Serial Murder Books

There is so much mystery and unknowns when dealing with Jack the Ripper that nearly any theory should at least be listened to before criticism is made. In this turn of suspects, James Tully proposes one James Kelly of being Jack the Ripper apparently on the basis that Kelly killed his wife, Srah Brider, by stabbing her in the throat and then cutting it open. He was tried for murder but got off on insanity charges and placed in Broadmoor, a mental institute. Kelly then escapes from Broadmoor a few years later and lives out quite a long life travelling the world before willingly returning to Broadmoor to die. That's pretty much the first three chapters of this book. This is the last we hear of James Kelly more-or-less until the final chapter.

From there, Tully takes us on a trip through the Ripper Murders, of which he includes Martha Tabram, "The Canonical 5", Alice McKenzie, and Francis Coles but he then excludes Liz Stride from the "5" suspecting her pimp Michael Kidney killed her. Tully also suggests that Mary Jane Kelly may possibly have been James Kelly's sister-in-law who was living in secret from her family. Tully describes the murders but goes into much more detail regarding the death inquests of the coroners and the testimonies of 'witnesses' of the victims. Tully then wraps up his book with a chapter entitled "The Cover-Up" in which through self speculation and a bit of conspiracy, the author places James Kelly as the Ripper with fairly vague circumstancial evidence at best. This seems largely based on some file about Kelly being sealed until 2030 AD. There is also an appendix chapter on "Things to Ponder" in regards to some of the events.

While intriguing and worth reading, I'm not truly convinced of anything from these arguments. There's little to no evidence supporting these claims. Unfortunately, the text tends to drag on and I became uninspired while reading it. It's a decent text dealing with a mid-level suspect but there's really not much supporting it at this point other than conjecture.

If your a definite Ripper buff this book is worth reading. It presents interesting facts, as to who just might be the Ripper. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in looking into the mind of a very psychotic man!

Tully theorizes that Jack is really James(John)Kelly, an inmate of the Broadmoor, commited for murdering his wife by stabbing her in the neck. The notable fact is that he escaped from that facility in 1888 prior to the first of the Whitechapel murders. Here is a true madman, a paranoid who deeply distrusts women, has a history of a violent attack in early Ripper style, and is on the loose in London at precisely the correct time. Tully's case is bolstered by the very strange actions of the constabulary, whose attempts to recapture Kelly were half-hearted at best; orders being given, for instance, that if identified Kelly was not to be arrested(???). Unfortunately, there is little beyond these coincidences to make the case. As usual many questions are raised, but answers are in limited supply. Still, I recommend this book for its very plausible argument and excellent style.

Tully theorizes that Jack is really James(John)Kelly, an inmate of the Broadmoor, commited for murdering his wife by stabbing her in the neck. The notable fact is that he escaped from that facility in 1888 prior to the first of the Whitechapel murders. Here is a true madman, a paranoid who deeply distrusts women, has a history of a violent attack in early Ripper style, and is on the loose in London at precisely the correct time. Tully's case is bolstered by the very strange actions of the constabulary, whose attempts to recapture Kelly were half-hearted at best; orders being given, for instance, that if identified Kelly was not to be arrested(???). Unfortunately, there is little beyond these coincidences to make the case. As usual many questions are raised, but answers are in limited supply. Still, I recommend this book for its very plausible argument and excellent style.

While author James Tully presents a rational and logical argument for James Kelly as Jack the Ripper, most of Tully's arguments are based on circumstancial evidence, inductive reasoning, and details which easily could be merely coincidental. That's not to say the arguments fail to persuade -- in fact, Tully presents a great deal to consider. However, for this story to gain acceptance as the definitive solution, a great many more unanswered questions and possible alternative explanations would need resolved. It's food for thought he's trying to construct as a full explanatory meal. I'd recommend borrowing it from the library before buying it, if you are considering adding it to your collection.

The main character in Probable Cause is James Dewitt, a former forensic scientist who has become Carmel, California's sole detective, after his wife is murdered in a bizarre courthouse incident. A few month's into his tenture as a detective in a town renowned for its scenery, peacefulness and lack of violent crime, 2 dead bodies appear within days of each other... apparently unrelated suicides. Dewitt's forensic background and disciplined observation reject the easy way to close the cases. When a third body appears, the complexities skyrocket.

