amazon. The book came in days. It was very a riveting story, and as a matter of fact I read the book in one night. Amazon is great, when you hear or read about any book, you can get it immediately.

Wichita attorney Robert Beattie had puzzled like many over the years about the identity of the BTK killer. After an apparent lull of a decade in the serial killings, Beattie attempted to rekindle interest in this madman with a book outlining the nightmarish times of Wichitans living in fear.

Likely, as much of a surprise to Beattie, as to others, the book was the tool which caused BTK to resurface. Taunting the Wichita Police department once again, BTK stumbles and is caught due to his ignorance of the technology involved in a simple computer floppy disk.

All Wichitans owe "Nightmare in Wichita" and its author a debt of gratitude. It is unlikely that they would have ever heard from Dennis Rader (aka BTK) again if not for this book.

While not a great read .... and with some factual errors, the book is nevertheless quite interesting and worth your time.

If you can't find the time to read it, then drop a line to it's author. And just say thank you.

Densel Myers
Yukon, Oklahoma

It would be difficult for a book on this subject to be uninteresting, but the author almost succeeds. The facts of the case are brought out very well, and initially held my interest intently. However, toward the middle of the book I became bored with details not direcctly related to the case, and I became increasingly turned off by the author's devoting page after page to himself rather than to the case. He apparently was indeed largely responsible for the resurfacing of the BTK strangler, but modesty would dictate that he allow the public to come to this conclusion without his pointing them in this direction. Furthermore I am puzzled by the timing of the book....it was written before the BTK strangler was even brought to trial!! Why not wait until the trial was over so that the results could be included?? One suspects that the author was in a hurry to publish before anyone else did, or was in a hurry for the profits.

This book started off fine. It was easy to read and there was enough to hold my interest. There were many syntactical errors which weighed down the flow of the book. The author lost me and then annoyed me about two-thirds of the way through. Suddenly, this seemd to become an autobiography! Wow, what an ego trip Beattie went off on. I didn't know whether to puke or stop reading; I actually skipped over the useless "me, me, me" nonsense and that is what I would recommend to readers. Beattie actually spouted-off about someone who showed up at his home as he was being taped for a television segment; this person supposedly told the broadcast staff that the author was the greatest authority on BTK but this person would not say so on camera. Skip over all that silliness and you will have a decent read. The author just loved to list all of the people who were clamoring to interview him and/or have him on their show. I really found his perpective distasteful--I did not buy a book about HIM; I guess he figured he would take advantage of a somewhat captive audience. Even one of the photos had to include him--the photo and his self-congratulatory references added absolutely nothing to the book. So, I would recommend the book if you are not bothered by having to read a bit judiciously.

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't have giving it 5 stars for one reason. The author did a tremendous job talking about the victims and giving the reader a background to the crimes but unfortunately (and i hope i am not coming off to sick) there are no actual descriptions of the crimes. I understand that Leonard Lake is dead and Charles Ng maintains his innocence therefore there is no way to acturately tell the entire story. Overall a very good book. I finished it in a couple of days.

Fairly familiar with events. Grew up near there. Lots of information her I was not aware of. Overall highly recomend to anyone interested in the case.
Jon

I remember reading about the Lake-Ng crimes which are still unspeakable, unforgivable, unconsciousable, brutal, merciless towards the men, women, and children who were completely innocent. Lake and Ng were two men of a kind who enjoyed sadistic pleasure in torturing people at their compound in Northern California. Fortunately, Ng is in prison on death row I believe and Lake committed suicide. The story behind their lives is equally fascinating to result in two of the most demented serial killers and sadists around. I read a lot of real crime books and these two men were monsters in human form who enjoyed the sadistic pleasures of torturing women to death and humiliating them. The story of Lake-Ng is only partially told because there are other unknown victims but even after 20 years since the initial discovery of the house of horrors, the Lake-Ng crimes still penetrate a nerve in the community there like ghosts who refuse to go away.

I am a fan of material that is a bit more hardcore and gory. This had potential to remind me of scenes from Silence of the Lambs when the girl was in that hole in the ground...but yet it didn't deal with enough of the experience of the victims. It seems to zoom through the victims and once you get half way through, all of a sudden the rest of the book dealt with court proceedings (I assume, I stopped after a few chapters of that part).
But on a positive note, these guys WERE hardcore and Leonard Lake had some serious issues. There was some interesting reading in the beginning
and is worth the read if you consider yourself a true crime buff.

