Serial Murder Books

Before reading this book I had read "Haunted" and greatly enjoyed it so I decided to read another one of Graham's books. I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed with this one. From the beginning it was so predictable that Bruce MacNiall and Toni were the Laird MacNiall and Annalise from the past. I also didn't understand why at some points in the book, there were instances where Ryan and Gina discussed what they should do about Toni. What happened with this? Also, what was Thayer hiding? There was a suggestion that he wasn't really Toni's cousin but this storyline also went no where. I think the author tried to add things to lead the reader astray but then in the end, these instances were never explained. Overall, this book was entertaining but left too many questions for me.

Toni Fraser and her friends have purchased a Scottish castle in hopes of turning it into a tourist attraction, reenacting the historic death of the laird's wife. Fictional story, or so they thought, until the current laird storms through the doors demanding an explanation. Luckily for Toni, his entrance worked right into their dramatization. Even luckier is his entrance on a Friday, when they have to wait until Monday to straighten things out. Laird Bruce lets them stay pending verification, and they all get wrapped up in the stories of the missing girls. Unfortunately Bruce found one of the girls murdered in the woods on his land, and there have been more suspicious instances surrounding the forest...could the ghost of the maligned historic laird be haunting the castle, searching for the ghost of his murdered wife?

This is the first book I have read by Ms. Graham, and I will give her another try. This story started out with a dramatic and spooky bang, but quickly fizzled and settled into a cross between the Hardy Boys Meets Gone With The Wind. It had all the elements in the beginning to be a "keep you on the edge of your seat" story. It quickly became a love story with a ghost thrown in to keep your attention. The thing that kept me reading the book was that it is well written and had just enough intrique to make me want to know how it ended.

If you are looking for the thrills of Kay Hooper, you will not find them here. If you are looking for a light, airy love story with alittle booga-booga thrown in, you might want to try this one.

Heather Graham has embarked on a series that touch on the supernatural. In THE PRESENCE she continues with this subject and creates an interesting but somewhat predictable tale.

Toni Fraser and her friends rent a rundown castle to house their shows. They reenact the history of a local laird and Toni thinks she's created a story that turns out to be true. Seems the original laird was rumored to have strangled his wife in a fit of rage while his enemy was approaching the castle centuries ago. When the real life current laird shows up during one of their performances, life changes drastically for the group.

Toni and Laird Bruce McNaill hit it off after a stormy introduction and romance is soon a focal point of the story. Mixed in is the fact that Toni is a medium and sees the old laird who is determined to get her to understand something with which only she can help. Added to the history aspect of the story, a serial killer is on the loose and disposing of the bodies of young prostitutes in the forest surrounding the castle. If that weren't enough subplots, add to them the fact that Bruce McNaill did not rent out his castle, seems the American group was fraudulently leased his castle. A few too many subplots make it at times confusing as to the main theme of the story.

Character development is very good, although the sub-characters appear to be a bit less detailed which in the end leads the reader to wonder as to the identity of the villain. Actually if you're a mystery buff, you'll not be fooled with the red herrings and will only wonder if you're wrong for a very short time. The clues thrown in to mislead you are so obvious they are easily tossed out as not being feasible.

Toni and Bruce were both well developed and enjoyable. The others were a bit of a mystery. Gina and Ryan, husband and wife team, were given a scant description but not much else. David and Kevin, the gay couple of the book, were described in a bit more detail but also not well developed. Thayer, the Scottish cousin of Toni, was the least developed of all. Other characters who remained vague were Jonathan, the town constable, as well as Eban, a caretaker of the castle. It would have been so much more enjoyable if more information had been given on these characters.

One of the biggest disappointments in the story is the bouncing from subplot to subplot. Just when I was focused on the history of the castle and wanting to figure out what the old laird was trying to tell Toni, I was tossed back to the murders or the fraud aspect of the story. It was a bit disconcerting.

Overall the story was enjoyable even if Graham can't seem to shake her early romance foundation. The mystery portion was lacking but did keep you entertained. It was a better than average story with enough variety to keep most readers enthralled until the end.

Ms. Graham's "The Presence" offers a little something for everyone. This is a paranormal, historical, contemporary romance that will entertain readers with wonderful details and characters.

Toni Fraser and a few of her good friends have combined all that they have in order to rent a true Scottish castle. There plan...to entertain tourist with a tragic story regarding the castle and it's Laird. They have put a lot of work into their dream and just when they start doing well with their tour and then the impossible happens. The Laird returns. Toni's made up Laird is actually a flesh and blood man, and the history she has created is eerily real. But, when bodies of young women are found murdered and Toni's dreams seem to be just to lifelike to ignore questions start to be asked. Just who is this man and could he have anything to do with the murders?

