The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths [Hardcover]

Pat Brown (Author), Bob Andelman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2010

In 1990, a young woman was strangled on a jogging path near the home of Pat Brown and her family. Brown suspected the young man who was renting a room in her house, and quickly uncovered strong evidence that pointed to him--but the police dismissed her as merely a housewife with an overactive imagination. It would be six years before her former boarder would be brought in for questioning, but the night Brown took action to solve the murder was the beginning of her life's work.

Pat Brown is now one of the nation's few female criminal profilers--a sleuth who assists police departments and victims' families by analyzing both physical and behavioral evidence to make the most scientific determination possible about who committed a crime. Brown has analyzed many dozens of seemingly hopeless cases and brought new investigative avenues to light.

In The Profiler, Brown opens her case files to take readers behind the scenes of bizarre sex crimes, domestic murders, and mysterious deaths, going face-to-face with killers, rapists, and brutalized victims. It's a rare, up-close, first-person look at the real world of police and profilers as they investigate crimes--the good and bad, the cover-ups and the successes.

Praise for The Profiler

"Pat Brown takes us into the very minds of cold-blooded killers. Most people can't comprehend the `why' behind murder. Pat, utilizing her background as one of the country's leading criminal profilers, coaches the reader as to how a killer thinks, reacts, and kills! Incredible!"
--Nancy Grace, host of Nancy Grace on HLN and bestselling author of The Eleventh Victim

"I've been in law enforcement for almost 18 years now, and after reading The Profiler, I realize how little I understood the mind of the criminal. Pat Brown exposes the methods and the means, the hows and the whys, and exactly what it is that makes a criminal tick--fascinating!"
--Stacy Dittrich, author of Murder Behind the Badge: True Stories of Cops Who Kill and veteran police officer and law enforcement media consultant

"Anyone who has ever had a passion burning inside them to make a difference should read this book. Pat takes her life experience and brings it to the forefront to make a difference in the lives of crime victims and their families. Her insight into these cases takes profiling of criminals to a whole new level. From her work and wisdom comes the hope we all need to end the viciousness of killers who prey on the innocent.

"In her new book, Pat Brown takes the reader along with her as she works to solve grisly crimes that have baffled others. In her relentless pursuit to illuminate what seem to be hopeless cases, she shows just how deep an investigator must dig and all the details that must be absorbed and interpreted."
--Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D., author of Inside the Criminal Mind

"In The Profiler, Pat Brown finally explains the sometimes spooky world of criminal profiling in a way that even an old-school, ex-flatfoot cop like me can understand. This book is a great insight into the mind of a serial killer hunter."
--Chuck Hustmyre, retired ATF agent and author of the true crime books Killer with a Badge and An Act of Kindness

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Profiler is the rare book that takes a complex topic and simplifies, rather than compounds, its mystique. Pat Brown has a distinct voice, which discernibly captures moments of despair, humor, and levity." -- John Valeri, Examiner.com

"The best true story crime book I've ever read." --NewsBlaze.com

"A rare, up-close, first-person look at the real world of police and profilers as they investigate crimes." --The Today Show, NBC

"Explosive!" --Levi Page, host, BlogTalkRadio.com

"The crimes detailed shock and intrigue, Brown's experiences captivate, but the meat of The Profiler is found in the issues regarding attitudes toward profiling and the need for increased training of investigators." --BlogCritics.org --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Pat Brown is a nationally known profiler and founder and CEO of the Sexual Homicide Exchange (SHE) and the Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency. She holds a master's degree in criminal justice from Boston University and developed the first accredited Criminal Profiling and Investigative Analysis program in the country for Excelsior College, where she is an adjunct professor. She appears on national television and radio often--more than 1,000 times in the past decade to discuss high-profile cases. Brown lives in Minnesota and Maryland.

Bob Andelman is the author or co-author of several best-selling biographical, business, management and sports books, including Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, The Profit Zone: Lessons of Strategic Genius from the People Who Created the World's Most Valued Companies, and Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion. Bob Andelman also produces and hosts the popular "Mr. Media Interviews" podcast on BlogTalkRadio.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Voice; 1 edition (May 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401341268
• ISBN-13: 978-1401341268
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (142 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Platform for getting the word out regarding some needs in the criminal justice system, May 13, 2010

By 

amazonbuyer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I knew nothing about Pat Brown before reading this book. The title piqued my interest because I'm becoming more curious about lies as they pertain to "normal" people in their relationships as well as in criminals.