If you are like me....then of course The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer is a great read, but also read about Albert Fish (Deranged). I just read about Armin Meitwes (a German cannibal) and two books about Eddie Gein. Of course, I've read a small stack about Manson and his family. I'd like to suggest a book titled Love & Death about the MURDER of Kurt Cobain. Skeptics are the ones who should read it the most!!!


[...].

"Die For Me" is a true story of gruesome torture, terror, sex, rape, cold murder and videotapes. To identify both Leonard Lake and Charles Ng (pronounced 'eeng') as ex-marines is blasphemy at its greatest. Similarly, and more critical, is the statement the author made contrasting both Lake and Ng with being God;

"...They had witnessed two young women enduring a nightmare, and two men (Lake and Ng) playing God with their lives."

More correct would have been contrasting them with the devil. The references of being an ex-marines or acting like God is a complete and total blasphemy. Both Leonard Lake and Charles Ng are not worthy of being recognized as ex-marines and worst yet, acting like God.

"Die For Me" is the horrifying story of the "Miranda project" by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng. Before Leonard Lake befriended Ng, Lake had a plan to prepare for Armageddon (day of reckoning) by building a military survival bunker. However, the plan by Lake went further than that since a secret holding cell was going to be built within the bunker. The cell would satisfy Lake's misogyny by enslaving, terrorizing, torturing, raping, and killing women he lured to his torturing den. Women were not the only victims in Lake's and Ng's Miranda project (based on the book "The Collector" by John Fowles), but men, children and babies as well. Both Leonard Lake and Charles Ng grossly took the lives of at least sixteen human beings.

The author, Don Lasseter did well in not describing the gruesome, gross, and churning details of what the victims went through before being killed and disposed of as worthless trash. The toned down descriptions are bad enough to churn the readers' stomach and raises the readers' displeasure to infinity.

Granite inscription at the sight:

In Wilseyville We Found You
Ou Lost Ones
Though Taken In Darkness
You Will Forever Live In Light
Rest In Peace

Victims Of The 1984-85
Wilseyville Mass Murder

I was originally drawn to this book by its title, and purchased it because the premise seemed interesting. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a story I had to force myself to finish. The summary and sample reviews on the cover promise enjoyable dark humor, but anytime there was an attempt at humor, it was only painful. The problem is that none of the characters are remotely likable, least of all the protagonist. I was unable to feel anything towards the characters except annoyance. As a result, the only thing driving me to finish the story was pure willpower. You can no doubt find better novels on which to spend your money and time.

Overall, the story was well written and kept my attention very well. The premise was interesting and excellent and I even liked the short descriptions of the murders in the book.
I can say I did not care for the ending because it felt unresolved and rushed to me.

Will I read Mr. Povey's next book?

Yes. I think he will get much better. Especially if he keeps his humor and wit within his writings. Please.. leave out the timid protagonist, I wanted to punch him the entire time I read the book.

:)

Povey creates an intresting story weaving dead celebrities and dead bodies. A sophisticated club that meet, greet, and weave tales of the latest kill, only for one member(sadly) to be in a "killers block". It's kinda like a writers's block, only there is the lack of a creative kill, rather than a creative story. When a FBI agent forces himself into the life of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. his sideline becomes his main occupation. Fairbanks Jr. most slowly disassociate his friendships the only way he knows how. With little side plots, a smattering of love, and dead celebrities, Povey's little club is an enjoyable read.

The plot of Jeff Povey's The Serial Killers Club is ridiculous. Our protagonist, targeted as the next victim of serial killer "Grandfather-of-Barney," winds up killing the murderer himself in self defense. Then, rather than calling the police like any normal person would do, he gets rid of the body and, posing as the killer, answers an invitation he finds in GOB's wallet to join an exclusive club--for serial killers only, because even mass murderers need to relax with their peers now and then. The club's members, who adopt the names of old film stars, meet in a public restaurant and tell funny stories about their recent slayings over dinner. (As luck would have it, their regular waitress--who apparently never needs the night off--is deaf.) Our faux killer, who adopts the name Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., finds that he likes the club so much that, yes, he'd kill to keep his membership.