This was a well paced read, and Ms. Graham combined a lot of different aspects into a well rounded read. They mystery surrounding the plot of the murdered women will keep the reader engaged, and if that's not enough, the chemistry between Bruce and Toni will. Her descriptive prose will transport you to Scotland both present day and past. This is one read that I recommend for fan's of both Paranormal and Suspense genres.

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

This book consists of 47 chapters and doesn't start picking up until chapter 29! It really lacks action. It also tries to end the same way it begins, reminiscent of 'The Outsiders'. I would really like to recommend that the author read the 'The Outsiders' to find out how to write some really good action.

This was my first read by this author. I wanted an easy, no-thought book for the beach and that is just what I got. While I usually enjoy a more thought-provoking mystery, this book was just under that. It did provide some humor and was very light. For those that want a mystery that keeps you guessing until the end, look elsewhere. Overall, a great book for lazing by the pool or taking to the beach.

I have always enjoyed the mysteries from Beth Saulnier, and I am thrilled that she is now writing outside her 'Alex Bernier' series under the name Elizabeth Bloom. This book moves along nicely and is quite engaging, especially for the 20ish-40ish woman mystery lover. The tone, pace, and hijinks of the protagonist remind me of Janet Evanovich books.

I picked up the book because I had nothing better to do with my life and no other books to read...and got a pleasent surprise. The book isn't written up to the standards that I usually expect out of my books, but I have read worse. Isabelle didn't annoy me too much and the little romance was heartwarming. The ending confrontation seemed sloppy and forced, making it awkward to read. The holes that the Author left made me wonder if she was planning a series then a one shot. Either way, I find myself disquieted by the strings that were left hanging.

Good to read for a long wait, but leaves you lacking if you want something with some depth.

It's a bad thing when your fiancé dumps you for your maid of honor. It gets worse when it happens twenty-two minutes before your wedding is supposed to happen. It gets even worse when you decide to party at the reception anyway and become a media sensation when a picture of you dancing on tables is splashed across every media outlet.

In the aftermath, that media frenzy gets Isabelle Leonard an administrative assistant position in the empire known as Becky Belden Multimedia. BBM is a design and lifestyle empire run and owned by Becky who is everyone's favorite homemaking expert. And while BBM through Becky and her many shows and publications tells everyone how to live their lives perfectly with great taste, no one has addressed the fact that at least some of the over 3000 employees are dying in strange ways. Isabelle replaced someone who died and as the accidental deaths continue to happen, Isabelle wonders if she might have heard the wrong thing and could be next.

This cozy style mystery written entirely from Isabelle's point of view works slowly forward with Isabelle dealing not only with work issues but a complicated and chaotic personal life. Isabelle is not a take-charge kind of character and as such, she reacts to various events around her and does very little actual investigative type work until the second half of the novel. One is constantly reminded not just of thinly veiled allusions to public figures and various media events, but also of aspects of a Stephanie Plum type character that bumbles around quite a bit at times. In this case, instead of blowing up cars, Isabelle does not have a car, she spills a lot of things and bad things seem to keep happening to her. The result is an enjoyable, occasionally funny book that moves very slowly along until the final fifty pages, which makes the read all very much worthwhile.

This entire review previously appeared online at OnceWritten.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2005

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Basically, Norris describes various killers and their crimes, and then goes on to make broad "scientific" statements about the psychology and biology of serial killers, without much real evidence at all. If you buy into the theory that webbed fingers and large earlobes are good predictors of psychopathic behavior, maybe this book is for you. Otherwise look elsewhere.

The thing that puzzles me about this book is that no-one else seems to have picked up on its author's psychobiological theories, even though "Serial Killers" was published in 1988. I've read more recent books on true crime and haven't come across Norris's psychological or physical profiles of serial killers. I don't know whether this means his assertions are being ignored, or whether his work has been superceded or found to be incorrect.

At any rate, it is very absorbing reading. Dr. Norris takes the reader right into the bizarre, distorted mind of a serial killer. The author should know how they think, since he is a psychologist who has worked within the American prison system and has had the opportunity to interview several serial killers face-to-face, including Theodore Bundy, Henry Lee Lucas, and Bobby Joe Long. In his preface, Dr. Norris claims to performed five hundred interviews over a period of four years (my assumption is that he interviewed the same person multiple times, as I don't think there are five hundred serial killers in prison even over a four year period). What he found was that the patterns of parental abuse, violence, neglect, childhood cognitive disabilities, and alcohol and drug abuse were virtually identical for all of the convicted killers that he interviewed.