An excellent story. Dewitt is somewhat remote but grows on you as the story unfolds. The other characters, from likeable to extremely disagreeable or grotesque, are believable. As much as the book held my interest throughout, I feel there is a lack of balance between subplots and the main plot, with the latter suffering. That said, it is well worth reading.

This was my first introduction to Mr. Pearson. After reading it, I was hooked on his writing forever. And now, after reading every Lou Boldt book, Hard Fall, and Hidden Charges, I would definitely rate this as one of his best! It begins by introducing a character who is recovering from the loss of his wife and daughter. Mr. Pearson develops this man into someone we really care about. Without giving it away, let's just say that if you like books that cover the art of forensic science in a skillful way, I would recommend The Pied Piper, Middle of Nowhere, and Probable Cause as his three best!

No doubt about it, Pearson is magnificent. He has an incredible knack for creating suspense and developing believable characters. I enjoyed this novel so much and carried it with me just so I could finish it more quickly!
James DeWitt is a brilliant forensic scientist turned detective in Carmel, California. He switches jobs a few months after a horrific loss rocks his family. When suspicious suicides start popping up, DeWitt bulldozes his way past doubting fellow officers to investigate what everyone else says are open-and-shut cases. He teams up with Clare O'Daly, current forensic investigator, to get to the bottom of the mysterious deaths. Along the way he battles bureaucratic red tape, political interference and a burning suspicion that someone is building a bizarre cover-up. Did I mention that someone seems to be stalking his family? DeWitt doesn't even realize the impact this case will have on his life.
Pearson gives us great characters, a likeable hero, a ghastly villain and an intriguing little mystery. This is a taut thriller that held my attention and had me zipping through the pages to find out what would happen next. I'm so glad I found Pearson's books, and now I can't wait to move on to the next one!

You may feel that this genre is now flooded with every crime scenario that could ever happen. But then comes this wonderful book by a seasoned vet. Mr. Pearson never fails to deleiver high caliber writing. This book is no exception. It is well written and right on the money. A must read for any Pearson fan.

I didn't find this book to be up to his usual standard. Perhaps the extremely distasteful description of the animal killings (in particular, the cat) were abhorrent and I thought, did not add to the content in the least. There had to be a better way to give some insight into the mind of the killer!!

I really wanted to like this book, but it was difficult. It is extremely slow-moving, almost dull at times. I guess it isn't all that easy to encapsulate events taking place over a period of 9 years into a page-turner. This isn't the sort of serial killer book that a Thomas Harris or John Sandford might write. It does have its strengths--the characterization of the protagonist, Boudreau, is very carefully developed. The serial killer-snitch, Garrett Lockman is also well-developed and very scary. But with all the elements for a scary, thrilling book, Thorp instead goes for a very slow-moving style. And it is a rather choppy style, as well--I'd agree with the reviewer who says that half (a third) of the plot seems to be missing, with the reader left to fill in the blanks from rather sketchy summaries of what's going on. This gets progressively worse as the book drags on, as the chapters go from weeks to months to years apart. I'd have to give this a very mixed review--ultimately, I only finished it because I'd given so much time to reading it to the halfway mark.

I read this book when it was first published. I keep going back to it as the finest example of a serial killer novel I have come across (and I have read them all). The characterizations are so vivid it is hard to believe this is fiction. And the shocking ending! Great stuff!

THIS IS A FICTIOUS, BUT REALISTIC VIEW OF THE GREEN RIVER KILLING THAT TOOK PLACE IN THE 1980'S. THE BOOK SHOWS BOTH THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE MAN WHO IS TRING TO STOP HIM. THE SCENES THAT INVOLVE THE KILLER MAY BE SOME OF THE MOST DISTUBING I HAVE EVER READ. THORP DIVES INTO THE MIND OF A SEIAL KILLER AND SHOWS HOW THE KILLER THINKS AND ACTS. THE BOOK ALSO ENDS WITH A SUPRISE ENDING TO BOOT! I RECOMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONY WHO LIKES TO STAY UP LATE AND GET SCARED TO DEATH!

This book would have been great if it weren't based on a real life case. But it is, and thus there's two major problems:

1.The book, though filled with fictitious characters, follows the real life Green River Killings. The names have been changed, and that's about it. So right off the bat you have an idea of what's going to happen in the book.

