Serial Murder Books

I could not put down Sheldon Rusch's THE BOY WITH PERFECT HANDS. This page-turner entertained me with a poetic voice set against crumbling characters and events. I was attracted to the suspenseful piecing together of clues and pushed through the grisly scenes. Hewitt remains a volatile mix of emotion and cerebral control, and I am glad for the messiness. Hewitt's friendships and continuing relationships round out her character and create a richly textured emotional landscape. With Hewitt, the reader can take a moment out of a life and question man's humanity to man as well as within himself. It surfaced with a subtleness and imbued this work with a rich patina of things to come. Why read a horror book? Rusch tugs at how love of oneself and others determines a darkness within or a hope for humanity. Where will Hewitt go from here? I cannot wait to see.

A man is found strangled in his home at the same time a woman is found murdered and posed in an outdoor arena. The pattern happens several times. Illinois State Special Agent Elizabeth Taylor Hewitt is assigned the head up the case. Her new captain is not the father figure like her previous one;, in fact he is more like the evil stepfather who never lets Hewitt forget she slept with a serial killer. Elizabeth has a theory that two different people working in tandem are responsible for the series of murders.

Hewitt's first break comes when she notices that in the house of the male victims, the radio was tuned to the classical station WCLS. On the night of the last murder at 3:03 A.M. Nocturne in E. Flat by Chopin was playing. She thinks the killer got into the apartment and played the song working the victim over just as he did with the other male victims. When she goes over to the radio station, she is shocked to learn that the owner is her old high school friend Jimmy Benson. He tells her that the only disgruntled employee he knows is a radio personality he fired. When Hewitt meets that person her instincts tell her he isn't the killer and she moves the investigation into a different direction one that almost costs her and her lover their lives.

Sheldon Rusch proves he is no one hit wonder with THE BOY WITH THE PERFECT HANDS, a mystery that has luscious rich, literary prose, a likeable "everyman" heroine and a group of suspects that could all be the killers. The investigation progresses naturally from one moment to the next and makes the climax feel very right. The protagonist uses tried and true police methods as well as intuition to crack the case wide open.

Harriet Klausner

Adolfo Jesus Constanzo was born in Miami in the early 1960s to a 15 year-old Cuban immigrant, named Delia. There is no mention of his father or of any of Delia's family. Delia takes Constanzo to a Haitian Palo Mayombe priest for his "blessing." This voodoo priest informs Delia that Constanzo is destined for great evil and takes him as an apprentice. Together they spend time building ngangas, (it's something like a witch's cauldron). This makes Constanzo an outcast among his peers.

As a young adult Constanzo moves to Mexico and sets himself up as a psychic. He is pleasantly surprised to find how charismatic a bunch of dupes find him. He starts really raking in money when he begins offering his "magic spells of protection" to drug dealers. Then he gets a little too big for his nganga and demands more money for his spells. A drug kingpin calls his bluff and threatens and humiliates him. This is the turning point: Constanza decides he has to act. So, he tricks the drug dealer and slaughters him and his entire family. He makes the transition to ritual serial killer and takes over the drug business himself. This slaughter took place in an apartment and I just couldn't believe that no one called the police. Someone must have heard screams and or seen Constanzo's gang carting off the numerous bodies. Maybe they realized the police wouldn't do anything and they would face danger from Constanzo. It did come out at the end, after the arrests, that some children witnessed bodies being buried and led the police to the spot. I wonder if they told their parents about it and did their parents tell them to keep quiet? It turned out, after all, that a police chief from Mexico City was one of the cult members who helped Constanzo escape.

Over the next few years Constanzo, along with the help of his followers, tortures, sodomizes, murders, and mutilates dozens of people, mostly male drug rivals, sacrifices them to his nganga, and makes jewelry out of their body parts. Interestingly, in spite of all these vile atrocities law enforcement in an attempt to calm public hysteria assured everyone that there was no cannibalism.

One victim was a hardworking 14 year-old boy from a very poor family, abducted off the streets of Matamoros. When he didn't arrive home from work his mother knew something was very wrong. She'd heard rumors of men being abducted. She went to the police station several times and she was very callously and informed that all of the missing people have simply crossed the river into the US (without bothering to inform anyone).

Constanzo decides that in order to increase his magical shield of invisibility protection for his marijuana shipments in to the US he needs to sacrifice an Anglo. It's spring break in Brownsville and lots of Americans have crossed the border for cheap booze and entertainment. Mark Kilroy's disappearance bears eerie similarities to that of Natalie Holloway. It's late at night he and three of his friends are in a bar in Matamoros and slightly buzzed. They decide to walk back across the border. It's not well lighted, but there are lots of people around. Somehow Killroy gets separated from the group. Members of the cult drive up and Constanzo's beard, Sara, offers him a ride, or they just abduct him, and a few days later Constanzo "sacrifices" him.

