TRUE CRIME AT ITS WORST (Talking With Serial Killers - Christopher Berry-Dee)

Member Name: bumblebee86

Product:	Talking With Serial Killers - Christopher Berry-Dee
Date:	25/06/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: short seperated stories - intriguing read

Disadvantages: writing style didnt do it for me

This is a non-fiction true crime book consisting of short stories based on 9 terrifying serial killers.

The author Christopher Berry-Dee is an investigative criminologist who has interacted with various serial killers through written correspondence and face-to-face interviews over several years to gain information on these murders from the murderers themselves.

The information gained by corresponding with the killers, interviews and research has moulded these stories, which retell their childhoods, their murders and their time in prison in a short story. It contains quotes from the prisoners and tries to give the reader an insight into their minds.

Christopher has tried to work out what makes people murder from this information and has mainly tried to connect it to their childhood experiences combined with human biology. It also looks into the penal system and it is amazing how so many people slip through the net to murder over and over again.

It contains the stories of
· Harvey Louis Carnignan
· Arthur John Shawcross
· John Martin Scripps
· Michael Bruce Ross
· Henry Lee Lucas
· Ronald Defoe Jr
· Aileen Carol Wuornos
· Kennith Allen McDuff
· Douglas Daniel Clark and Carol Mary Bundy

I found this book to be intriguing to a degree but the background was buffered by guesses and trying to make the book more fiction by doing so. It is for chilling reading when coming to the actual crimes and the fact that the murderers don't seem to have any remorse it terrifying that its true - so not for the faint hearted.

I thought this book would have a more in depth personal feel to it from the prisoners perspective but I found that most of the information given could have probably been found out just through research so was a bit disappointed.

The style of writing isn't very fluid and makes for harder reading and took me much longer to read than most books of this size. It seemed a bit slow paced. It was good that each case was separated as I could go back and forth to this book whilst reading other more interesting ones without losing focus, as each one was a story in its own right.

I wouldn't particularly recommend this book although it does have some interesting parts it just wasn't that good in my opinion if you have time to waste then go for it. Although I did finish it so it couldn't have been that bad.

3/5 average read with some interesting facts

First published in 2003
349 pages
RRP 6.99

Summary: A look into what makes people kill