Customer Reviews
An insightful and well written book - By: Emily Pitkethly, 29 Mar 2008 
I reallly enjoyed this book i thought it was well written andbrilliantly structured, having read a lot of books around this subject this is defiantly the best. It described events accuratly & with necessary detail & the reflections on indivuals was insightful & original. The book lays out killers on a continumum of violence workingits way to the most horrendus crimes of Ted Bundy & Jeffery Danher. The only fault i have with the book is that these last too killers are not dealt with in quite the same methodical detail as earlier individuals, althougth perhaps the author deemed these cases too well known to spend much detail going into as much detail of their crimes, none the less is insights into these killers were equallly good & provied some thoughts i had not previous discivered in similar books therefore leaving familiar cases in a whole new light. Highly recommened.
Anger and murder - By: Philippe Cotter, 19 Sep 2006 Not easy, but a must read if you want to understand the nature of the anger leading to extreme violence. This anger can express itself through retaliation, or, in the most effective cases (Dahmer, Bundy), where the murderer manages to control his anger, through excitation. Retaliation & excitation are the extreme of the anger continuum. The position of the killer on the continuum is revealed by his signature, the set of thoughts & behaviours he is unable to control. Keppel examines as well the origin of that anger, coming from a long way, from infancy, as he explains at the end of the book.
psycho killers for idiots - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 05 Feb 2001 
This book drove me crazy because it was so patronizing. It is obvious that Keppel knows his stuff, but it is equallly obvious that he doesn't think the general reading public have progressed far beyond "A is for Apple". If the man says something once he says it a million times. The case information he gave was sketchy & most of his time was taken up reiterating several obvious points ad nauseum. The book could easily have been a good 75 pages thinner & it wasn't that thick to start with. Compared with writing by the equallly professional Paul Britten ("The Jigsaw Man") there is no contest. A real shame.
Perhaps the best book I've ever read on serial homicide - By: , 01 Jan 2001 Robert Keppel reallly knows his stuff, & it shows. His knowledge & insight into the minds of these people is absolutely staggering. He puts them into their various categories & offers clear explanation of the motivations of these killers. If you want to know how the typical serial killer thinks & what caused him to commit his crime(s), then this book is a must read. I'm a big fan of John Douglas & Robert Ressler, but Robert Keppel is definately up there with them. Don't think twice - order this book!!
So intensely insightful it almost scared me, or scarred me! - By: , 26 Jan 2000 I've been studying this book for months now, re-reading & going back again & again. Every time I read a passage I find some insight into the killers mind that I hadn't noticed before. For anyone interested in criminology & Signature killers, You Must Read this book.