2.In order to make this book interesting while not deviating from what happened in real life, the author expands the plot to include a ridiculous amount of other murders and a slew of pointless supporting characters that weigh the book down and sap the reader's interest.

In addition, I did NOT like the way the book was written. It seemed like only 2/3rds of a book, with the reader being left to figure out and then catch up with the plot once he's been able to piece together what the author was trying to convey/get across at times.

Don't bother with this book. Rules of Prey by John Sandford is a MUCH better book of this type, and unlike this book isn't weighted down by real-life events.

I'm torn by the book. I liked the characters, they are given great depth here.

Spoilers ahead:

But the book spans 9 years, from August 1982 to July 1991, and since they are never close to getting to Lockman until almost to the very end, it seems to be a touch slow. And since we know what Lockam is doing, there seems to be very little suspense when it comes to the cat and mouse game.

If the readers are expecting a James Ellroy potboiler, I don't think you are going to find that here. Ellroy's central characters have a deep, sad core that drives them. Boudreau isn't that kind of character.

Part movie of the week, and part LA Confidential, the book really sings in its high points, especially when the police politics are revealed. The power that snitches have is incredible and saddening.

Plus another problematic element is that this is based on the real Green River killings. Yet that case has never been solved. To attach the story to those events, taints the novel, and in a way undermines it. Especially with the "surprise" ending. Since the rest of the book is so grounded in reality, to add a "Hollywood" ending rings untrue.

The book was well written, and it is a shame that Roderick Thorp has passed away. I would have liked to have read more of his books.

Im not going to pretend that I read a lot because I dont, every once and a while Im browsing in a book store and something calls out to me READ ME. This is what the Society Of Others did to me. I dont want to tell you much about the book, I want to surprise you. The end will either shock you or go over your head. Its a book that you will have to read in between the lines. If you want a laid out obvious plot then read Tom Clancy but if you like books to effect you then read this. Its a heart racing hypnotic book of wisdom

This book is engagingly written and contains some delightful set pieces. But I'm underwhelmed. It's difficult to shake the impression that the author lost interest in the project about two thirds of the way through. The narrator's character is deftly established at the outset, but his passivity and memory lapses quickly become irksome, and his later mental development is not altogether convincing. The last few chapters degenerate into an uninformative muddle through which one can hear the author faintly screaming, "I want to stop writing this book RIGHT NOW!" On the other hand, it's a quick read and worth dipping a toe into.

One feels silly writing such a poor review on the work of someone with a resume like Nicholson, but it's hard to find much positive to say about the Society of Others, the first adult novel written by someone known for his screenplays, stage plays, and young adult. Though perhaps that's the problem, for Society reads very much like a screenplay or young adult novel, despite being otherwise intended.
The book's unnamed protagonist is a sullen, cynical young man, recently graduated from college who sits in his room all day and tries to ignore the world, whether it come in the form of his family, his girlfriend, or his economic future. The first quarter of the book introduces the character, puts him through his "world-weary" paces, and then has him use the thousand pounds gift from his writer father to "get away from it all" by hitching a ride with a trucker to an unknown destination.
The problems begin almost immediately. Though he is supposed to have graduated from college, in his speech, his sullen tone, and his cliched version of cynicism, the narrator sounds much more like a 13 year old boy brooding in his room than a 21 or 22-yr-old. His character is way over the top and while he occasionally hits some perceptive notes, they're surrounded by so much cliched and over-the-top noise that the few good notes get drowned out. And none of the dialogue in this section, mostly between the narrator and his family or his girlfriend, sounds like authentic speech. One can argue that Society has a "fable" feel to it, so perhaps it isn't intended to, but the thing about most fables is they're short; it's hard to pull off the style and tone over long periods of time--it just gets too wearying on the reader. In either case, the first 40-50 pages are a struggle to get through. The trucker whose hobby is philosophy and manages to sum up then skewer most philosophers in a single conversation can be seen as part of the fable mode or as highly contrived; in either case it didn't work for me.
The middle section of the book picks up when the trucker is let into a country that has the look and feel of the old Eastern Europe police states. Turns out the trucker is smuggling copies of an illegal book into the country. When he is discovered and violence occurs, the narrator manages to escape, left on his own in an unfamiliar, unknown country whose language he does not speak. The narrator then hooks up with a violent resistance movement, a non-violent poetry-loving resistance, a simple peasant couple trying to get by while caught between the state police and the terrorists, the state police, an absurdist television talk show host, a strange cello-playing monk with a secret identity, and a man in a grey Mercedes whom the narrator is sure has been hunting him. While the pace and sense of tension, suspense all pick up in this section, it's marred by some hard-to-believe scenes, some triteness (the peasant couple for instance), and the sense that the characters we meet are just props rather than characters. Again, one has the sense of fable here with the simplistic viewpoints, the shallow characters, the sense-of-disbelief, but it's far too extended and just doesn't seem to work.
The end focuses on his attempts to disentangle himself from the politics he's become enmeshed in and to escape the country, as he realizes that all his earlier cynicism was horribly wrong: his country, his family, his life wasn't so bad; his family loved him and he didn't do enough to return that love; life is for living; and other nice but trite sentiments. The end itself returns to fable form.
The whole book reads much more like a young adult novel (not a particularly good one) in its simplicity and obviousness of message and its mostly shallow characterization. The speedy shifts from scene to scene with little description and the changes in character that are propelled by external events (sometimes too contrived) and occur far too quickly make it feel like a screenplay. The side characters as props, the lack of names for the main character or main setting, the simplistic notions, and the close make it read like a fable, but one that should have been at most a novella, at best a long short story, rather than a 200 page book. In short, while it had a few good moments- a few times when the narrator sounded like an original, modern Holden; a few incisive comments on people or society-they were far too few and far between. Not recommended.