One of most important developments in the battle against serial murder was the formation of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia. Dr. Norris discusses several of the cases they solved, and also goes into detail about patterns of behavior they detected. For instance, serial killers are compulsive trollers, who travel over ever widening areas to locate their victims. The trolling patterns appear very early, even before they commit their first rape or murder. They also experience a biological rhythm very akin to a menstrual cycle. For some, the cycles of behavior are akin to deep brain seizures that alter perception and behavior without physically incapacitating the individual.

Dr. Norris focuses about a quarter of his book on five serial killers who tell the stories of their lives and their crimes in their own words. The five are Henry Lee Lucas (sentence commuted to life in prison by then-Governor George W. Bush in June, 1999), Carlton Gary (still on Georgia's Death row), Bobby Joe Long (still on Florida's Death row), Leonard Lake (committed suicide while in custody of the San Francisco police), and Charles Manson (in San Quentin, awaiting parole).

The chapter on Charles Manson is especially interesting, because the author discusses serial killers in groups, i.e. 'killing pairs' or 'families.' Almost 28% of all serial killers bond with others and commit their crimes in company. Killing pairs such as Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, the father/son team of Joseph and Michael Kallinger, the Kenneth Bianchi/Angelo Buono team of Hillside Stranglers, and the homosexual companions Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole all emerged as subjects of study in the 1980s.

If killing pairs are so common, why were all of the criminal profilers (those on T.V., at least) so surprised when the Maryland sniper deaths turned out to have been caused by not one, but two men?

Maybe they should have read "Serial Killers" before going public with their theories.

Last of all, Dr. Norris develops his own profile of a serial killer, including a list of "Twenty-one Patterns of Episodic Aggressive Behavior" that includes items like "Ritualistic behavior," "Extraordinary cruelty to animals," "Evidence of genetic disorders," etc. I found this author to have planted himself firmly on both sides of the nature versus nurture debate.

I bought this book second-hand and one of the more disturbing things I discovered while reading Dr. Norris's list of twenty-one behaviors, was that someone who had read the book before me had initialed eight of the twenty-one items!

I thought this book was a lesson in how to write "off the cuff" and not back it up with scietific data. There are no references to any research articles and his only expertise seems to be in his claim that he has interviewed a few serial killers. For example, where does he come up with his phases of serial killing? What validity is there to an aura phase, at which point the serial killers senses become heightened? This book is rubbish if you are interested in a scientific, rather than an imaginative, view of serial murder.

Joel Norris, in this book, shows his penchant for getting names, dates, and facts about real crimes wrong, while also managing to invent several nonexistent crimes. As with his other works, the inaccuracies and errors make this book useless for any serious investigator. Absolutely unreliable.

I bought all 3 of her books since I saw they all had 4 stars. I'm not as impressed & can't believe her books got such positive reviews. It's not a bad book, but it's not that good. It took me 4 days to read it - that's a long time. The book bored me & was unoriginal. The heroine bored me even more.

My big complaint was the priest's language. Language doesn't normally bother me, but when a priest is using the effword. That just didn't seem to fit.

I'd recommend Tami Hoag's books & if you want to read Theresa Monsour's bks. go to a library.

Good characters and plenty of suspense. Michael's character was a little hard to believe. He would have been alot easier to catch in today's reality. It was fun to read but not the best.

Monsour's first novel is pretty awful. It is extremely predictable--so much so that it read like a college writing assignment to compose a generic serial killer story.

Paris is the heroine--and of course she's thin (yet buxom), intelligent, feminine, horny, etc, etc, but also tough as nails when she needs to be. Please excuse me while I vomit. We have a thoroughly unoriginal sidekick, Gabe. The killer and his background are corny and unbelievable. The police could have solved the crime in about a half hour, but Monsour artificially prolongs a showdown and arrest--even though the police know who the murderer is and have appropriate evidence with which to detain him.

Let's spice up this blah story with some sex, shall we? Monsour has two studs trying to sleep with our heroine throughout the novel; and because she and stud #1 are officially separated (for thoroughly unbelievable reasons), she can enjoy stud #2 with a minimum of guilt. The final showdown with the killer is as predictable as death and taxes--a 10-year-old could have finished the story after reading the first half.

John Sandford, who writes police procedurals 100 times better than this and is a Twin Cities author, tries to make us think Monsour deserves our attention. Unfortunately, he's wrong.

I think this novel, a debut for the author, was a really very good read. Its hard to find a suspense novel that actually focuses on the lead character, Paris Murphy. You do have a couple of scenes with the love interest but thank goodness the main attention stays on the pursuit of the serial killer. It also shows Murphy interacting with her male partner in a non sexual sense which is so great! Finally we can read a suspense story that is not all wrapped up in sex (that always gets in the way) and see a heroine who is actually strong, without having a man to be there to support her every step of the way! Bravo!

