Customer Reviews

The Evil That Men Do: FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood's Journey into the Minds of Sexual Predators

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was so looking forward to reading this book. I just love reading John Douglas' profiling books and I was ready to delve into a new facet, the sexual predator. Unfortunately, Mr. Michaud just about ruined the book for me. The main thing that grated on my nerves was the use of $50 words when a ten cent word would do. The bigger, longer, fancier word did nothing to add to the content and did more to confuse me, the average reader. I spent more time reaching for my dictionary than I did reading the book! I consider myself well read and I have a good vocabularly but I do believe this guy was out to make the reader feel stupid. For example, he uses the word "scion" instead of "son" when referring to a child. Who uses these words in everyday conversation? Hazelwood's profiles and discoveries will really open your eyes and make you think. He's obviously a very smart man who devoted most of his life to ridding society of these animals. I applaud Roy Hazelwood for this book and recommend to Mr. Michaud that he leave his thesaurus alone the next time around.

I have read the works of both Roy Hazelwood and Stephen Michaud, and have great admiration for both of their works. This collaborative effort is marketed to the broader true crime audience and does a good job of imparting how profiling evolved over the years, gives case studies which help to illustrate the process, and insights into where it is going. Making the shift, for both, to this collaborative style... was at times, a lil ackward.

IF you want more... look to Roy Hazelwood's recently released "Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation (third edition)," a more scholarly presentation of the topic. .... He is a gifted teacher, who shares and gives freely in the classroom.

Stephen Michaud's joint effort, "The Only Living Witness," with Hugh Aynesworth, is, without hesitation, one of the most remarkable true crime books of all time. This is not another shallow retelling from newspaper clippings. Their in-depth investigative skills, outreach and interaction with one of the most notorious of serial killers, is what ALL true crime writers should learn from and aspire to. Their follow-up, "Conversations With a Killer," is another must-read. For those of you that have not read "Lethal Shadow," add it to your list. This is by far the most insightful reading about a sexual sadist you will ever encounter. ....

Couldn't wait to get my hands on this one, but should have. There is no cohesive timeline to any of the stories and I constantly had to read backwards just to try and figure out which case they were talking about. Many of the stories have no ending, they just trail off into the next case story. Critical case details were omitted and embarrassingly gruesome "facts" were thrown in at odd moments. I was also quite appalled by the amount of typos I came across, including the various spellings of one crime victim's last name. And, contrary to the title, I did not find much psychological insight on any of the cases. I'd rather read John Douglas's narcissistic rants - at least they make sense. Don't bother with this book.

I'm a huge fan of true crime and forensic science. However, I found this book seriously disappointing.....particularly since I bought it in hardbound!!! I can't count the number of times in this book that I sighed in disappointment,since suddenly, the book would shift to a chapter that had absolutely no connection with the subtitle of this book, "FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood's Journey into the Minds of Sexual Predators." In fact, there wasn't much about sexual predators until the final chapters. And........Stephen Michaud, who wrote this book, tends to cover topics in such brevity that it leaves the reader wondering, "And? And?" I think the problem here is Stephen Michaud. He stinks as a writer. I'm sure Roy Hazelwood's career has been fascinating, and it's unfortunate that he chose Michaud as his author of choice. There were so many grammatical errors in the first third of this book that I simply couldn't imagine why Michaud was thanking his editor. For me, particularly in a hardbound, such carelessness just drives me nuts. All-in-all, I found this book to be a major disappointment and the single most dull book I've read in true crime/forensic science.

While I don't discount Roy Hazelwood's expertise, I felt the book was not well-written. Stories lacked details of the criminal's acts and psychological explanations were brief. There were many opportunities to expand on a particular subject, but instead, I was left hanging and wanting to know more. Also, it was occasionally hard to get past Michaud's style of writing. Despite Hazelwood's fascinating career as a behavioral profiler, this book didn't do him justice. Perhaps a good, second book will remedy this...?

This book uses Roy Hazelwood's experiences to show the evolution of the current investigative tools and techniques used for violent sex crimes. Given the success of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, much of the material here is now pretty well known and commonly accepted. It was quite enlightening to be reminded that the investigation of these crimes was once treated very differently. Hazelwood's focus on research helped him develop new tools and techniques that have terrifically improved both the ability to capture these deviant criminals, as well as the reputations of the dedicated investigators who persue them.

Unfortunately, the author's tendancy to jump around significantly weakens the book. He repeatedly interrupts his descriptions of various investigations to insert details from other investigations. While it looks like he's attempting to show the parallels that enabled Hazelwood to develop his theories, it makes it difficult to keep the details straight and is sometimes quite confusing. Several times I found myself backing up and re-reading sections to clarify the point the author was trying to make.

This book, by its very nature, includes a great deal of disturbing material. Readers that do not care for violence or graphic content should be aware that they are likely to find this book highly uncomfortable. I would also suggest that this book is appropriate only for the most mature young readers.

Sounds fascinating, doesn't it? "JOURNEY into the MINDS" of EVIL SEXUAL PREDATORS! Just how DID John Wayne Gacy get so screwed up anyway? What was he THINKING? From the sound of THIS title, this is the place to find out!

And look at that cover design! Black and evil with darkly lit hands menacingly tied together with rope. Yikes! Just the title and cover give me wonderful chills! But after reading this dud, it is clear that the people who wrote the title and designed the cover had absolutely nothing to do with its actual writing. I even wondered if the cover hadn't accidentally gotten switched with the cover for a GOOD book!

In reality, this is a dull biography of Roy Hazelwood that lists aimlessly from one meaningless event to another. Just so the reader will not fall asleep and choke to death on his own deep snoring, Michaud has spiced it up with a smattering of sensational crime descriptions. Good way to avoid wrongful death lawsuits from readers, but a senseless literary move.

And where are the criminal minds into which we were supposed to journey? The only criminal minds I observed were those of the publishers who allowed the murder of innocent trees to occur in order to produce a book this useless.

Roy Hazelwood is probably one, if not the, foremost authority on sexual crimes. I enjoyed reading his book, but instead of having Michaud write the book, he should have asked old friend John Douglas to borrow Mark Olshaker. Michaud's style doesn't give you the feel of the stories Hazelwood has to tell. Nonetheless, it is worth purchasing to add to one's true crime library.

This book was written by a man that I had heard about often from the former agents that used to work with him that had published before him. I had been hoping he would write a book to enlighten us with his intellectual savy. My patience has paid off. I find that the compliments heaped on this man from former co-workers where well worth it. This is a comprehensive book that can be easily read by anyone interested in this subject. If you are a vetern of this genre or a first timer, this is one book that you will want to read over again.

Roy Hazelwood knows a lot about homicide and rape, but this book is tough to sit through. Mr. Michaud as his co-author did not do a whole lot. The chapters ramble and the flow is choppy. Just when you are getting into a topic it changes to something different. And often unrelated. If not for the interesting subject matter I would rate this book with two stars. So if you like reading about the FBI and their cases you will like this book. But for everyone else maybe get it at the library instead.