It gets even stranger when an FBI agent forces Dougie to take part in an unusual undercover operation. The body count is high. The gross-out factor is high. There are misunderstandings among the principals of the I Didn't Kill Him, I Thought You Did! variety. What's clever is that Dougie, who narrates the story, is so clueless: he may be able to beat the serial killers at their own game, but he's too self-deluded to realize that they don't like his company as much as he supposes. He's also not as smooth with the ladies as he'd like to think.

Part thriller, part romance, this black comedy is one weird book.

-- Debra Hamel

Good book. Funny, Scary and just a little over the top. I highly recomment this book to any one. Original plot and the main character is very funny and well developed.

This is a book that you begin reading again as soon as you finish. Petrov starts and Nick solves the case. The same detective, the same investigation, 2 different perspectives. The book deserves 5 stars even though some of the subplots are so farfetched that they detract, rather than add to the line.

I stumbled upon this book at the bargain priced hardcover section of a bookstore. It was the best $4.98 I've ever spent. The book is fast paced and the narrative is often hilarious.

This was a really fun read; great for the beach. Abrahams takes the who dunnit and turns it on its head. The protagonist, Nick Petrov is a real good PI, smart, experienced, logical and plodding, who manages to just about solve the mystery given to him early on in the book. Your thinking wait a minute, is this going to be a book with vignettes of the best of Nick Petrov's cases because there's still 300 pages to go. But no, Petrov suffers some kind of brain cancer/anurism and winds up in the hospital. A big chunk of his memory gets cut out when they patched him up and so he has to go through the entire investigation from the start without the aid of any of those great smarts, experiences or logic that he used to count on. Petrov turns from cocky jerk to humble human and you like him all the better for it. Take this book to the beach this summer and then wait for Abraham's next book.

Interesting tale of a prior investigator (Nick Petrov) who had gained fame for cracking a serial murder case. He is hired by a woman to track down her daughter. What seems like a typical missing persons case then starts to turn weird and strange people seem to be attacking Nick. When it looks like he made some headway in the case, Nick has a severe medical problem that causes him to have amnesia including not being able to remember anything about the missing girl case.

Nick comes across some of the items he had collected from the missing girl case and realizes they must mean something. Little by little he starts to piece things together and get up to speed to the point he was before amnesia. The more Nick learns, he seems to realize that maybe this was more than a missing girl case and maybe it is related somehow to the serial killer case that he had worked on.

Some parts of the book are slow and others are a little difficult to understand but the reader wants to learn everything they can along with Nick. So many clues need to be pieced together to figure out and tie all the loose ends.

Nick is an extremely interesting character because he was a smug, domineering individual before his illness and after his illness he tries with difficulty to be the same way but is stifled by his new physical shortcomings.

A good read!

OBLIVION starts as a rather ordinary mystery, but picks up steam when private eye Nick Petrov suffers a brain hemorrhage resulting from a tumor. Another unique element is that the reader knows more about what's going on than Nick does when he wakes up in the hospital.

The early part of the book deals with a woman hiring Nick to find her daughter. He accumulates clues, painstakingly entering them in code in his notebook. After his operation he no longer remembers the code and must recompile the evidence.

Nick's main claim to fame was his role in the capture of serial killer Gerald Reasoner. Armand Assante even played him in a movie about the case. As he reaccumulates evidence, he begins to find similarities between the new case and the Reasoner murders. Someone is also trying to thwart his efforts, as he loses a key piece of evidence when an intruder breaks into his house.

A subplot involves Nick's love life. His former lover is now the LA chief of police. Their affair ruined his marriage. In his new world, Nick begins to fall for Billie, a black nurse who cares for him while he's in the hospital.

Another rather unique element is the presence of Nick's dead father, a former KGB investigator, as Nick pursues the missing girl. We're never quite sure if this is a consequence of his brain tumor, or if he really thinks he's talking to his father. The father also goads Nick for his ineptitude

One drawback of the book is that Abrahams telegraphs the culprit about midway through the book; we even recognize his/her accomplice when he arrives on the scene.

I've read one other Abrahams novel, END OF STORY, and one element they both have in common is originality. If you're tired of formulaic writing, give Abrahams a try.