No need to worry that I might give away the ending. I can't figure out what happened.

The story is too loose to be literal, too realistic to be allegorical, and too arrhythmic to be poetry.

What if Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, and Tom Clancy decided to write a movie together - then they changed their minds and published it as a novel.

Yes. It has some problems. But at least it has interesting problems.

That's why I enjoyed it. This is proof that a book doesn't have to be well plotted to be fun. It broke some of the more formulaic story-writing conventions, it explored a setting that you seldom see in novels, and it had an engaging philosophical angle. Most important of all it was fast-paced and short.

For all the flaws, it was entertaining and challenging. The story and the philosophies will stick with me.

If you find that after reading this book the subject matter, setting, style, and characters leave you wanting more (and better), try to find a copy of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

He recently graduated college, but has no goals and speculates that life is meaningless. Why bother? However, tired of parental nagging, he decides on a coming of age grand adventure on the continent. He hitches a ride from the English side of the Chunnel with a philosophical truck driver on a three day trek across Europe.

However, once they leave the land of the Euro into the heavily guarded East, thugs using a roadblock stop the truck, torture and kill the trucker, but his passenger escapes. They burn the books inside the truck, but the hitchhiker rescues one along with an envelope that the driver gave him. The hiker reaches a nearby town where he meets Petra, who informs him that the burned books were targeted to go to those names listed in the envelop. He joins Petra's revolutionary band, but when her group torture the enemy at another roadblock, he flees into the woods in despair. By himself he ponders the meaning of life.

The first half of this novel is a great coming of age tales as the unnamed narrator (apropos label for the disenchanted) finds his grand tour turn into a nightmare. Nameless struggles with both sides in the dispute who use any means to achieve their end. Once he flees from Petra, the story line turns much more introspective as the lead character begins to analyze his relationships especially with his parents even while he dodges the police and to a lesser degree the revolutionaries. This is a strong thriller worth reading due to the despairing antihero but the latter half though superbly well written cannot match the incredible levels of excitement and suspense of the first part.

Harriet Klausner

I haven't read this book yet, but just wanted to say that i'm positive that it will be of great interest to me. I also wanted to say that i agree with the person that said that the guy that was complaining about the book being everything that cnn told us: that guy has no right to say that this story is bad to make a book of. don't critisize until u live through the events yourself like i did. I was in D.C. for NYLC for a week right in the middle of all the happenings. I stayed less than a mile from one of the sites where the snipers struck. after living through it personally, this book is appropriate to write, and it is interesting.

