Mindhunter Paperback – November 2, 2017

No come on I just want to leave a five star review already. Five stars - read this book about ten times now.

Great story about Profiler John Douglas. You will be captivated by his story. Hard to put the book down!!

Well written. Such a hard subject, however, to give five stars. Sometimes repetitive and too autobiographical, but otherwise very good read.

Douglas is a great author and I would highly recommend his books to everyone!

... but often gruesome exploration into the criminal mind. Many of the cases Mr Douglas discusses are ones I recall in newspapers and TV news. Hats off to Douglas for his work both as a profiler and as an author.

I bought Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, for research purposes. I'm writing a book about playing the "good guys" who hunt typical movie slashers, and this book seemed like a good introduction into how the ESCU works to catch the bad guys. What I got was something else entirely.John Douglas is a very scary man. He's someone who has seen far too many horrific crimes, such that they affect him personally-when his kids scrape their knees, Douglas recounts tales of children torn in half by a murderer. When his wife cuts her finger with a kitchen knife, he points out how the spatter pattern would tell a story about what happened. Ultimately, this sort of exposure leads to a divorce and Douglas is upfront about the damage his profession did to his job.The book starts out with Douglas in the hospital, the victim of being overworked and without enough manpower to help him. Near death, he recounts the creation of the ESCU and his struggles in making the profiling of serial killers (he invented the term) a legitimate profession. But it does not go into much detail as to how the ESCU works. In fact, it's more about Douglas and about the murderers themselves.And what a ghastly rogues gallery it is! We have serial killers who invent vigilante groups to cover their tracks, we have killers who like to fly prostitutes out to woodlands and then hunt them down like deer, killers who believe God is telling them to kill people, and killers who strangle, rape, drown, and stab.I read "Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies" at the same time and found an odd juxtaposition between the two books. Legacy of Blood states that the comfort of slasher flicks is that the bad guy is easily recognized by his disgusting appearance and his sudden attacks, when in reality serial killers often look like normal people and torture their victims for hours.Not true, according to Mindhunter. Indeed, many of the killers are degenerate slimeballs, incapable of social contact and forced to use blitz-style attacks against the weak and helpless because of their inadequacies. Many have severe stutters, bad acne, or some other disfigurement. Nearly all have been abused in some fashion by their parents.By now, the serial killer traits are well known: bed wetting, fire starting, and torturing small animals. But Douglas makes it clear that in every case, it's the child's upbringing that so horribly warps them to a life of murder. There are no strong role models to stop these children from turning into monsters; indeed, when children fall into the cracks, serial killers are what sometimes crawl out of them.Unfortunately, exactly how Douglas comes to his conclusions is a lot like magic. Despite all of his attempts to legitimize what he does, his efforts amount to "and then magic happens!" Then Douglas comes up with a startling accurate profile. He never lets us know when he's wrong. That's a minor quibble with a book that I couldn't put down.Mindhunter is as much a cautionary tale as it is a woeful biography of Douglas' life. Only one of the victims actually manages to turn the tables on their assailant. And in just about every other case, the killers were on murder sprees that lasted years with dozens of victims. As Douglas puts it, "sometimes the dragon wins."As an author, this book gave me a host of ideas on how the good guys and the bad guys work. As a citizen of the United States, it gave me a new appreciation for the FBI. As a husband, it gave me a healthy regard for the mentally disturbed. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how to spot the dragons before they hatch.

must get. good read

This is an interesting book as it pertains to the stories of these killers and the profiling that went on to help catch them. 400 pages of the author patting himself on the back, however, makes this a difficult read. One of the themes of the profiling is how all these killers feel inadequate to some degree. Clearly John Douglas feels inadequate as well because he simply cannot stop talking about how perfect he is. The man was never wrong. When he compared himself to the Lone Ranger, I threw in the towel. The writing makes this an exhausting read as you’re waiting for the conceit to let up but it never does. It really ruined the book for me.

Well written by real people dealing with very horrific crimes.

Buen libro

Such an interesting read, a bit grim, as you'd expect, but a great insight to the approach taken by profilers

Adapted into a recent Netflix series of the same name, Mindhunter is a fascinating journey into criminal nightmares.

Ainda não o acabei, mas é de leitura viciante!Recomendo imenso para quem gosta de saber mais sobre o trabalho do FBI relativamente a serial killers.