This Anglo "sacrifice" far from providing protection from law enforcement launched a massive manhunt in two countries. Kilroy was a promising pre-med student from a middle class family with ties to US Customs. Eventually, the bodies, including Kilroy's, are discovered. So, Constanzo packs up his two boyfriends and flees to the home of one of his groupies. Karla (that's the name he gave her) knows all about the murders, and has three daughters she should be protecting, but is madly in love with Constanzo anyway.

Karla calls her friend Dr. Maria Bueno for help. Dr. Bueno tells her something like; "Gosh, be careful Karla he kills people." Humes explains that Dr. Bueno didn't call the police because she was afraid they would arrest her thinking she was involved all along. He also explains that after the recent earthquake the pay phones in Mexico City were free. Apparently it was cheaper to not fix them. This was in the late 1980s long before call tracing. He doesn't explain, however, why she couldn't simply pick up one of these many phones, call the police and say "narcosatanicos + the address", or why she couldn't give the answer the plastic surgeon gave Sara: "No, I won't do it. It's too dangerous" and "Don't call here again." Instead Dr. Bueno rushes over to Karla's home and gives them her new car so they can escape. She later ended up going to prison for being an accessory.

The gang was not apprehended due to police vigilance. Constanzo, in his paranoia, opened fire on a policeman ticketing a car. This sparked a shootout which led to their capture. It was only after the publicity following Kilroy's disappearance, which led to diminished tourism, and prompting by the US that the Mexican officials bothered to investigated. Then domestic bickering ensued. The Mexican Federales fought with the district police and the US Customs and DEA agents got into a turf war. As a result of US Customs and the DEA withholding information from each other one of the murderers was released from US custody. At the time this book was written he was still at large and is believed to have stolen the nganga and rebuilt the cult.

If not for the fact that over a dozen grotesquely mutilated bodies were unearthed I would have written all of these claims off as mass hysteria and urban legend. Humes brings up some other disturbing finds and cult allegations that he claims were covered up by Mexican law enforcement. Murder is rampant in Mexican border towns. Several hundred women have been raped, murdered, and disappeared in Cuidad Juarez over the last five years. Many allege police involvement.

The book concerns the Matamoros cult of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, the mechanics of how it came to be, and the inevitable end of the participants. The work is extremely well written and factual, with a "nervy" tone creeping up every now and then to make you shiver. The murder of Mark Kilroy is covered sympathetically, without being overly "patriotic". Rare interviews with Constanzo's relatives from other sources have also been included, as well as copious and detailed footnotes. This title is hard to find, but well worth the time and money if you have a curiosity about Santeria and Afro-Carribean religions.

for those of us who wish Veronica Stallwood and Kate Charles would write more mysteries...we can now welcome Lis Howell.

A delightful story, filled with 3-dimensional characters and stories within stories. These folks take their church music seriously, appreciating the music the way the Kate Charles characters appreciate church architecture.

It's a leisurely, meandering read, in the style of the British cozy. It's not a page turner: just the opposite. I was sorry to see the book end, as I'd enjoyed spending time with the characters.

There's a slight lull in the plot when the characters get together to focus on the mystery but it's worth staying the course. The ending seems realistic, not contrived. The characters' lives also move in very satisfying ways -- they grow.

Perfect for a few rainy afternoons.

In Norbridge, England the serial killing Chorister frightens the members of the Abbey Chorus. Norbridge Abbey Chorus singer Tom Firth visits the Norbridge College Music Department after everyone has gone home for the day. He trips over the corpse of unpopular nosy storeowner Morris Little. His hysterical shouts bring Professor Alex Gibson to come over.

The local police arrest several drug addicts who confess to the murder. However, TV producer Suzy Spencer and her boyfriend Robert Clark (see THE FLOWER ARRANGER AT ALL SAINTS for their previous snooping) have problems with the quick arrests as the victim was holding a Psalter that was no longer with him; it seemingly disappeared and they feel is a key clue to the identity of the real culprit. They compare preliminary notes with Alex, who is still struggling with a nervous breakdown after divorcing Music Department deputy Chair Edwin Armstrong. The three amateur sleuths investigate even as several odd near deadly incidents occur as if someone is warning them off.

The cast especially the amateur sleuthing trio is fully developed so that the reader understands the lead threesome and what motivates them to turn into detectives. However, that is a double edge sword as their baggage at times overwhelms the prime whodunit. Still fans will relish their efforts to prove the police are wrong, which angers the cops, as Lis Howell's latest Norbridge Chronicles Murder Mystery entertains her audience throughout.