This book is awesome as are the dozen or so books I've read written by William Bernhardt. Mr. Bernhardt is a very intelligent, humorous, and clever writer. I highly recommend reading everything he's written. He's now tied with Jeffrey Deaver as my very favorite author - and that says a lot!!!

I ENJOYED THE SUSPENSE AND THOUGHT PROCESSES OF BEN AND STAFF. I DO
ENJOY THE STORY LINE BUT ESPECIALLY THE INTERACTION OF BEN AND HIS
LEGAL TEAM. EACH OF THEM HAS BECOME VERY REAL TO ME.

I was a Bernhardt "virgin" before this book, and it's made me want to read all his others, in spite of the fact that they'd have different protagonists.

I understand most of his books feature Ben Kincaid,an attorney, and his office staff, but this one features a protagonist named Susan who is fighting many battles, most of them pretty intense.

For one, she is battling depression over the loss of her husband. This one battle is pretty significant, as it either leads to or exacerbates all her other challenges. The reader isn't clued in to how her husband died until really late in the book, and that's just as well because it would be a distracting revelation earlier. When this revelation does take place, there's so much else going on that it loses some of its distracting potential and becomes instead what it really should be: simply an explanation so that we can gauge what Susan is dealing with in her mind and NOT spend a ton of time thinking about the husband himself.

Another battle she is fighting is against her alcoholism, and I must admit that several times I wanted to just toss the book against a wall because I really disliked Susan. I mean, REALLY disliked her. It's tough to like someone who is so firmly situated in a denial phase, someone who not only refuses to acknowledge how much trouble SHE is in, but also how much pain she is causing everyone around her. When she begins to work with Darcy, an autistic savant, I want to yell at him "run fast! run far! she can only bring you great pain and upheaval!" But of course, all of this is pretty much what the family and friends of alcoholics go through: pain and upheaval, to put it very mildly. Susan is at her most frustrating, and her most human, when she (time after time after time after. . .) says or thinks that one little drink will just take the edge off. One little drink won't hurt anything at all. And why shouldn't she drink? After all, she reasons, she's had a bad day. A very bad day.

Her battle to get that niece back after she is removed from Susan's home is one I found particularly heartbreaking, but not because I wanted Susan to get custody of her niece. I found myself cheering each time Susan's attempts to get her niece back failed. An excellent cop and a great person most of the time with Darcy, Susan is a failure as a custodial "parent" to her niece. There are hints of what that niece might have been exposed to during the time she lived with Susan after the hubby's death. And Susan's inability to cope even to the minimal point of understanding the reality of her situation means that she is the worst person to be caring for a teenager who's already experienced loss and needs stability and compassion rather than upheaval and neglect.

You might think I hate this protagonist, but the opposite is true. I hated her blindness and her unwillingness to confront her reality, but that made her an excellent protagonist. I would imagine she is like many alcoholics: blind to the consequences of her actions, very much willing to play the victim, refusing to do what is right for others and focusing only on her own needs and desires. In other words, she's a "realistically-drawn" protagonist.

The story is excellent. It's beautifully constructed and suspenseful. There's enough humor in it to make the tough stuff (and there's lots of tough stuff, as you can imagine) bearable over long periods. I really liked the switching back and forth between Susan, Darcy, and the killer. That gives the reader a chance to understand each character in a way that makes Susan the primary protagonist, but not the only person of interest. I fell half in love with Darcy, and I even found a tiny bit of sympathy in my heart for the killer.

If this one novel is any indication, Mr. Bernhardt has a knack for drawing realistic characters who engage the reader on a more than "Oooo, I love this person" level. I don't love Susan, but I wish her flawed self lots of good luck in the future. That's something, considering how difficult a character she is to like at all.

Kudos, Mr. Bernhardt!

This is a flaw-full book. I'll only write the flaws at the book's beginning so I won't tell you anything of the plot just in case you want to read this book. For example:

1) The killer at the beginning was killing persons which names appear on Poe's books. How does he knows the name of one person who went to Vegas for one night just to swindle the casino?

2) If you go to Vegas for the very first time you'll learn in the first hour or so that for a one-buck-tip you can leave your car at any valet parking any time you want. And if you want to spare the buck you'll park for free in the same place. Now my point. The Vegas scammer was not her/his first time in Vegas, so why he/she parked the car in a gloomy parking lot when it was the valet parking? And within the valet there always is a security detail. So why risk his/her life?