I found out that Ms. Brown is a bit of a celebrity in the area of criminal profiling. She has made a name for herself because she is on a mission to get a system created whereby various states and counties across the U.S. can "talk" to one another. This way, as criminals migrate from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, they will leave tracks that the law enforcement community can follow. I commend her for this. The best way to make progress happen when facing many roadblocks (funding, attitudes, politics) is to get the media to highlight the need. The more people hear about this need, the more they will be willing to push their local, state, and national governmental to fund the program.

The case files were interesting. I started to understand that, even if a person is murdered and there is strong evidence pointing to a crime, there is no mandate in our legal system requiring "that the person who committed the crime be prosecuted" (p. 196 of advance uncorrected proof). Often the movement of a case is determined by manpower, funding, and the political landscape. At times it was a little discouraging as I realized that, even though our justice system is a decent one, it has much room for improvement. But whether or not it gets the changes necessary depends on funding and politics. In the meantime, justice is not served for many people.

The most sobering cases in "The Profiler" involved two suicides. Brown describes the extreme sorrow, denial, and guilt of those left behind. She states that "Profilers get called in on suicides more than any other kind of death." According to the author, the sad truth is that the police are usually correct in their conclusions regarding suicide cases. I don't think Brown intended them to be, but these two stories were a huge caution for me. I was reminded that I need to be more aware of the subtle clues people leave about their struggles, especially teens and young adults. I don't know if it is because they are able to hide their struggles better, or if adults dismiss their pain because they made it through okay.

I gave the book three stars because the prose meandered a bit, causing the stories to lose focus and forward motion. All in all, "The Profiler" is an interesting & educational read, as long as you can adjust to the writing style.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not that great, July 18, 2010

By 

Paul V. Froiland (Eden Prairie, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths (Hardcover)

Readers have made excellent comments on this book, so I won't repeat what everyone has said. I admire her for her entirely self-made career and her insights into cases that were mishandled from the start. I think the most critical point she makes is that early investigators on a crime scene often compose a narrative and then only admit facts into it that backs up the original narrative, dismissing any facts that could lead in a different direction. That's crucial to any investigation. (See Dave Eggers book, the title of which I can't recall, about wrongly imprisoned individuals who were convicted because they "probably" committed the crime. Most of the cases are just egregious. Or read his book Zeitoun, about a man imprisoned and subjected to severe abuse after Hurricane Katrina, when all he had been doing is feeding people's abandoned dogs. Both those books are eye-openers and well written.)

Besides Brown's book being rambling and self-involved, two things struck me. For a person who claims to look only for facts and not theories, I was amazed that she could dismiss the whole subject of learning disabilities as "bunk," without offering any reasons or arguments, as well as decide to home school her children because she found the school system highly objectionable, but again, without offering a single reason for it. But the worst theorizing without facts was her incredible stereotyping of how a male and female spouse would react to their partner's not coming home anywhere near on time. The man would fall asleep, and the woman would hope her partner was dead, because she was going to kill him otherwise. For a person who claims to stick only to facts, she offers here the most stereotyped gender behavior analysis one could think of. If my wife were several hours late coming home one night, falling asleep is the last thing I would do. Brown has has huge blind spots that she either can't see or won't acknowledge, and she shouldn't be making negative comments about how everyone but her had blind spots while investigating a case.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unsatisfying, June 21, 2010

By 

China Love "Kelly" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths (Hardcover)

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book and was sorely disappointed. Although I applaud Ms. Brown for taking her passion and turning it into a career (although unpaid one), there is something very unsatisfying about this book. I certainly wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece, but the writing is so disjointed and the book didn't flow well and after a while was dry and repetitive. In addition, Ms. Brown comes across as arrogant and self promoting, which I think is how she got the title of an "expert profiler." The cases were interesting but none of them were ever prosecuted and the author's theories as to who did the crime never led to an arrest. I did like her discussion of the weaknesses of the police force and detectives and the politics that sometimes that come into play, but after a while it was like beating a dead horse. We get it - the police force has weaknesses in the profiling department. I don't recommend this particular book as a good one for learning about profiling - I'm still left wondering exactly what a profiler does.