Hellloooo dere, Kingfish, This be Moose Ramsey. I's gonna tell you about da bidness of bein' a cop. I's done come from a long line of fools, but I's ended up bein' da Head Negro In Charge on da Maryland Snipers case. I's never did find da snipers, buts I done took credit for catchin' deme, likes I do wit da catfish in da Potomic Rivers. I thoughts its was gonna be white mens in the white vans, but it turned outs that its was dem Muslims ins a Caprice classic. I says to meselves, "Weelll Lookie Here. I's gots to writes a book about my expiences, now Look out."

I thought this book was an interesting read about the sniper manhunt. I liked the little personal vignettes as they really gave life (not just names, ages and dates) to the victims. It was a nice personal touch.

The book gave a good, thorough accounting of the massive investigation, the effect of the terror on the people in Washington, and the snipers themselves.

I already explained why I didn't like the book. True crime books are supposed to have a detailed description of the crime, all the clues, leads, and tips that lead up to the arrest of the suspect(s). 23 Days of Terror was more of an homage to the victims than anything; and in all honesty, I find that boring. If you want to see what a good true crime book should be like, read The Brown's Chicken Massacre by Maurice Posley. Every detail as to how the police caught the two murderers is written, and Posley still manages to show the respect for the victims, but it's not boring like this one was. As to your distaste for my closing line: excuse me if you can't take a joke. You act as if you live in the only city that has ever had a serial killer. Just because your city's tragedy happened to be on CNN doesn't make you Yoda.

Having already read 3 weeks in october by Charles Moose, I was very pleased to find another book on the Washington Snipers, this one by Angie Cannon. It seemed to be a different book altogether, but equally as good. It went into much more detail about the lives of the snipers, trying to comprehend what would lead someone to commit such a massacre.
It was brave enough to question the local police and federal task force`s efforts to catch the snipers during the three weeks of terror, but also giving praise to the investigation when deserved.
Read this book if you want to know much more information that was not always covered in 3 weeks in october.

An excellent read - straight to the point - could`nt put it down.

I, like many other people had never heard of the "BTK" serial killer who terrorized Wichita in the 1970's and 80's until news clips started talking about him resurfacing. One of the first things I found amazing in Carlton Smith's book is the fact that an entire generation of people in the town it happened in had not heard of him either.

It was part of this unknowing that helped fuel one of the people the book centers on, which is lawyer Robert Beattie. Beattie's psychological outlook into the case from the clues that had already been collected helped him concoct a plan to bring the BTK killer back out of hiding. Like many serial killers, the BTK had been known for wanting attention, and when Beattie announced he was writing a book about the BTK, the killer quickly resurfaced, taunting police with mailed evidence and letters till the error made with a computer floppy disk led to his capture. From then on, the world knew the BTK as Dennis Rader; a pillar in the community and the last person many thought would be capable of such a thing.

Carlton's novel can be broken down into three sections. One is the start of Beattie's involvement with the case. As the book rolls on, we later go through each grisly murder as Dennis Rader performed it. We are not shown so much the mind of the killer, but we really don't need to be. His actions of murder coupled with his strange fantasy world of bondage through collections of homemade playing cards and his over the top ego all come together to paint a picture of an extremely disturbed individual. We cry for the victims, and we gasp in disbelief at how many times he was almost caught. This leads to the third part of the book, which is the area that dances around the initial shock of the murders that started with the Otero family. It is during this part that shows how many in the law enforcement community were trying so hard to bring justice to the table, but also showed how mishandled evidence and an almost state of denial by some helped hinder the investigations. I was amazed to find that so many mistakes were made, but the biggest perhaps was the continual reluctance to release anything to the public. At the time, they did not want to create a "panic" in Wichita, while at the same time some of the details of the consecutive patterns that were being seen could have helped some residents identify the suspect sooner as well as be more careful about who they opened their door to.

Sad, Frustrating and scary, the trip Carlton takes us on serves up the right justice in the end. The book really takes off when BTK communicates with law enforcement when he resurfaces and although stirring up scary memories in the town of Wichita, renews an aggressive interest by dusting off the case and taking it on to finally capture the BTK killer once and for all.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of all of the BTK victims at this time. The dark side of human nature is always around us, and I just hope that in the days ahead, there are fewer Dennis Raders in the world to ruin the lives of others.