3) How can be that the best profiler in LVPD oozes Scotch at night and at day nobody notices it or pretend not to?

4) Susan was deranged. Why? Because she was literally raped and she liked it. After that she raped her partner and the worst of all she spoke with her late husband all over the book.

5) You can really skip all the pages that includes Susan's niece.

And I can keep writing more flaws but I'll tell you the book's story.

Susan Pulaski is a royal mess. Recently widowed and alcoholic, the Las Vegas Police Department relieved her and the city of her duties as a police psychologist. After all, the dear lady had enough klinkers in her thinker that had to be hammered out first.

A psychotic serial killer is on the loose and it takes a person with savantism, an extremely rare form of autism to help Ms. Pulaski "get into the mind of the killer" and anticipate the killer's next move.

I for one am quite sick of stories that portray autistics as being savants. Since savantism affects less than 10% of the autistic population, it is sadly ironic that it has become such a stereotype. As for the autistic character, being the child of Ms. Pulaski's former boss didn't hurt either. All in all, a ridiculous, implausible tale replete with cliches and stereotypes. Please retire this entire cast and bring Ben back!

If you are a reader of Ann Rule's and/or Kathryn Casey's books, this one will be a huge disappointment. The story of Dana Sue Gray is interesting. How an extreme need to shop would motivate this young woman to kill elderly women, is fascinating. But the writer does a poor job in explaining most of the questions one has about a female serial killer.

The books starts very slowly and is so redundant. The author goes over the same material several times, and jumps around in the story so that it becomes confusing. And like many crime writers, he seems to think readers are more interested in the law enforcement officials than in the subject of the book. I would rather read about the background of the subject and don't necessarily want to know so much about the investigators.

The author moves quickly over some of the murders, then backtracks later to describe them in more detail. He waits until the last 1/3 of the book before he delves into the childhood, upbringing, and character of Dana Sue Gray. At that point, the book becomes more interesting and easier to read, but that section is way too short compared to the amount of time he spent on the investigators. It's almost as if he just stuck the chapter together the same way he wrote them, with no editing involved.

The author leaves the reader wondering if another book has been written by a different author. One that may explain more about Dana's motives and whether it was remorse that changed her plea to guilty or if it was to avoid the death penalty. A lot of questions go unanswered. However, her life behind bars is detailed and I appreciated that glimpse into prison life. How female prisoners create beauty products out of the sparse materials they have access to, is quite imaginative!

As a prolific crime story reader, this one is at the bottom of my list. I also ordered several other books at the same time and after reading this one, was happy to delve into a Kathryn Casey book where the story flows, is about the main subject with only minor references to law enforcement, and tries to understand/explain what motivates the killer.

There are so many other great books about true crime. I would skip this one or try to find it at the library. Don't waste your money.

Very good book, though in the end you still wonder what the real motives of this Dana Gray were for those appaling killings of elderly women. Is she a total psychopat? If so, you don't get that conclusion out of this book.

The quality of the writing is average, though the story/case is interesting. That is perhaps my biggest gripe. The word choice, the description, etc., are not as strong and captivating as that of other authors (Edna Buchanan, Ann Rule, M. William Phelps, etc.) The book is still worth reading though, and sheds inside into the police handling and media coverage of a female serial killer vs. a male one...

Braidhill's book is filled with interesting tidbits about Dana's life and terrible crimes, and it flows fairly well. I learned a lot about police interrogations too! But there are places where it could be better. I noticed LOTS of errors that should have been caught by an editor, but its still pretty good all-in-all. I only gave it 3 stars because its just not a page-turner, although I DID finish it so it couldn't be all that bad! Great for a distraction and to learn about serial killer's BIZARRE minds.

In the hands of a better author, the story of a brutal female serial killer with a heart of black evil might have been a very interesting read; however, this True Crime novel was nothing "to die for."

Dana Sue Gray viciously murdered 3 elderly women in one month and attempted to murder a fourth, who lived to identify her. Although the murderess later claimed periods of amnesia and an overwhelming sense of depersonalization during and after the murders, Dana Sue Gray was able to deftly sort through credit cards, cash, and checkbooks with the speed and accuracy of a financial advisor and spend thousands of dollars within one hour of a killing.