"Clean Cut" is essentially about two detectives trailing a serial killer who likes to cut up prostitutes, and that's really as complex as it gets.

First of all, a serial killer offing prostitutes has been done so much already that most crime authors steer well clear of it. Did Monsour dream this plot up in the mid-90s? Secondly, the hot, spunky female detective/older, fat male counterpart is derivative beyond words. They don't even seem to be especially intelligent. The blurb states that they "piece together the clues", but it plays out more like psychic phenomena. Paris spots the bad guy at a funeral and immediately deduces that he's the guy. And it isn't exactly difficult to catch a criminal who leaves so many clues behind even a Blues Clues fan (i.e. four years old) could catch him. Our heroine likes to run and is a great cook. Where have I come across that before?

The lack of plot is further made evident by the presence of at least three too many endings. The number of times the villian pops back up to have a go at Paris rivals the worst slasher movie.

What works in the book's favour is that Theresa Monsour is obviously a good writer. The dialogue is believable, the characters (while cliched) are well-drawn, and the pace rarely flags. But she needs to come up with a plot that doesn't play out like a comfortable connect-the-dots puzzle. And, most importantly, she needs to come up with a few ideas that haven't come from a hundred writers before her.

This book is really good. If you are a true crime fan you have to read this book.
I have read all of the 48 hour mystery books and this is very well written.
I still can not believe the outconme, but will not say anymore as not to give it away.
Buy this book!!!

Catherine Woods arrived in New York in 2002 with the same hope of many young dancers to make it big in the "Big Apple". Even though she met with obstacles along the way she was determined and never gave up hope she'd make it. When Catherine was savagely murdered on November 27, 2005 one boyfriend was suspected and another ultimately arrested. The news broke tabloid style and seized the stripper, love triangle theory and wouldn't let go.

This book does Catherine and her family justice by taking us past the gossip. It was even handed and told in a way you can look at the facts and see for yourself where the "Death of a Dream" ended. If you enjoy true crime reading this is the kind of unexaggerated book you'll want to pick up.

Catherine Woods had a dream to become a dancer on Broadway but sadly three years after arriving in New York City, she was found murdered to death. She did dance but only at the clubs performing as a dancer to men. It wasn't the ending of a girl who came from Columbus, Ohio. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, she was preparing to go to work and her male room mate and former boyfriend, David, went to walk the dogs and stop by the building where he worked as a doorman. Catherine had two boyfriends. Her live-in boyfriend, David, also came to New York City but they were no longer in a romantic relationship but they did live together. He loved her more than anybody in the world. Her other boyfriend, Paul Cortez, also aspired to be an actor and he came from a good family. This book has a lot of photos which is a plus. When David discovers Catherine's lifeless body, he is immediately questioned as a suspect. Despite his own innocence, he freely went to the police and was willing to speak without a lawyer present. To David, his whole life was Catherine. Even though she didn't want him as a lover, they were still platonic friends who lived together and split the bills. Catherine knew that David couldn't live on his own in New York City which is very expensive that they agreed to this living arrangement. He never questioned Catherine about the men that she was with or seeing. David's alibi would be verified and supported which ruled him out. He even allowed the police to take pictures of him without clothing to show that he had no scratch marks. It didn't matter because his beloved Catherine died. Her boyfriend Paul Cortez soon became the prime suspect and convicted murderer when the police learned that his cell phone was in the vicinity of Catherine's upper East Side apartment. Through it all, Paul's poor mother, Ivette Cortez, stood beside her son which she described as her baby boy who she loves very much and refuses to believe his guilt. The case was shown on 48 Hours and I remember watching it. I got the book last night and it is a quick read as well. Catherine was finally trying to be independent of Paul when he couldn't take it anymore. Unlike David, Paul was obsessed and possessive about Catherine which may have driven him to murder. It's still a tragic story.

There are two kinds of true-crime books: the literary ones, usually written by journalists who work on all kinds of topics (Truman Capote, of course, is the best example), and the, for lack of a better word, unliterary ones, written by people who do true crime only, and which often skip the hardcover and paperback formats, and go straight to mass market.

Death of a Dream is a particularly poor example of the latter category, and it follows the formula: beautiful girl (from what I've seen, the authors of these books don't seem to care when homely women are murdered) meets handsome guy who seems great at first but he has a dark side, and ends up killing her. If you like that kind of thing, I guess Death of a Dream is not terrible, but it is paint-by-the-numbers writing.

