Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) [Paperback]

Sean P. Mactire (Author)

Book Description

Series: Howdunit Writing | Publication Date: March 1995

Never before has such specialized information been so thoroughly compiled and easily accessible to writers! Each book is written by a professional in their respective field, providing the inside details that writers need to weave a credible -- and salable -- story.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the same vein as Keith D. Wilson's Cause of Death (1992) and Anne Wingate's Scene of the Crime (1992), this matter-of-fact book about the criminal mind will be of interest to true-crime aficionados as well as writers. Mactire's "roadmap to the shadow world of the criminal mind" starts off with ancient history (from 1500 B.C.) and moves on to present-day serial and "nonserial" killers and wise guys. The author offers a fascinating discussion on how the creation of a police force changed criminal activity from open assault to cunning and secret operations. He examines the psychology of criminals and the development of profiling (psychological mug shots). In discussing the various types of and motives for crime, Mactire draws examples from the careers of actual criminals. All this fact and history will provide great fodder for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Denise Perry Donavin

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books; 1st edition (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898796482
• ISBN-13: 978-0898796483
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 30, 2003

By 

Rebecca Vining (Oviedo, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) (Paperback)

This book was just disappointing and irritating on many levels. I don't consider myself to be an expert on crime, but I do consider myself to be well-read. The author takes the most common ideas about criminals and lays them out as fact. He doesn't support almost any of it with any kind of statistic or study, and also doesn't offer that there could be other factors or differing opinions of why these crimes occur. Supporting evidence is sorely lacking.

His psychological explanations really grated on my nerves. Anyone who had studied psychology knows there are a wide range of divisions of psychology. He takes one position in psychology and preaches it as the only interpretation. Admittedly, most individuals in psychology take one position and exclude the others, but it doesn't give you a completely accurate view of the events you're analyzing if you refuse to allow for other view. It was grating to read, and I had a hard time making my way through the book.

Some of the examples are poorly supported and explained OR are still under debate as to real criminals who committed the crime. As someone who has read about a some of the crimes listed, I found that this author has omitted theories, has omitted facts and just ran with the most popular theory, regardless of facts.

The only thing I did appreciate was the opening of the history of these types of criminals. However, even then I was disappointed with the lack of background info and the brevity of the history of these types of crimes.

I'm hesitant to recommend this book for beginners simply because it is such a narrow view of the possibilities, of the facts and is just lacking in anything helpful. Almost everything listed in the book I already had read about or studied.

Spend your money and time elsewhere. You'll be better served if you do.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A useless collection of questionable statements, May 18, 2005

By 

Larry R. Nelson (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Malicious Intent (Howdunit) (Paperback)

This guy claims expertise he does not have. It is clear that this he thinks combining a mish-mash of disorganized facts and questionable opinions in an endless series of lists and bullet-points makes for writing a book. An example is his useless list of potential crime victims, including laughable characterizations like "Business people -- vulnerable anytime, anywhere," and "Police officers -- easily isolated and overwhelmed." Another bizarre, casually-made and unexplained statement: "The availability of weapons has nothing to do with the incidence of domestic homicides." Or "Drive-by shooting victims are generally children." Huh? And the worst of it is these are not rare hiccups -- these disparate and doubtful claims are all from the same randomly-selected page. This book is a compendium of nonsense like this.

One could learn more about how criminals think by watching an old episode of "Knight Rider."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too historical in nature, no real life and up to date info, November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) (Paperback)

This book reads like the author copied his facts from an encyclopaedia. There is no real, up to date info on the topic. This is what I, as a buyer, was looking for. I returned this book very disappointed. Writer's Digest should insist on having authors who really work in the field they are writing in, so as to lend authenticity. Some books in the Howdunit series that are far superior are Modus Operandi & Murder One, which were written by real-life detectives Paglino & Corvasce.