The Killer Across the Table
Ratings18
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings18
Average rating4.1
The legendary FBI criminal profiler, number-one New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration for the hit Netflix show Mindhunter delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most disturbing and complex predatory killers, offering never-before-revealed details about his profiling process, and divulging the strategies used to crack some of America’s most challenging cases. The FBI’s pioneer of criminal profiling, former special agent John Douglas, has studied and interviewed many of America’s most notorious killers—including Charles Manson, ”Son of Sam Killer” David Berkowitz and ”BTK Strangler” Dennis Rader—trained FBI agents and investigators around and the world, and helped educate the country about these deadly predators and how they operate, and has become a legend in popular culture, fictionalized in The Silence of the Lambs and the hit television shows Criminal Minds and Mindhunter. Twenty years after his famous memoir, the man who literally wrote the book on FBI criminal profiling opens his case files once again. In this riveting work of true crime, he spotlights four of the most diabolical criminals he’s confronted, interviewed and learned from. Going deep into each man’s life and crimes, he outlines the factors that led them to murder and how he used his interrogation skills to expose their means, motives, and true evil. Like the hit Netflix show, The Killer Across the Table is centered around Douglas’ unique interrogation and profiling process. With his longtime collaborator Mark Olshaker, Douglas recounts the chilling encounters with these four killers as he experienced them—revealing for the first time his profile methods in detail. Going step by step through his interviews, Douglas explains how he connects each killer’s crimes to the specific conversation, and contrasts these encounters with those of other deadly criminals to show what he learns from each one. In the process, he returns to other famous cases, killers and interviews that have shaped his career, describing how the knowledge he gained from those exchanges helped prepare him for these. A glimpse into the mind of a man who has pierced the heart of human darkness, The Killer Across the Table unlocks the ultimate mystery of depravity and the techniques and approaches that have countered evil in the name of justice.
Reviews with the most likes.
Douglas takes us in prison to interrogate 4 murderers. We first learn about their stories, criminal history, we then have an insight in Douglas' interrogations.
Couple of months ago I read mindhunter and I really liked it, so I pick this one after and I am not disappointed. First it was well written and organised, making it clear of the reader. I liked the fact that we first have the criminal's story before the interviews, it gives us insight on what is in their minds and Douglas points out elements that can explain the behaviours. The element that I really loved was that Douglas explains why he asks a question and what the answer reveals about the killer, it helps the reader really understand things. Finally the links with other stories and murderers is also really helpful and interesting.
A bonus goes to the audiobook edition on scribd for the little interview of the author by Jonathan Groff the narrator.
Very heavy. Douglas talks about a variety of conversations he's had with a range of types of killers with many more examples sprinkled between for comparison. The first time I've read about a medical ‘mercy' killer (one of the types). As you might imagine, several unbelievable people doing repeatedly terrible things. Olshaker has apparently helped write virus related books with a couple epidemiologists so I might look to that next.
