Serial Killers Books

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Erik Larson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 764 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe

The Monster of Florence

Douglas Preston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 93 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: When author Douglas Preston moved his family to Florence he never expected he would soon become obsessed and entwined in a horrific crime story whose true-life details rivaled the plots of his own bestselling thrillers. While researching his next book, Preston met Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist who told him about the Monster of Florence, Italy's answer to Jack the Ripper, a terror who stalked lovers' lanes in the Italian countryside. The killer would strike at the most intimate time, leaving mutilated corpses in his bloody wake over a period from 1968 to 1985. One of these crimes had taken place in an olive grove on the property of Preston's new home. That was enough for him to join "Monsterologist" Spezi on a quest to name the killer, or killers, and bring closure to these unsolved crimes. Local theories and accusations flourished: the killer was a cuckolded husband; a local aristocrat; a physician or butcher, someone well-versed with knives; a satanic cult. Thomas Harris even dipped into "Monster" lore for some of Hannibal Lecter's more Grand Guignol moments in Hannibal. Add to this a paranoid police force more concerned with saving face and naming a suspect (any suspect) than with assessing the often conflicting evidence on hand, and an unbelievable twist that finds both authors charged with obstructing justice, with Spezi jailed on suspicion of being the Monster himself. The Monster of Florence is split into two sections: the first half is Spezi's story, with the latter bringing in Preston's updated involvement on the case. Together these two parts create a dark and fascinating descent into a landscape of horror that deserves to be shelved between In Cold Blood and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Mortal Danger (Ann Rule's Crime Files)

Ann Rule

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Editorial Review:

FROM TRUST TO TERROR...

FROM SECURITY TO SURVIVAL

The author of The Stranger Beside Me brings her brilliantly informed understanding of the sociopath to this riveting truecrime collection. Only Ann Rule, who unknowingly worked alongside the smart and charming Ted Bundy -- America's most notorious serial killer -- could lend her razor-sharp insight into these cases of the spouse, lover, family member, or helpful stranger who is totally trusted but whose lethally violent nature, though masterfully disguised, can and will kill. Featured here is the case of a Southern California family man who appeared to be the picture of healthy living with his expertise in naturopathic healing. Luring a beautiful flight attendant into a passionate affair, he swept her away to a secluded home on the Oregon coast where his jealous rages escalated, ultimately leading to a brutal sex attack in which she believed she would die. How this brave victim survived, never knowing her tormentor's whereabouts, and how he resurfaced, forcing a tragic end for all involved, makes this one of Ann Rule's most compelling narratives. Other cases include that of the woman who masterminded her husband's murder to gain his inheritance...the monstrous sadist whose prison release damaged a presidential candidate's campaign and ended in a bitter double tragedy in a quiet neighborhood three thousand miles away...the shocking DNA link between a cold-blooded crime and a cold case...and inside the horrific case of the man who crossed an ocean and several countries to stalk the Eurasian beauty who had fled from him in desperation.

Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder: And Other True Cases (Ann Rule's Crime Files)

Ann Rule

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Includes Ann Rule's insider commentary on the Mary Winkler murder case

REAL-LIFE MURDER. REAL-LIFE MYSTERY.

In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 bestselling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase? Even the most devoted true-crime reader won't predict the outcome of these truly baffling cases until the conclusions revealed in Ann Rule's marvelously insightful narrative: An ideal family is targeted for death by the least likely enemy, who plotted their demise from behind bars.... A sexual predator hides behind multiple fake identities, eluding police for years while his past victims live in fear that he will hunt them down.... A modest preacher's wife confesses to shooting her husband after an argument -- but there's more to her shattering story than meets the eye. These and other true cases are analyzed with stunning clarity in a page-turning collection you won't be able to put down.

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry

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Total reviews: 183 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A national bestseller—7 million copies sold. Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime. 50 pages of b/w photographs.

Both Helter Skelter and Vincent Bugliosi's subsequent Till Death Us Do Part won Edgar Allan Poe Awards for best true-crime book of the year. Bugliosi is also the author of Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder (Norton, 1996) and other books. Curt Gentry, an Edgar winner, is the author of J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (available in Norton paperback) and Frame-Up: The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings.

Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer

Harold Schechter

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Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Harold Schechter is a professor of American culture at Queens College (CUNY) who takes an academic interest in the history of violent folklore: "Our pop entertainments aren't necessarily more brutal than those of the past," he writes. "They are simply ... more state of the art." In this book Schechter turns his keen historian's gaze on real-life serial killer Albert Fish, who killed--and ate--as many as 15 children in New York City in the 20s. Fish resembled a meek, kindly, white-haired grandfather, but was actually an intense sadomasochist whose sexual fetishes included almost everything known to psychiatry. For example, he stuck 29 needles into his pelvic region. Apparently Schechter, while writing his book Deviant about Ed Gein, asked Robert Bloch (author of Psycho), "Why are people so fascinated by Ed Gein?" Bloch answered, "Because they haven't heard about Albert Fish."
Also recommended: Depraved, Schechter's book about Herman Mudgett a.k.a. Dr. H. H. Holmes.

