Customer Reviews

Between Good and Evil: A Master Profiler's Hunt for Society's Most Violent Predators

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wow. Not what you expect. Between Good and Evil is true crime, profiling, biography, and like a modern Crime and Punishment-a book to leave you thinking. The professional and personal life of Roger Depue is woven into a seamless series of stories-more like great fiction than non-fiction. If you ever wondered how police officers survive unrelenting evil, the conclusion will give you an appreciation and a hope that good men like Depue really do out number the evil-doers.

I can't remember the last time I was so moved by a book, as I was by this one. After I finished reading it, I had to be alone, just to collect my thoughts. The author seems to be present at the scene of the crime, making the reader feel eerily that he/she, too is not only witnessing the event, but feeling the emotions of all parties involved. The beautiful prose rivets the attention, (which wants to, but cannot escape from the horrendous subject matter). This is not your typical crime story- this is an exploration of the deepest, darkest areas of the human brain; yet it manages to leave one with a sense of hope, for after all, there is goodness and innocence, too.

What an excellent book. Besides what has already been said, it is extremely well written and not self-indulgent in the least. It is easily as good as John Douglas's books and maybe better, from a different standpoint. It's more autobiographical, as opposed to a case by case study. For those of us who enjoy this subject, you won't be disappointed.

TV and film have romanticized the men who are able to profile serial killers. Men who are able to get inside the heads of these criminals and know their motivations and use those to track and eventually capture them. But what is the emotional toll for dealing the the day-to-day horror of this job? It's hardly glamorous. They've seen things and more importantly, have to solve things that would drive the average person to flee in stark terror. Roger Depue wasn't just a profiler, he was one of the profilers of the science. He is the one who helped write the book on the science of tracking these people down.

His accounts are exciting, horrifying, fulfilling, and deeply depressing. This was work so overwhelming that DePue actually left the world behind for a few years and joined a seminary. I was deeply moved and deeply horrified by the book. This is the true to life tragedies that TV and film never take you to. The real thing. Highly recommended.

This narrative is primarily an autobiography. It is interesting reading because the author had an impressive career in law enforcement and the criminal justice system beginning as a policeman in a small Michigan town. Among his significant accomplishments were his contributions to the profiling of criminals. This activity started while he was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Chief of the Behavioral Science Unit. By examining the evidence at a crime scene investigators were able to establish a profile of the criminal and thus narrow down the search.

In the depiction of some of the horrible crime scenes witnessed by the author, not a great deal was left to the imagination.

After the death of his wife, he entered a Catholic seminary and became concerned with looking at crime from the criminal side in order to determine what went wrong with the individual. It is his belief that some criminals are just evil. However, he believes there are some who made one wrong turn in life. Except for that one occurrence they may not have entered into the world of crime.

Two of the more notable cases discussed in the book were that of Jon Benet Ramsey and the case of Ted Bundy.

A gripping autobiography of a former FBI profiler's experience and cases that are sometimes too much for the evening news. He explores the concept of evil and its existance in some of the worst humans who committed unthinkable crimes. I just couldn't put it down, it was an easy and motivating read. We should be thankful for the men and women like roger depue who hunt the hunters and bring justice to grieving families like ones found throughout the book. A must read!!!

This book gives incredible insight to anyone who reads it. It doesn't matter if it's leisure reading on an interesting topic or someone looking to gain knowledge for a possible future career in this field. DePue lends his expertise and countless years of experience to write a very informative and heartbreaking book. There are many people who attempted to enter into profiling and couldn't stick with it. Witnessing chilren being murdered brutally and raped savagely and the same crimes acted out onadults. How many people can honestly do that and not become psychologically affected eventually? He joined the seminary to relieve the years of demented cases he had to work. I have to applaud him for doing something that most people could never think about doing but has to be done. He has saved many lives and when that couldn't be done, he at least gave peace to many families who had family members taken from them. This book is inspiring and deserves two thumbs up! I highly recommend it!!

This book describes the depths of human evil, which is very personal. Very disturbing at times, Depue describes the murders in detail, yet with profound respect for the victim. He also describes the murderers (half the point of the book) with the respect that such evil demands, letting the facts about these people speak for themselves: "I must have lost me head", joked one killer, after dropping the severed head of a victim and waking his downstairs neighbor (Depue reports a human head weighs about 9 pounds -- as much as a bowling ball). This book will certainly satisfy any prediliction for the macabre, while taking you to new level of understanding the reality of evil, and our part in the good.

This book has all kinds of emotions. With all of the television interests in crime solving, this book bares witness to the real deal... Highly recommended...

I enjoy profiling books and recommend John Douglas' Mindhunters and Obsession . This book has very little for the reader to learn except minor tidbits like how to tell (via "overkill") that the unsub was known to the victim. The book has a long backstory on the authors childhood, dating, marines, etc. and he seems like a bully. The last 1/3 of the book is his religion taking over which is boring. None of the life story or seminary time relate to criminal investigations, which is probably why you are interested in this type of book. The John Douglas books cover fascinating, yet horrible crimes while giving insights into clues to the traits of the criminal - thus are far more interesting than this book by Depue.