"Death of a Dream" is a sensitively written collaboration by Paul LaRosa and Erin Moriarty. Some of the reviews on Amazon have not done the book justice. I saw the original broadcast on "48 Hours" and it was apparent the producers and Erin Moriarty were not sensationalizing the tragic tale of Catherine Woods. The interviews with Catherine's parents, David Haughn, Ivette Cortez, and Paul and his friends provided the viewer with an honest and respectful representation of Catherine's life. This is the type of story you cannot put to rest, once the book is finished. I still feel great sorrow for the Woods family, David Haughn, and even Paul Cortez. What a tragedy.

Being a fan of Minette Walters, I was surprised and disappointed to find that this is a Walters book not worth reading. It begins with a bang but quickly descends into a long drawn out story with numerous sub plots about a village and its eccentric inhabitants that have nothing to do with the primary story. The ending picks up a little, but by then I found it hard to care whether, Connie, the heroine ever makes it back from her mental decline to save the day.

This book is a thrill to read. Minette Walters is a very intelligent writer with exceptional skill at mastering the psychological and suspenseful aspects of her novels while keeping them timely.

She demands something of her readers that is rare today. It is obvious she writes for she loves the written word, the same as the old classics were. She doen't write to get a best seller - her masterpieces do that on their own. She writes the story she needs to tell. It is obvious she always does much research and her characters are all very real.

But she demands that her readers THINK while reading her works. You can't meander through, look ahead at all. You must invest time to the wonderful adventure she always manages to provide.

And yes, I must admit this is not my favorite from her, but any book from Ms. Walters is far and beyond in quality from most of today's authors. I did find the subject matter thrilling, the war components were very well written and her main character was very real to me.

I recommend this book highly and always await her next release with great excitement.

Having been totally captivated by every Minette Walters book that I have picked up in the past, The Devil's Feather came as a huge disappointment to me. It has to be the most unthrilling "thriller" that has ever appeared on my bookshelves.
It took some stamina to plough through nearly five hundred pages of the fictional ramblings of a self-obsessed woman who doesn't trust anyone around her and just moans and groans about her circumstances. To be fair to the author, there are a couple of chapters of action towards the end of the book, but they are far from convincing and I was willing the protagonist to put the narrator out of her misery. Sadly, she survived to inflict more tedium on the reader.

Had this been Minette Walters's first novel, she would have sunk into oblivion along with thousands of other wannabe authors. Let's hope that her next effort returns to her usual brilliant standards.

Frustrating! Although it begins with a very good premise, once Connie hides out in the country the entire story becomes one big YAWN! Illogically this veteran war correspondent isolates herself in a "cute" country village where eccentric characters spend a lot of time taking up the pages with stories of weasels, thwarted love interests, personal tragedies of years gone by and farm life. There is absolutely no suspense and Connie is one of the most irritating characters I've come across in a long time. She spends a lot of time trying to figure out what she can use as a weapon should her enemy show his face. A pole from the attic, a broken bottle, a kitchen knife, an ax and on and on ad infinitum. CLUE: Perhaps you would not need a weapon dear if you had taken another course of action, say like staying in London where you are surrounded by people and telling your story to others loudly and often. The most logical action for a veteran of the horrors in Freetown, Iraq and the far east would have been to SCREAM out to the world press her story and have the guy's picture splashed on every front page. But then of course there would have been no need to go on and on with Connie and her paper bag breathing! Please someone tell me how it ends because I cannot bear to read another page!

In Iraq, war correspondent Connie Burns sees a familiar, troubling face, a man given wide berth years earlier in Sierra Leone, now using a different name, a mercenary training interrogators with dogs. Long-suspecting MacKenzie of perpetrating the brutal serial murders of women in Sierra Leone, Connie begins searching local reports for other such incidents, certain that MacKenzie is still slaughtering innocents under the guise of authority. Before she can confront the man or his boss, Connie is kidnapped and held hostage, released after three days. Traumatized, Connie's response is to flee to the familiarity of the UK, taking a country house in a remote valley, effectively sealing herself off from the world and the experience that has undermined her confidence, leaving her powerless and vulnerable.

It is a reclusive neighbor who recognizes the extremity of Connie's condition. Jess Derbyshire is an outcast in Barton Winterbourne, farming the land owned by her family, who were all killed in a tragic accident, leaving the girl to face life on her own. Indeed, Jess has coped, but on her own terms, her only companions the mastiffs that follow her everywhere. It was Jess who constantly looked in on the owner of Connie's rental, an elderly woman who has been put into care for advancing dementia. There is no love lost between Jess and Madeline, the woman's daughter, but Connie hardly knows what to make of this bitter feud rooted in secrets, Madeline passing on vicious gossip, suggesting Jess' instability. In this setting, Connie struggles with her crushing fears, dreading the memory of those terrible days of captivity and submission at the hands of a monster. Of course, the worst comes to pass, MacKenzie intruding finally on Connie's carefully constructed hiding place, shattering her security and threatening Jess and a local doctor.