I eagerly awaited thia book and what a dissapointment it is. Obviously it was written for those who know little or nothing abt the case, but want to read a true crime book on the throne or on the subway. There was no new data and the descriptions of the crimes were like reading fiction, especially since the author obviously did not check the details, even though they are on the internet. At one point he says that after the first crimes, Rader went home to his wife and kids, when at that time he had no kids. There are countless others, but out of respect for those involved, I will not specify. Was not worth the wait or the money.

The book was so-so. I was disappointed that it told me absolutely nothing about Dennis Rader as a person. There was nothing in the book about his background from childhood and nothing about his marriage and relationship with his wife. I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of money for the book.

I lived in the area these murders took place and still have a home in Wichita. It is very interesting to me to learn more about the murders and the investigation. I also had friends on the police department that were very involved, but could not know this at the time.

I thought this book was very detailed, but I don't know how accurate the provided details were. It was interesting how the author wrote his book in hopes of getting BTK mad - if BTK thought the author was getting all the glory by publishing a book about BTK, maybe BTK would try and communicate again.

The author's ploy worked, and it helped lead to the capture of BTK.

For people who know nothing about the BTK case, this book would be very good. It may be kind of boring to those who know much about the case, however. It's an interesting true crime story, a quick read, and even if it wasn't the most factual BTK book, I enjoyed it.

About a creepy psycho nurse who takes his anger out on helpless hospital patients by killing them. Very difficult to get through, not due to the writing style but due to the horific nature of Cullen's acts.

it is a shame that the tragic story of the victims and their families is told in such a cheap, sensationalized way. instead of serious journalistic reporting, we are subjected to a story filled with conflicting information, a difficult to follow storyline, and a tedious amount of adjectives. there is no sense of factual reporting, but instead tabloid drama. this story deserves a dignity in telling that this author did not even attempt to achieve.

in all fairness, my opinion is based on reading only half of the book. i just found it unbearable, and a waste of time. i'll wait for a book written in a more professional manner.

Yep...I am a nurse. And at one time I reported a nurse I thought was doing very similar misdeeds (but they never proved it.) So heck yeah I wanted to read this book. While the subject interests me, I have a hard time getting around the writting. The authors paraphrase previous paragraphs frequently..unbelievably redundant. The time lines are all screwy - jumping around is so confusing and they often leave off years in their dates. They had one man dieing in 1996 but said he was widowed in 1997. How did THAT work? And if I heard about Charles size, pallor or stone facial expressions one more time I was going to flip. This book felt like a much shorter book that was stretched to fill pages. That makes no sense since so much happened - so many murders. There was plenty of filling available -the authors just didn't bother. I would skip this one unless you have some personal interest.

I found myself cringing everytime Charles Cullen's name was mentioned in this book because just about every mention of his name is prefaced by a superfluous adjective... (i.e. the killer nurse with the sickly pallor...the homicidal RN, the ghostly death shadow....and the list goes on). At times, I felt like I was reading a badly written hospital thriller. I did, however, appreciate that the victims were personalized and not referred to as a victime number. The book is a bit drawn out and tedious, but overall it's an average to decent true crime read.

"Nurse" as defined by Webster is one who cares for the infirm, one who attempts to cure and alleviate suffering. Forget our traditional view of a nurse when you open the pages of "Death Angel," a grim, cold-chill true story of serial killer, Charles Cullen.

Penned by writer Clifford L. Linedecker and Zach T. Martin, the son of Cullen's first known victim, "Death Angel" is a shocking chronology of lives lost and an intimate portrait of a psychopathic murderer who confessed to killing some 40 hospital patients between 1988 and 2003.

Night time was Cullen's time. He requested after daylight hours assignments to ICU wards in Pennsylvania and New Jersey hospitals where he used the skills he had learned not to heal but to kill. He chose his victims at random, deciding who would live and who would die.

After he was apprehended Cullen insisted that he hadn't wanted people to see him as he was, as who he was, Detective Sergeant Braun asked, " Who are you, Charles?"

"A man, person, who was trusted and had responsibility for a lot of people dying," was the answer. "......I had no right to do this. I had no right! I just couldn't stop! I couldn't stop it!"