The Stranger Beside Me (Revised and Updated): 20th Anniversary

Ann Rule

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 179 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Not long ago, true crime writer Ann Rule recalls lying on an operating table. The anesthesiologist leaned over before putting her to sleep. "Ann," the anesthesiologist said softly, "tell me, what was Ted Bundy really like?" Despite meeting Florida's electric chair in 1989, the subject of Rule's bestselling book continues to haunt her. Rule and Bundy were friends. They met in 1971 at a Seattle crisis clinic, where they shared the late shift answering a suicide hotline. Their subsequent conversations, meetings, and letters spanned the rest of Bundy's life as he evolved into one of the century's most notorious serial killers. It's been 20 years since Rule first penned this chilling account. But the story--and her 2000 update--will still have readers reaching for their Xanax. No gratuitous gore here; just the basic, bone-chilling evidence. In fact, like a protective mother shielding us from horrors too awful to mention, Rule seems to avoid delving too deeply into crime scene descriptions. She devotes one paragraph in her new afterword to her discovery that Bundy engaged in necrophilia and returned to the scenes of his crimes to "line dead lips and eyes with garish makeup and to put blush on pale cheeks." She tells readers that John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan, and David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam Killer, traded prison correspondences with Bundy. And she hints that Bundy's insatiable killer instincts may have started when he was a 14-year-old paperboy. (Ann Marie Burr, an 8-year-old girl on his route, mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night and has never been found.) The skimpy update is over too soon, leaving readers wanting more and offering further proof of the public's never-ending fascination with serial killers. --Jodi Mailander Farrell

Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas' Most Notorious Female Killer (Berkley True Crime)

Glenn Puit

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

great read! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Really good book - I got it from some Amazon.com reader's 10 best true crime novels and if this one was any indication of the rest of them - he/she right on the money!! Very graphic - pictures are definitely NOT for the faint of heart. I still can't get them out of my head

hard to put down 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was really quite surprised to find such a strange and deceitful person.a real woman could do such horrifying things to her own family. I never thought that true life could be worse than a fiction murder mystery.

No real answers. 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book did not explain too much about Brookey herself. I wanted more on the withcraft, more on her Dad etc. Fast easy read, just not enough for me.

Very fascinating story 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the best true crime stories I've ever read. Not only was it well-written, but the story itself was fascinating. Mr. Puitt found just the right mix of background history, police procedure, and courtroom drama to keep the story clipping along at an even, interesting pace. The imagery, even if there had been no pictures, was so vivid you felt you were right there, even where you wished you weren't. Very, very good! Looking forward to more from this author.

Editorial Review:

Drawing on extensive interviews with the accused herself, here is the sordid, twisted, and surprising story of Brookey Lee West--a successful technical writer from Silicon Valley who went on a twenty year crime and killing spree.

Zodiac

Robert Graysmith

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Total reviews: 94 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Leaves me with more questions than answers 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book after seeing the movie, hoping it would clear up a few things that were glossed over in the movie. But even after reading the book twice, I still have more questions than answers.
One thing is quite clear, that Mr. Graysmith has decided who the real Zodiac is, and only presents the facts that support his finding. Personally, I would have preferred to be presented with more of the facts, so I can make up my own mind.
It's true what others have said, about the book being not very well written. It's clumsy and hard to follow at times, and all the name changes definitely don't help matters.
But even with all that, it's gripping and hard to put down. I finished it in two sittings the first time through.
I think before I spend any money on "Zodiac Unmasked", I'll look for it in the library. I have a hunch I should have bought that one and not this one, anyway.

Editorial Review:

"SHE WAS YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL BUT NOW SHE IS BATTERED AND DEAD. SHE IS NOT THE FIRST AND SHE WILL NOT BE THE LAST." Few cases in the history of true crime are as colorful and intriguing as that of Zodiac, the bizarre gunman in an executioner's hood who hunted the streets of San Francisco in the late 1960s and sent dozens of taunting letters to the police. Robert Graysmith provides ample details about the police investigation, including the full text and photos of most of the letters. Zodiac is an excellent starting point not only for the casual reader, but also for those interested in retracing the author's steps in order to pursue their own ideas about who the killer may have been. This book has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle, the very paper in which the Zodiac's eerie messages and cryptograms were published: "Graysmith's taut narrative brings the horror back with jolt upon jolt."

I'll Be Watching You

M. William Phelps

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In September 2001, Carmen Rodriguez, a beautiful 32-year old Hartford mother of four, went missing. At first police were stymied…until a killer’s crucial mistake led investigators down a long, dark road of cold, calculated murder…

“Phelps is a first-rate investigator.” – Dr. Michael M. Baden

In 1987, single mother Mary Ellen Renard was strangled, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead in her New Jersey apartment. Her vicious assailant had already killed once…and would kill again. But unlike the fiend’s other victims, Mary Ellen lived to tell the tale…

“Phelps gives readers an exclusive, insider’s look.” – Anne Bremner

Clean-cut, popular and on the fast track at a multinational computer firm, Rutgers grad Edwin “Ned” Snelgrove shocked friends and colleagues with a plea bargain for Renard’s brutal attack – and the heinous 1983 murder of college girlfriend Karen Osmun. Vowing never to be caught again, Ned spent his time in prison obsessively studying the violent career of his idol Ted Bundy…then was released ten years early for good behavior…

“Phelps proves that truth is more shocking than fiction.” – Allison Brennan

Unflinching and brilliantly researched, this is an exclusive tour into the twisted mind of an all-American killer…and a state attorney’s tireless efforts to lock him away forever.