I thought this book would offer some fresh information and insights on the serial killers that true crime fans know so well. Instead, the author rehashes the same old stories using trial transcripts and the like, material a lot of us have already read, interspersed with a only few pages of survivor interviews.
The author makes sweeping generalizations about serial killers and law enforcement officers and how his interviewees are feeling. For instance, the author talks about how profilers believe they are infallible. If you've read books by F.B.I. profilers, they stress that the profile is only one tool in a P.D.'s arsenal, and that suspects should not be excluded on the basis of any one factor mentioned in the profile. The F.B.I. does not insist that their profiles are completely accurate because in so doing they open themselves up to liability when they are wrong. Also, I remember the author's interview with a survivor who was accompanied by her father. The father was having a difficult time coping with the fact that his daughter was attacked by a serial killer. Instead of exploring that, really digging into it, the author surmises that it is because the father is upset that he couldn't protect his daughter. Then the author launches into a diatribe about how this country failed this military man, this father of a survivor. How? The killer was brought to justice, and his daughter lived -- I'm just not sure how the author makes that leap in logic, among many others.
The author writes the way Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami would write. You just want to laugh at his over-dramatization of the U.S. highway system and such, how it has aided serial killers in their hunting. Spare us the little history lessons on the Gulf Coast canebrake and a play-by-play of your drives around the country and give us more in-depth interviews.
The author also makes factual errors. One that comes to mind is when the author writes that BTK parked at Dillon's, "a local restaurant" in Kansas. It is actually a grocery store chain. If he can't check his facts on these little things, how can we believe him on the big stuff?
Finally, the author hypothesizes about the reasons why some people survive attacks by serial killers. The author suggests it might be God, implies that it is the fighter instinct, but doesn't go beyond these surface observations. It would be interesting to get a survivor's advice on how to fight off an attacker rather than just guessing why someone lived, as the author does.
All in all, this book draws you in because it seems to offer something new, it is small, and the cover looks exciting, but don't be fooled. It is not worth the purchase.
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