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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
There’s some really interesting stuff in here, but it’s overshadowed by decades old biases: cold mothers create serial killers, comments about “wilding” black kids, bisexuality and polyamory as sexual deviance, and an overall sense that the author thinks the world of himself ruin any novel psychological insights and left me feeling pretty disgusted by the author instead of his subjects, who at least as murderers I already expected to be messed up.
Hasn’t held up well with time, I guess.
Hasn’t held up well with time, I guess.
For years I wanted to be a profiler - still kinda do- but let's be honest, I couldn't emotionally handle it. Or physically either. This book was a good read to learn from someone integral to the start of criminal profiling in general. I learned a lot that I didn't know about at all. Some of it read a bit cocky to me but that wasn't anything that ruined the read for me.
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
I expected this one to be better than it was. Yes, it was detailed and informative. However, the author seemed to have little idea on how to write in a way to fascinate the reader. It was dense in material, but very dry.
Definitely an interesting book, but be prepared for the author to be very into himself and his accomplishments. It got tiring after a while.
Would give 1/2 a star if allowed. I couldn't finish this book. There is so much potential, however you have to extract any pertinent information from between the pomposity and egotism of the author. I wanted to learn about the beginnings of FBI profiling and read interesting interactions with some of the better known criminals we're all familiar with, not spend my time trying to pick tidbits from between the author's high opinions of himself. Save yourself the pain and just watch Mindhunter instead.
This book was written in 1992 by the “other guy” that didn’t inspire Jack Crawford in the Hannibal Lecter books (John Douglas). Or in Netflix’s “Mindhunter,” he’s “the older guy.” And boy does he want you to know that he was there first! He treads a lot of the same territory as Douglas has in his memoirs, but don’t forget, he was the lead dude. Looks like Ressler died in 2013, which is probably good for his ego, because Mindhunter would probably make his head explode.
This was such an interesting read! Robert Ressler developed the behavioral science unit at the FBI and is the leading expert when it comes to serial killer profiling. I was fascinated by the whole book. Great for anyone that loves true crime. This book counts for Popsugar 2020 for a "book with '20' or "twenty" in the title".