Harriet Klausner

A good, solid journalistic thriller. Not as good as Handberg's first novel, Savage Justice, nor his two later books, Malice Intended and Dead Silence, still, Handberg, who was news director at the formerly great Twin Cities WCCO television station (come back, Ron! Come back!), obviously knows the business of TV news and the feel of the Twin Cities. His books are always great "beach books." Smart, crisp, entertaining.

Jessica Mitchell, a new reporter for channel 7, has just witnessed her first story. A man named Edward Hill was brutally murdered. AND NO ONE KNOWS WHY! Sarah Andrews, a lawyer as well as feminist and activist, is leading a rally for safer streets. Her roommate Kim, was a victim of a rape only a year previously, by a man named Edward Hill. Jessica wants to get involved in the story, but the police and the lawyers want her away from it. But she persisted. She refused to give up. A REALLY GOOD BOOK by the author of SAVAGE JUSTICE.

Mark Olshaker's "The Edge" is a gripping, tension-filled whodunit with lots of graphic violence and a feisty heroine named Sandy Mansfield. However, Sandy isn't quite so smart when she finds herself falling for the prime suspect: Dr. Nicholas Ramsey, charming, debonair and perhaps a hard-hearted killer. Ramsey also had a brother who was a demented serial killer, and it is his motifs that a new killer is using in homage to the crazed Neville Ramsey.
There are some major inconsistencies, however, that keep it from being a true "5" thriller. For instance, letters are being sent to Mansfield after each of the killings, urging her on. However, when it seems as if one of the killings is a copycat crime, she still gets a letter with the main killer taking credit. A big plot faus pax in an otherwise tightly written medical thriller. The ending is rather overblown, but it works okay, and I guess one can't help but wish Ms. Mansfield well.
The book moves well and the dialogue is terse and believable.

RECOMMENDED.

The details of the murders,the cunning connections the chemistry between a suspect and detective Sandy Mansfield are just a few things that give the story its course and non-stop action. The use of medical science as portrayed in this story is hard to put away from the mind. The force that pushes the murderer to butcher and "play with the body" lasts mind provoking. The end leaves the reader stunned yet fully satisfied with each detail and concept given. Olashaker contribution to the story is fully present in each aspect of The Edge. It is a non-stop thrilling, unforgettable experience for a human mind.

Twenty-three year old reporter Jancy Dewhurst plans to work one more year at the Clarion in Bishop, Oklahoma before joining her mentor as an overseas correspondent. Meanwhile she learns of a homicide in which the corpse was mutilated and a rubber band cut off circulation to the victim's penis. Sheriff Dudley Roundtree allows her to come to the crime scene where Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation Agent Jim Wills runs the inquiry. The victim is Pakistani student Charles Benuda.

Not long afterward a second body is found with the same gift wrapping, but the campus police moved the corpse before the investigators arrived. The deceased is Francis Speir, who apparently was a friend of Charles. Thoughts of hate crimes against homosexuals end when the third death is womanizing state Senator Richard Crook. Though he prefers Jancy to stay out of the case because she distracts him, Jim needs her insider knowledge especially when a mutual friend is killed next by a serial killer.

Jancy's youthful energy compares nicely against the professionals Dudley and Jim as the trio works on stopping a serial killer whose ribbon killing will haunt the audience (especially males) long after finishing the thriller. The sleuthing is first rate as Jim leads the inquiries with the help of the sheriff and the unwanted assistance of Jancy. The attraction between the two Js augments a fine police procedural though the motive when finally revealed seems off kilter.

Harriet Klausner

I just finished The Ribbon Murders, and I am still disturbed. The author puts you in the story, even when you would rather be at a safe distance. This book is excellent, it is driven by realistic characters, not impossible coincidences or process.

*****A great read from start to finish*****

A very pleasurable introduction to a unique character. Suspension of disbelief is called for in a big way, but the excitement and genuine feeling created makes for a worthwhile, fun and touching read.

"Fugitive Moon" features a collection of character portraits, particularly of the protagonist: oddball, occasionally institutionalized, relief pitcher Theodore Moon, the Moonman. Author Faust's dialog is as inventive, original, and scathingly clever as the idiosyncratic characters who deliver it. However, the framework of a series of murders of transvestites into which these characters are poured, is unfortunately left so vague that I wondered why it was needed at all. While the murderer is eventually revealed, I didn't really care who it turned out to be. This may, in fact, be Faust's intention in this send-up of late-20th century America, but that wasn't clear enough to me. Nonetheless, reading the thoughts of Teddy Moon and listening to his exchanges with the insane, inane and profane corps of baseball players, ex- wives and girlfriends, asylum residents and assorted non-institutionalized screwballs who surround him make the 300+ pages of "Fugitive Moon" more than entertaining. *********** Bill Lee, a talented pitcher aptly nicknamed "Spaceman", retired after the 1982 baseball season. Faust started writing this novel in 1983, expecting at first to write a more traditional baseball story, according to his Author's Note, before being led splendidly astray by the Moonman character. I wonder if he was consciously or subconsciously influenced by the on and off-field antics of Mr. Lee.

