Donated by a neighbor for release at the Gaithersburg book festival.

Releasing at the Bookcrossing table at the 2019 book festival.

I could say that my interest in this book is based on being a lawyer and a student taking Forensic Psychology courses.

I will give this book 2 stars out of 5 because I learned some things about big name serial killers that I did not know and it covered a few that I was not familiar with. BUT, definitely some racial prejudice with a British flavor throughout (published in about 1995, when average American would not have used the term Chinaman or African to refer to Americans of Asian or African American heritage). There was also a level of condescension toward the US justice system that, while deserved, was not applied to the British justice system for similar mistakes. And the male chauvinist pig was strong here, with a double standard even a Republican would recognize.

Ostensibly, this book was intended to include psychological information to aid in understanding how these criminal personalities evolved, but there was very little Frank discussion of that topic. There was some reference to Maslow and how people like Ian Brady were just seeking self-actualization. Also repeated obersvations of the number of head injuries suffered by offenders. And a seeming condemnation of the fading out of the class system which meant a more equal opportunity to succeed as the reason some people tried to be special in their heinous crimes. However, there was A LOT of salacious and even extraneous detail of sexual assault and incest and sadism.

Needless to say, I will not be reading Volume 2, focused specifically on the sexual aspect of serial murder, even though I picked up both books at the same time. I got my full and then some in Volume 1.

This book was left in the Little Free Library on the Nature Trail.

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