What could be more frightening than a man who repeatedly commits such heinous crimes, knows full well what he is doing, but cannot stop? From pictures included, Cullen is slim, a man with pleasant features. He doesn't at all appear to be the monster many claimed he was, yet his acts indicate he was less than human. What could possibly have compelled anyone to kill and kill again and again the most helpless of victims?

Unfortunately, there is not an ending to this story. As late as June, 2005 Cullen's guilty pleas for five murders were accepted. And the victims families continue to plead for legislation to prevent rogue healthcare workers from moving from job to job as Cullen did.

- Gail Cooke

I read several hundred books a year. I do not like Elmore Leonard; his material is mostly unbelievable and not especially exciting or funny. Most mysteries are formulaic and boring. Smith is a different sort of writer. He's gritty and real in a way that's hard to define. The plot isn't unique, but the treatment made the book. Can not believe the other reviews! Sooo many books are just the same thing; Lescroart, Parker, Cornwell, etc. Smith writes a mystery that's not just off the assembly line.

In Mitchell Smith's "Sacrifice," a bank robbery nets the surviving thieves nearly a million dollars each. For one of them (Tyler Pierce), though, the plans he had for the money soon become insignificant. His daughter, with whom he has not had contact in years, becomes the victim of a serial killer in Florida. Pierce then decides to take his funds to use them to hunt down the killer. With the contacts that his criminal background provides, Pierce is able to find help in a few sources, foremost among whom is a prostitute with a valuable knowledge of the area.

The conflict of a hardened criminal against a serial killer has the potential to lapse into a cartoon, but Smith, to his credit, avoids that by a large margin. On the other hand, the portrayal of the killer does seem to lapse into a sort of fantasy of what such a killer's mind might be like. Whether the killer is realistic or not, the killer's inner monologue does not seem real, and that fact detracts from the novel substantially.

"Sacrifice" is not so much a thriller as it is a detective novel involving a most unlikely pair of detectives, and it is good enough to keep the reader's interest. Further, it rises above many, perhaps even most, of the genre entries. But the book is not much more than a ridealong, a chance for the reader to follow a singular investigation. The characters, though they interact, seem not to affect each other to the point that they change substantially. The ending does reveal a significant change in one of the characters, but it is almost without precedent. That is, there is nearly no foreshadowing to suggest the dramatic change.

For people in search of an intelligent thriller, with both the advantages and liabilities of that pair of words, "Sacrifice" is recommended. However, readers in search of a character study should look elsewhere.

Tyler Pierce is an extremely likeable anti-hero with an odd mixture of flaws and strengths. He is a knight errant with no confidence in the law enforcement establishment and a strong preference for doing things his own way. The author is a skilled writer who introduces the reader to the killer early, but still manages to maintain the suspense to the end.

Well, I enjoyed this more than I did Karma or Stone City, both by the same author. I found the setting to be believable and learned quite a bit about illegal banking techniques and roofing. And I would read a book centering on any one of the characters in this one; they're that well-written.

Smith has written two excellent novels, Stone City and Karma. Those novels had strong characters and interesting plots, both absent from this boring and shallow mess. The main character, a bank robber whose daughter is killed, never changes or grows as do Smith's earlier protagonists. The killer belongs on a cheesy made-for-TV movie and the resolution is laughable.Let's hope Smith goes back to his earlier form.

This author is so full of himself! He talks about himself nearly as much as the killers. If anyone says they are an author, and writes a codenmed killer enough, they would probably be granted an interview too. I was disappointed in this book!

I read the reviews before I bought this book. The reviews were rather mixed, so I decided I would read it and decide for myself. Well... the author IS full of himself. He is also from England, and he uses different British words for the "American" words we are used to, which isn't bad, just very annoying. He takes a lot of poetic license in this book, writing a lot of times of the events the way he thought they would have happened. One reviewer was correct, you could get the information found in this book on the internet for free. I also think he left out several serial killers that I would consider more evil than the ones he wrote about. But, he probably wasn't able to get "exclusives" or interviews from the other killers, so he left them out. If you can get the book cheap, but it. Otherwise, don't bother.

I'm not a huge fan of true crime but I couldn't put this book down. The true stories of the serial killers,especially Aileen Wuornos and Arthur Shawcross, were very interesting. Although I'm no expert on the genre, I believe it was well written and well researched, and the stories about the killers' childhoods and brutal crimes really grabbed me. The fact that the writer didn't make excuses for these monsters was a plus.