He has written many true crime stories for various magazines and has had one book published, but he never expected to be more than an observer on a homicide case. He revises his assessment when his brother calls to tell him that the police think he killed his wife. Ben Newman knows his sibling is not a murderer.

At his sister-in-law's funeral, Ellen Strickland informs Ben that an old classmate of theirs, Gerry Havers committed suicide three weeks ago. The next day, Ellen is found dead from a supposed car accident. Another classmate soon dies too. Ben concludes that someone has targeted his elementary school class and he feels he must discover who is the culpriit before anyone else dies.

Seymour Shubin is a gifted storyteller who creates a chilling psychological suspense tale. The tension builds in this work to a degree that readers will feel they ran a three-minute mile by the time they reach the finish line. Mr. Shubin turns his villain into a pitiable person rather than a hard-core evil soul, which leads to conflicting emotions on the part of the audience. No one will complete the novel feeling dissatisfied except with the fact that there is no more pages to read.

Harriet Klausner

Seymour Shubin, author of this engaging novel, has been an Edgar finalist. It's understandable when you read this, his eleventh novel. Here is a story that will tap the nostalgia factor in every reader. Here is a story that crawls inside our hearts, that has us nodding in vivid recall as we walk with writer Ben Newman back down the streets of time, into his childhood.

Here is a story that from the first chapter catches at our fading memories. And something more. Because the mind works in strange ways, many times suppressing or erasing the bad times, the things we did as a child of which we are ashamed, or a little mbarrassed about. If we pick at those memories, sometimes what we discover, is that the reality of those events of years ago are not exactly what we remember.

And sometimes, sometimes, participants in those old memories come back to haunt us. From the very beginning, Shubin's prose takes us first by the hand, and then by the throat. Ben Newman returns to his old neighborhood when his brother's wife dies in a tragic accident. As the spiral tightens and mistakes and missteps by Ben's brother bring police focus to the possibility that the woman was murdered, Ben begins a voyage of discovery. It's a voyage with increasing tension and suspense because Ben begins to discover that perhaps the woman was murdered, not by her husband, Ben's brother, but by someone from Ben's elementary school past. And it appears a killer is stalking Ben's former classmates in an effort to repay an old debt.

The book is properly called psychological suspense, and it is a thriller. Anyone who reads this engaging novel will come away with a different understanding and perhaps an altered perspective on their golden youthful days in elementary school.

This is not a book, but a reproduction of documents from the public Records office in London. For those that are serious about Ripper research, you need to have this. Since many of us will never get the chance to go to London, this will be as close as we get to what is left of Ripper Documents. Evans and Skinner are some of the best Ripper Researchers their are!

As a big Jack the Ripper-ologist, I was really excited about getting this but when I opened the box, I'm must admit I was a wee bit disappointed.

I got the impression from the item description that these would be "aged" like the declaration of independence and constitution replicas you get in the Washington DC souvenier shops. They are not, and rather on fancy photo type paper instead. Out of the 16 document reproductions, some of the police reports are on a high quality copy paper. Also there are little black circles the size of a hole punch with page numbers in the corners of each document (drat!). These are not display pieces. I feel this was a result of my own false hopes and mis-interpretation of the description... so I won't dock any stars for this.

My only legitimate complaint is that I wish there were more documents in it! Otherwise, this set is really nice for studying handwriting and gathering facts. I'm giving this 4 stars as the collection is an excellent "Saucy Jacky" study piece.

As a former police officer this was not always easy to read. That is because better police work might have prevented this tragedy. Even serial killers can be lucky at times, as this story points out. The story also points out that victims can play a role in bringing about some measure of justice, and that not giving up can be rewarded.

The author, an attorney, doesn't spare us from the failings of the criminal justice system, and there are many in this story. He also doesn't spare us from the grief and fear a family goes through when the killer and motive for the crime aren't known for a long time.

Justice for Marlys is a fast paced, easy read, but one you will long remember. And what this story brings home for me is a message police officers at all levels need to be reminded of, that police work is not just another job, anymore then brain surgery is just another job. It is very important that it be done well.

With great candor and heart Munday tells the story of his family's long search for justice after his step-daughter's murder in the 1970s. Munday uses transcripts, interviews, research, and personal recollections to recreate the events that surrounded this terrible tragedy. The writing is engaging and the facts are well researched, but the author also spends ample time discussing the personal impact of the murder on those who knew and still love Marlys. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in true crime stories, the criminal justice system, bereavement, Minnesota history, and stories about personal strength during the most turbulent times.