Once Ms. Gray is arrested, however, TO DIE FOR takes a spiraling tailspin into the abyssmal and the ordinary. Relying heavily on verbatim police interrogation records, the book slows considerably. When Ms. Gray is moved into protective custody while awating trial, there are endless chapters detailing the repetitious, histrionic, and manipulative letters Dana mailed to family members, friends, and other imagined supporters. In effect, this portion of the book could have been easily reduced by 40 pages without losing any real content.

In addition to the problems already addressed, this book was filled with typographical errors and editing mistakes. I counted in excess of 20 typographical errors and found contradictory information about a single event printed on pages 67 and 286. On page 67, it is written that after attempting to murder Dorinda Hawkins, "Dana took $5 dollars out of Dorinda's purse, leaving a $20 bill, used the cash register key to take $25 from the cash drawer and walked out." Yet, on page 286 it is noted, "Dana... had fled with $20 dollars from Dorinda's purse and $25 from the cash register." A simple fact check and a reasonably good editor could have, and certainly should have, noticed this error.

For experienced, "die hard" True Crime fans everywhere, your money would be better spent elsewhere. I read True Crime almost exclusively and I know what I like... TO DIE FOR does not even come close.

I was underwhelmed. I've read everything by Spider Robinson I can get my hands on, and this is NOT his best work. It's okay, but it's not what Spider fans are used to.

Anything by Spider Robinson is worth reading. The three stars are in reference to all the other stuff he has written, not compared to other books in general.

Having said that, I was a bit disappointed with this work. It seems more like the first shot in a proposed series than a work finished in Robinson's usual style. The premise is great, and it has Spider's usual touch in pointing out how bad telepathy would be for anyone accursed with it. The villian is classic Spider, too. Someone so evil, just so sociopathic, that it makes you want to retch takes a master touch to accomplish.

But I never felt like the book was really going anywhere. I felt like he got caught by a deadline halfway through his usual writing and had to finish before he was ready. The characters are beautifully crafted (as usual), and so real you want to meet them, but the plot seemed to sputter.

Anything by Spider Robinson is worth reading. His worst stuff is better than many authors' best. But I still felt like this wasn't his best effort.

This was quite a bit more down to earth than I expected. I had never read Spider Robinson before and with all the Heinlein comparisons, I expected very sci-fi material. This one isn't, really. It is more Dean Koontz or Stephen King (not horror as much as fantastic) with some Jonathan Kellerman (Alex Delaware novels) thrown in for good measure.

In other words, it is a mystery novel with a character that has a supernatural power. Overall, it was a pleasant read and worth checking out. I'm curious to see what his more sci-fi oriented books are like.

Very Bad Deaths is a new direction for SF writer and erstwhile columnist Robinson. It is set in the real world -- if you make the small concession that the real world might contain at least one highly sensitive telepath -- and goes into depth with the questions about sadism that he flirted with in Lady Slings the Booze.

Like the suspenseful and weird Lifehouse, this book is a chamber piece, with only four onstage characters, all believable and at least two lovable. Depending on how much the reader has thought about sadism, pain and fear, and what her or his own personal horrors are, this book could be interesting to terrifying. Myself, I had to phone a friend at 4 a.m. for comfort. But now I am reading the book a second time.

If you love Robinson and this doesn't sound like him, don't panic. And do give it a try.

I have been an avid Robinson fan for more years than I care to admit, but, sadly enough, he has come to the point of just filling pages up with words in order to be able to sell a book.

He starts out with a truly great premise and then wanders all over the known universe to tell it. A huge portion of this book is devoted to: describing the scenic wonders of British Columbia (nothing to do with the story); slamming the United States (nothing to do with the story); slamming the Canadian police (very little to do with the story); and extolling the virtues of marijuana use (absolutely nothing whatsoeverr to do with the story line.)

I learned that the world's best coffee maker is made in Switzerland. Why that was relevant to the story, I haven't a clue. One sentence mentions the killer started when he was eight years old. This, I wanted to know more about. Nope. Just that one line.

Sorry, Spidey, you've lost it. I won't be spending any more time wondering when your next book will be out and won't be spending any more money when it does. You now join the graveyard of authors who were once great, but now just hook words together. Very sad.