When a book is subtitled The Most Evil People in the World Tell Their Own Stories you would expect large portion to be interviews with them and their own words. This was my belief when I bought the book and I was surprised not to find that.

There are good backgrounds on each offender and their laundry list of crimes without too much detail. There are also times that they are quoted directly but for the most part the story is relayed by the author and the end of each chapter is stamped "from an interview with...". Some offender's are not quoted directly at all.

Overall, it's a decent book if you do not know about the crimes or offenders. If you are looking for a scholarly or clinical insight into the minds of these offenders, look elsewhere. It surely isn't here.

Author does not get as much information from the subjects as the title suggests. It talks more about the generalities of the crimes which is easily obtained from internet research. Also, the author give himself a lot of credit for his unsuprising findings - however, I find that most authors of true-crime non-fiction are that way. Gives information on little-known killers - ie: Carol Bundy.

The Saga of the Bloody Benders by Rick Geary is part of A Treasury of Victorian Murder put out by NBM Comics Lit. Geary has done another bang-up job merging history, murder, and detailed drawings to pull the reader into a time that is often difficult to understand. Without the historic underpinnings the Benders killing spree would seem a bit comical to the jaded readers of today -- as we lock up our cars, our houses, keep aware of our surroundings. Could the Benders do what they did if they existed today? But that would be a different tale -- and you'll want to enjoy the chill horror of this one.

The story of the Benders and their place in the history of Labette County, Kansas, along the Osage Trail is one that highlights the dangers faced by the settlers as they began moving west to find a better life for themselves and their families. Without the historic overview of Kansas becoming a state, the demographics of the settlers, and the geographical overview of the Osage Trail -- it would be difficult to understand how the Benders could do what they did for so long before anyone began to even suspect that something wasn't right at the Bender Inn and Grocery.

It was 1871 and inquiries were coming to the local officials from relatives, friends, or business associates trying to locate a person known to have traveled along the trail but who had not been heard from after passing through Labette County. Later it was found that the disappearances began shortly after the Bender men, Pa and John Bender Jr., bought land, built a Inn and Grocery at a high point along the trail and sent for the women, Ma and Kate Bender. The Benders kept to themselves -- dour and silent. Kate however was a beauty and fairly outgoing -- setting up a side business telling fortunes. Most thought them eccentric but harmless.

What happened to the Benders? How did they manage to kill so many people undetected? Why did it take so many years before anyone even looked closely at the Bender Inn and Grocery? Geary gives you a sense of place and people leading you step by step through the setup and discovery and aftermath of the crimes. The illustrations are such an intrinsic part of the narrative that often you forget that his is a graphically told tale because the flow is so smooth you're drawn into the pages and the story.

Geary has opened a chapter in history in a very accessible way with this graphic novel series.

And "The Bloody Benders" is a fine addition to the series, recounting th history of a family of robber/murderers in the West that kill by stealth, & could easily appear in today's headlines. Their disappearance as mysterious as their lives.

Geary's art & writing improve steadily as time goes by, & while the first volumes in the series are very, very good, this one has a fine polish to it.

If you like it, try these--
The Big Book of the Weird Wild West: How the West was Really Won! (Factoid Books)

Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Turtleback))

Rick Geary's graphic novel series A TREASURY OF VICTORIAN MURDER returns with volume 9 of the series especially recommended for prior fans of his graphic novel mysteries. Black and white drawings illustrate the story of four strange people who use seduction to attract wealthy victims, whom they then kill. Excellent action and high drama mystery lends to a fast-paced graphic novel story hard to put down, and recommended for any general-interest holding strong in graphic novels.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I think this is the first in the series. There is an intro to Victorian times and figures, followed by three stories

The Ryan siblings story is over before it begins, and has no more complex story arc than "two siblings were horribly killed and noone knows why or who did it." I wish there was two more pages of intrigue.

I have forgottne the 2nd one which I read just a week ago.

The third story and last of them is more gruesome than the others.

I expected more detailed, better drawn images than what the book contained. Coarse grained paper is used for the pages & the overall quality of the project is poor. Several short episodes of Victorian murder are presented in black & white line drawings with little detail. Nothing unusual or particularly interesting in the telling or presentation.