A review by pbraue13
The Night Stalker by Philip Carlo

4.0

A fascinating and brutal look at the "life and crimes" of Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker. I feel strange saying I enjoyed this book as it covers some very dark and violent things and one of the most brutal serial killers in criminal history. My 4.5/5 stars is due to the fact that the first half of the book was really inthralling, but slowed down and got dry when we reached the trial. I feel as though this is both because we are fascinated by the killers and after they're caught that's usually the end of the story, but also the writing through the trial sessions is very different from the earlier writing. There was seemingly no poetry to the writing in this section, Carlo is no Ann Rule or Michelle Macnamara. The epilogue and the updated afterword sort of made up for it as Carlo gives insight to what happened afterwords to everyone involved (especially Carillo and Salarno, the two detectives involved who brought RR down, love them both) and includes real transcripts of interviews with the author and RR when he was writing the book and RR was still alive. I do take a few points off for how Carlo judges the alleged "Ramirez groupies" (women attracted to the killer) as these are clearly mentally ill women and it is unprofessional that he injects his opinion in an otherwise objectively written book. Otherwise, for any true crime fan this book is essential. But I would definitely include a trigger warning for this book. The crimes are intense and described in detail thoroughly and may be rough for some viewers, but fit the tone of the book: a cold account of one of the most brutal serial killings, rapes, and assaults in history.