Written without any fluff or technical language where just about anyone can comprehend the valuable information about the dirt bags who prey on the innocent.

Having read this book, I will never listen to a thing Pat Brown has to say.

I purchased this book used for $8 from a local book dealer, and I can't remember the last time I felt more ripped off. Judging by the book jacket and introduction, it seemed like it may have been at least a decent introductory text on the subject. Instead, what I found was a book full of unsupported opinions with no research materials listed, no footnotes, and no indication of any actual, first-hand knowledge of the subject. Instead, the author makes constant, thinly-veiled attacks against the superstars of the profiling world--authors like ex-FBI profilers John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood--who DO have the decades of experience and research necessary to provide informed opinions about how serial killers and other violent criminals function. Pat Brown is a great example of the "Hollywood expert," those people that have no real credentials, but look good on camera (and make ample use of that fact.) For my money, I'll take the ACTUAL experts any day. I kept thinking, "What's the matter, Pat? Did the FBI turn you down for a job? Get over it already!"

Another thing that irked me about this book was the sheer amount of needless filler and bad formatting. At 194 pages (not including the ridiculously unnecessary "glossary"), it seems like there should be more material there than is actually present. Sometimes-large sections of each page are taken up with serial killer quotes, with no credit given to her sources (some of which are from interviews with the very same experts that she constantly slams). In fact, one of the "killer quotes" wasn't even from a murderer, but from a convicted necrophiliac. The Q&A formatting, while seemingly a good idea, just serves to take up more space, with each question in large, bold print. Essentially, it looks as though the book was designed to stretch a relatively small amount of information into a book-length manuscript. Since the primary purpose of the book is to pimp her own profiling agency, maybe she should have stuck with an advertising pamphlet.

Brown states in the introduction that she wants her readers to be offended, that the book is written from the perspective of the killers themselves. She certainly succeeded in offending me, but for all the wrong reasons. If you want to read a decent (if still flawed) book about serial killers from the perspective of a killer, try "The Gates of Janus" by Ian Brady. There's a guy who knows, from ample and grisly experience, exactly what he's talking about...

I am a criminal psychology major. I have done a lot of research on serial killers and I thought it would interesting to get a non-psychologists or FBI agents' point of view.
This book is nothing more than a series of serial killer stereotypes posed in the form of a question. Pat Brown then gives a very short answer to each of these questions. She responds with NO facts to support her views. She often uses circular reasoning. She contradicts herself frequently. Pat Brown is obviously very uneducated and has never done any research in the field.
At the beginning of the book she talks about how she rented out a room in her house to a serial killer. She decided to write the book to warn others. As someone who has actually done research in this field I can sum up her advice in couple of sentences.... Do NOT rent a room in your house to a total stranger! At least do a background check. That about sums up all of the advice in her whole book. Its pretty common sense.
I do NOT recommend this book to anyone!

I read this book, then I gave it to my daughter to read. I felt it was important for her to have some ideas about personal safety. This book is an eye opener in many respects. Not only does Pat Brown write in an entertaining fashion (makes you want to keep reading), but she also has a deep understanding of her subject matter. In her profession, as she makes clear, it is crucial to have a sense of humor so the job of dealing with the murderer does not drive you to depression. Not only do you get an idea of the mind behind the killer, you get treated to the mind necessary to be a serial killer profiler.

In short, the book really gets a person interested in the field. My daughter is now hooked on this subject. I had no idea how fascinating it is reading about killers, and about Pat Brown herself, her amazing life. Yet that is not all, Pat makes it a point to let her readers know what to look for in a situation and how to be safe. The difference between real fear and imagined fear. In summary, a great read for teens and adults alike. Read it and have your kids read it too...for safety sake.

Pat Brown is a virtual fraud looking for easy money. She has no training and has never worked for any law enforcement agency. Her book (and television appearances) prove she knows nothing more than the average lay person and sometimes says/writes things that shows she knows less than the average person on the street. I quote Pat Brown in a recent appearance: The killer is in a rush to leave the area and wash the blood off his clothes." Anyone who watches Forensic Files or CSI knows that all blood does not wash off and can also leave traces in the sink, pipes, washing machine. Come on, people, do you really want to listen/read anything this con artist says? Waste your hard-earned money somewhere else.