As the past rushes in to reclaim her, Connie must confront her demons or suffer the consequences, the lives of her family hanging in the balance. Walters works her magic with this protagonist, exploring the nature of torture and the random violence of war, the psychic damage inflicted by fear and the slow recovery of a mind damaged by absolute terror and the instinct to survive. In the bucolic countryside, evil intrudes and two incredibly resourceful women, as eccentric as any of Walters' characters, deal with the menace that would annihilate them as well as a grueling investigation of disbelieving inspectors. Heroic in the face of adversity, Connie draws strength from her friend and from the rage that has consumed her, reclaiming her place in the world. When violence reaches out from Iraq to the Dorset coast, Connie learns what it means to be a victim and what it means to survive your worst nightmare. Once again, Walters illustrates that terror knows no boundaries. Luan Gaines/2007.

Nasaw's The Girls He Adored was a scary, thoughtful, and believable tale of horror and psychopathy. This one, Twenty-Seven Bones, is a light tale that's not terribly interesting.

Someone or something is severing peoples' right hands and leaving them to exsanguinate. Ex-FBI Agent Pender is called by his friend, the chief at St. Luke's PD, to come out of retirement (unofficially), to track down the bad guy.

The characters are pretty silly, and the story is pretty unbelievable. I was really ready for the story to end well before its time came. Skip this one.

I've listened to a lot of audio books, but this book, "Twenty-seven Bone" really stand out as an excellent piece of work by Jonathan Nasaw.

Mr. Nasaw chose a wonderful reader, Dion Graham. Mr. Graham can change dialect and accents w/ out a stammer, he mesmerized the audience and really pulls one into the story.

If you are a fan of Cornwell, the Kellerman's or Harris, this is the book/audio for you.

The characters' actions don't always make sense. The descriptions of torture and sex seem to serve no purpose other than repulsing the reader. There's no redeeming quality to the novel, so I can't recommend it.

The title of this effective little chiller comes from the number of bones in the human hand. Nasaw's third entry in the Pender series finds our recently retired FBI agent summoned by an old friend to the island of St. Luke to investigate the brutal murders of a serial killer(s). The reader knows who the culprits are right off the bat, but Nasaw effectively weaves his suspenseful tale by throwing in some interesting subplots and some uniquely envisioned characters. The island atmosphere and language is captured convincingly and the pacing is good for a novel where the suspense comes from wondering when and how the culprits will be apprehended. Good entry and should keep Pender alive for a few more books.

After reading the publishers reviews, we discovered what the publisher meant by "detail oriented". The details turned out to be more about sicko sex than about the exciting and suspsense filled hunt for serial killers. This is the first time we gave up on a book. We're not prudes by a long shot, BUT this was over the top for a murder/thriller/mystery. Frankly, we think it would be wise to list it under adults only or at least warn the reader about the sexually explicit material. Being fans of Jeffery Deaver, Kathy Reichs, Dean Koonz, Patricia Cornwell and others we were in for quite a shock with Jonathan Nasaw. Doubt we'll give another of his books a try.

It seems that Ms. O'Brian did not bother to adequately research the story of Brendan O'Donnell, the real killer on whom she based the antihero of her novel. If you care about accuracy, wait for the local release of the number two Irish best-seller "A Tragedy Waiting to Happen," the account of Tony and J.J. Muggivan, who were not only closely acquainted with Brendan and his family, but were actively involved in trying to prevent these tragedies. Their stories document their struggles to help the mentally ill Brendan, and the system that failed them all.

I'm a voracious, indiscriminate reader who enjoys virtually everything I come across, and I could barely get through this book. I found it difficult to follow and not at all engaging. The story would have been interesting if written in a different style; however, her prose was wandering and vague, and she introduced far too many characters for such a short book. I never got to know any of them, including O'Kane, and ended up feeling nothing but relief when the book finally ended.

I co-authored with my brother, Tony, a detailed history of Brendan O'Donnell, the individual on whom Edna O'Brien based her story of "In the Forest". The story of Brendan O'Donnell as told by my brother and I is entitled "A Tragedy Waiting To Happen" and published by Gill and MacMillan, Dublin, Ireland. Members of my brother's family are represented in Ms. O'Brien's book, especially, my brother. A comparison of the two books is worthwhile. The reader will easily be able to discern many of Edna O'Brien's characters with the individuals on whom her characters are based.

