Serial Murder Books

As the team gets closer to the truth, the media get wind of Claudine's identity and using their usual good taste publicize it for their audience and the killer to know. The killer, enjoying the notoriety, decides to make Claudine the prey in a dangerous game in which the stakes are her life.

MIND READER is a great police procedural because of the brilliant descriptions of the inherent conflict between Europol's jurisdiction and the geographical boundaries of the European nations. The story line is crisp, especially the sub plots that add to the authenticity of the tale. Claudine is a wonderful sleuth and the support cast adds much flavor to the novel. Hopefully, MIND READER is the first of many novels in a new series by Brian Freemantle.

Harriet Klausner

It was a fun, sweet mystery, suspenseful, and SO full of love betweem the main characters, I nearly cried while reading .. even before the ending!

(Yes, I'm a sucker for good romance in a good mystery!)

Pat, looking forward to MORE Gil & Claire adventures! :D

St. Louis couple Gil and Claire Hunt have found happiness with one another after both suffered from failed marriages. Gil enjoys being the owner of a neighborhood bookstore while Claire loves hosting a local shopping show.

Their blissful existence is interrupted by a serial killer. The culprit murders women, leaving behind victims watching Claire's TV show. The police make no progress and begin to wonder if Claire or her spouse could be the murderer. Instead of waiting around for the law enforcement officials to either arrest or exonerate them, the Hunts go on the hunt for a killer, not realizing that they may have inadvertently placed Claire in the path of the murderer.

MURDER IS THE DEAL OF THE DAY is a top rate new entry for an exciting amateur sleuthing couple. The mystery is well designed and insight into the TV business adds just the right amount of background color. St. Louis comes alive, becoming more than a non-McDonald's arch and the Cardinals. This hopefully is the first collaboration in a series of mysteries by the newly formed team of Robert Randisi and Christine Matthews.

Harriet Klausner

I was very disappointed.

This is probably not the author's fault, as the killer was never caught- but this was frustrating reading. Much of the book's narrative is fictionalized dialogue, as if this were a screenplay for a movie. I'm sure the dialogue and feel of the book must be inspired by interviews with the police, so it is not without validity. But do we really need passages like this "Stunned with sleep, Tobin swatted in the general direction of the telephone on the nigthstand. The red numerals of the clock radio bore like lasers into his bleary eyes....After two more swats, the groggy police chief managed to get the phone to his ear."? Or when McIntyre recreates a police brainstorming classroom session that he likely was not present at, does he need to inform us that "Somebody coughed."? Passages like this serve as a jarring reminder that much of this book is padded with fiction. That would be ok if this were a movie, but when reading a book I don't want such distractions.

On the plus side, you can read about the investigation of a couple red herrings and someone who was briefly considered a suspect, but it's just not interesting. And for a case so lacking in detail, the book could have at least included photos. If the author omitted victim photos out of respect for the families, I understand. But I would have appreciated photos of the sites where the bodies were found, or even a photo of the cops. Anything. I mean, the wanted poster and the dry reading just isn't enough to chew on.

If you are interested in this case, I instead highly recommend you check out Keppel's book. It covers this case much more efficiently.

Although the text is thorough, and told from the investigators' point of view, the book generally lacks detail, and has no photographs, nor any commentary by the victim's families. And in a rather startling ommission, it completely fails to mention the media's moniker for the unknown killer, "The Babysitter", so named because of the extraordinary care he lavished upon his victims, feeding, bathing, and even manicuring them before killing them. On the whole I found this book to be rather dry reading. Even so, this is certainly a thorough and detailed treatment of "The Babysitter" and his victims -- and possibly the ONLY one, for I have seen no other. It easily earns the 4-star rating I have given it, and in my opinion is well worth the asking price.

A final word of warning to the potential reader, however: since these crimes are *unsolved* even to the present day (March 1999), the book does leaves you hanging -- which is, of course, no fault of author's.

I attended the Jack the Ripper Conference in April and chatted with Donald Rumbelow, author of "Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook," as well as other Ripperologists. Don is of the opinion that the Ripper was "John Smith" or "Joe Schmoe," definitely no one famous, and his identity will never be discovered. I tend to agree with him.

I would recommend this book for its entertainment value but not for actual Ripper information.

MONSTER is a work of art, whereas DEAD ENDS is a fast-paced factual presentation of the crimes. Ty, Lee's sidekick, is little like the character portrayed by Christina Ricci. First, she's unequivocally unattractive physically. Second, in reality she was much older than Ricci's character and was far more responsible for her own actions. She was not merely a thwarted adolescent whose repressive family loathed her same-sex tendencies. Finally, she lived with Aileen Wuornos for several years before the murder spree began. The scriptwriter clearly wished her characters to have understandable motivations; in contrast, in DEAD ENDS, readers never get enough background information to fully make sense of Ty and Aileen's lengthy relationship--particularly why Ty stayed on with Aileen for so long.

DEAD ENDS also is much less empathetic than MONSTER to Wuornos herself. Though it is clear that Wuornos grew up in a grotesquely dysfunctional family (her real father was a convicted pederast who probably hanged himself in prison; her adoptive father was her own grandfather, who committed suicide and very possibly murdered his wife, Wuornos's adopted mother; her real mother abandoned her and her brother while still a teenager; and on and on), DEAD ENDS lends little sympathy to this woman who murdered seven men in a sociopathic spree (which easily might have included far more victims, but for the machinations of Lady Luck).

Aileen Wuornos was not the first but the thirty-fifth female serial killer documented in American history; however, her methodology--using violence in a world which tolerates only masculine force--is what seems to have made her so repugnant to Reynolds and others. It was an interesting tact to take on the part of the screenwriter of MONSTER: in the film, the audience cannot help feeling sorry for this wreck of a woman.

On a planet where physical crimes by men against women astronomically exceed those by women against men, it is fascinating that the prosecutors of Aileen Wuornos, as well as Reynolds himself, find her so repulsive. Hollywood and the popular media project image after image of male violence inflicted upon females. How curious that in a global patriarchy, pathetic characters like Wuornos are so loathed (recall the furor caused by THELMA AND LOUISE?) while the groping Mr. Schwartzenegger is elected to the governership of California!