Ms. O'Brien's book is truly a work of fiction and, as such, sheds very little light on the life of Brendan O'Donnell. This becomes very evident when the two books are compared. However, it is interesting to have two books, one fictional and one factual, published on this young man's tragic life and written by authors from the same area in the West of Ireland - by authors who are familiar with the people who live there. I have read Edna O'Brien's book and believe she missed the mark. However, as a competing author on the same story, I acknowledge a strong bias in favor of the research my brother and I put into the story of Brendan O'Donnell's life and presented in our book "A Tragedy Waiting To Happen".

JJ Muggivan

"In the Forest," is a novel written by Edna O'Brien in which she takes us through the twisted mind of a psychotic criminal,describing everything and leaving nothing to the imagination. The story has no protagonist to suppress or defend the intrinsic evil of Michen O'Kane, therefore leaving nearly three hundred pages to indulge in the disturbing and misguided crimes he so selflessly committs. However, this is not where the book fails in its attempt to expose the prejudices of society's outlook on the insane. A lack of connection to O'Kane or any other character for that matter, creates a feeling of isolation from truly understanding O'Kane's motives or convictions at any given time. The story tends to drag on, lacking in substance while O'Kane grows more evil with every turn of a page, transforming into an unrecognizanle form of a human being. The greatest failure lies in the pitiful attempt to include a love theme with O'Kane's proclaimed love a stranger named Eily. The plot is tedious and predictably cut short when O'Kane rapes and murders Eily and then murders her child. Referring back to O'Kane losing his mother which he explains at the end of the novel is the reason why he kills the son, to prevent him from living the life he himself has. This is the only part of the book to be grateful for because it prevents the possibility for a sequel.

Into the Forest is a disturbing look into the tortured soul of a man haunted by his past. He, is drawn into deeper evils that suck him ever deeper and deeper, not releasing him - or we readers - till the very last page. Based on a true-life triple homicide in Ireland in 1994, O'Brien's tale takes us into the hunted and haunted mind of O'Kane, the murderer. This story deals with acts of naked violence and is not for the faint of heart. No sunny conclusion, either.

I like most books, this one would be a better (and truer) read if it were entitled "inside the mind of John Douglas". He is quite sure Btk would not have been found if not for his, and I mean his and his alone, brillance. He is condesending. Didn't like it.

I finally found this book at Amazon! Its an excellent read all the way through. John Douglas does not disappoint! Reading this book will make you cringe at the thought of how brazen Dennis Rader (BTK) was. He didnt sneak around in the dark, he walked calmy in broad daylight and you invited him right in your front door!! Freaky stuff, great book!!

The first act of John Douglas's book about BTK is entitled "My Lifelong Hunt for BTK." He is being disingenuous at best. Let's review this "lifelong" hunt, shall we?

1. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, detectives from Wichita came to him for one-day sessions to create a profile of who BTK was/is.

2. After BTK is finally captured in 2004, Douglas is given a CD containing BTK's letters, diaries, and drawings.

That's it. Hardly a lifelong hunt.

Although Douglas does a nice job of reviewing the crimes BTK committed, as well as his motivations, he spends too much time talking about himself. He sees himself as a tireless hero in this quest, a real macho tough-guy. I found myself wanting to slap him throughout the book.

Interestingly enough, for such a highly celebrated criminal profiler, he gets A LOT of things wrong about BTK. He thinks that BTK is a loner who is afraid of women and does not associate with them; BTK was actually married for 30 years and was socially involved in both his church and his son's Boy Scout troup.

There is an interesting article in the New Yorker [...] about the history of criminal profilers and how they tend to say things that can be true no matter what. This is noticeable throughout the book when we are let in on some of the profilers' meetings with Wichita police. BTK is a loner afraid of women, but he might be married. He might also be divorced. Well which is it?

When Douglas finally interviews BTK at the end of the book (at the expense of a poor single mother who had been gaining BTK's trust for months so she could get her big break), Douglas says to BTK that he is sure that Nancy Fox was his perfect victim because she said something that really "got to" him and he didn't want to kill her. Nope, BTK says that was wrong entirely, which seems to be the case for almost all of Douglas' theories. Whenever something he theorized turns out to be right, he touts it over and over again, but conveniently leaves out the things he was so very, very wrong about.

All in all, a good overall book on the killings, but Douglas proves to be an insufferable author, so much so that I would never consider reading anything by him again.

I like John Douglas, and have read everything he has published. Unfortunately, BTK offers virtually nothing new in terms of insights about serial killers in general, or the BTK in particular. One gets a sense of deja vu in reading this--a revisitation (and somewhat lethargic at that) of a crime and a criminal that we have already read about. Douglas covered the BTK already, in Obsession, and though he disguised the discussion, it is clearly the same facts, the same ideas, and the same conclusions. Why he chose to write about the BTK again, this time devoting an entire book to him, seems to more a kind of personal cleansing, or purging of the soul, for having contributed very little to the understanding and the capture of the BTK when his services were first requested some 30 years (though he naturally suggests that his profiles were fairly accurate, and simply not acknowledged--a supposition not substantiated by the actual facts of the case--the original profile was general, inconclusive, and ultimately rather useless). Clearly the case has haunted him ever since, and thus, this book. It goes over the same ground as others have done in their books on the BTK (there are several), though in an odd order, beginning with the present, then going back to the original killings, then forward, then backward, etc. The "exclusive" interview with BTK which is promoted on the cover, and as a chapter heading, is very disappointing, in that it offers virtually no new clues as to BTK crimes--in fact, we really never get a clear understanding of what "created" the BTK--what set him off, what caused his early instability, what fueled his dark fires, and so forth. Douglas seems to have written this book almost as an admission of his own bewilderment--"wow, look at this one--even I am confused!", without offering any real insights, or new views, on an old case. Very disappointing and uninspiring--for a better view of the BTK, and other similar killers, buy Obsession.

I enjoyed reading this book. The subject matter kept it interesting and John Douglas wrote it so that it wasn't dry. The only problem I had was the TONS of proofreading errors throughout the book, which were very distracting. (These were all things that wouldn't be caught by a spell checker.) Mr. Douglas, hire a proofreader; and if you already did, hire a better one!

a thrilling ride with the gainsville serial killer. as u read it feels like u r right there with him as he relives his crimes for the readers. he also tells of prieviously unknown details of his abusive childhood (his father stomped his puppy to death right in front of him as a small boy) and his stint in the air force. his brilliant artwork, songs and poetry r also featured in his final work. truly a collectors edition!

Having read another book about the same subject, this book was a massive disappointment. I'm not sure if I expected to get a feeling for who the victims were, as this was co-authored by Danny Rolling himself, but I certainly hoped Sondra London would delve into this much more than was done, although she can't really be called objective.

Having lived in Gainesville in the 90's, this book in no way captures the essence of the town which was shocked out of its innocence and changed forever by these horrific crimes. It's sad to say, but the most engrossing aspect of these books is not the endless exploration of Rolling's life (of which there is a LOT), but the few short (and I do mean SHORT) mentions of the murders themselves. I found myself skipping to these parts of the book, only because the rest was so unenlightening.

The murders and mutilations, although heinous, are somehow diminished in their atrocity by the total lack of insight into the lives that were being ended, the city and campus that were being changed forever, or the emotional disasters being wreaked on the families and friends of the victims. Rolling is just not that interesting. His ramblings about the alter-ego "Gemini" mask the true reason for all this tragedy -- his social impotence, lack of success with work or women, and his rage at all others that he perceived to have easier lives than he had.

For a great account of these crimes, read The Gainesville Ripper, by Mary S. Ryzuk instead.

Having been involved with Rolling and Bobby Lewis at the time this book-like thing was being devised and thus having first-hand knowledge of many of the facts, I strongly advise others against buying into Rolling's carefully crafted deception. There is little in this that is truthful and certainly nothing that is useful. I would find it laughable if it weren't for the fact that Rolling slaughtered eight people, including an 8-year old child, then deceived those in whom he confided, Lewis and London, in order to bring his dream of being published to fruition.

So if you support murder in general, wish to applaud Rolling for these killings in particular, or want to help him torment his victims' families, then by all means shell out your dough. But if you're looking for factual or useful information, look elsewhere.

I only gave this four stars so I could look in the mirror without feeling guilty. But its probably a five if your a sicko. To hear the killer tell in his own words the killings and events that led up to them is almost to much for a sane person to bare. They read like a penthouse letter. I took out my throbbing member and put it in her wet, ok you get the picture. But then there is something alot different than penthouse letters, I grabbed the knife and ........ This book has to be read to be believed. Instead of reading the accounts by some dry author, take a chance and read the story by the killer himself. But I will warn people with tender hearts and weak stomachs to stay away.

Ms. London has been called the Queen of the serial killer groupies, but no one will ever call her the queen of crime writers. Along with her then-boyfiend Rolling, the couple trots out every pathetic excuse imaginable for his murders. The fact that this is from "Feral Press" should be warning enough.