Serial Killers by Brian Innes

Synopsis: They are probably the most notorious and infamous of all multiple murders, yet these are the very same criminals that continue to fascinate us more than any other. Sometimes it is the sheer callous deliberation that seems to capture the public's attention; other times, the macabre double-life led by many such slaughterers. Although the phenomenon has probably existed throughout human history, it is only the advancement of modern police detection methods and psychological profiling, as explained throughout this book, that have identified the deadly category now known as serial killers.

From Jack the Ripper, Erszabet Batory, the countess vampire, and Big and Little Harpe to Ted Bundy, the Son of Sam and Jeffrey Dahmer, the whole era of the serial killer is unveiled here. These killers transfix us with an image of an apparently civilized society within which extremely intelligent and rational individuals can commit seemingly random, utterly savage acts of cruelty and depravity. It may well be the darkest side of human activity, but there can be little doubt that the killers listed and described in these pages remain horribly fascinating - sometimes enigmatic and inexplicable - but always terrifyingly gripping.

My thoughts: Remind me not to read books like this just before I go to bed. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night after having nightmares about murderers!

Some of the crimes made for very uncomfortable reading as there is quite a lot of grisly details. But I think it was the photos in this book that creeped me out the most, there is a photo of each serial killer, sometimes ordinary looking family snapshots. Just makes you realise how good some criminals are at acting 'normal'.

This was a good introductory book about serial killers. It contains details of their crimes and victims, how they were caught and what their punishment was. I already knew a lot of the facts about the most famous serial killers, having read books about them before, but this book also contains some less well-known murderers. After reading this there are now a few more murderers that I'd like to read more about.

One thing about this book that really annoyed me was that there were grey boxes scattered on the pages containing extra information, which wouldn't normally bother me, but they were always in really odd places and I found myself having to flick pages backwards and forwards to read things in a sensible order.

This book is a good starting point for learning about serial killers, but there are plenty of other books out there with more in-depth information.

The World's Greatest Unsolved Crimes by Roger Boar and Nigel Blundell

Synopsis from back cover: From theft and fraud to murder, The World's Greatest Unsolved Crimes examines the facts behind the most intriguing crimes of all - those that remain unsolved. Such cases are the stuff of whodunnits. But this book is based on real life and not fiction. It reveals the astonishing, known facts about real acts of villainy... and it probes the fascinating, missing facts that confound the law and are kept in a file marked 'Unsolved'.

My thoughts: Very interesting book, although perhaps a little dated now, as it was written in the early 1980s. It contains case details of lots of unsolved crimes, including infamous crimes such as Jack the Ripper, the Black Dahlia murder, Nazi war crimes, and the Hindenberg disaster. It also contains details of lesser known crimes that I hadn't heard of before. Also has a few black and white photos scattered throughout the book which were interesting to see.

I enjoyed reading this book as I am very interested in crime-solving techniques. I was quite shocked to read about some unsolved crimes that should have been solved, but weren't because obvious evidence was overlooked, or because police went for the easy route of investigation even though it led them to the wrong suspect.

Cold Cases by Charlotte Greig

Synopsis from the back cover: There's nothing more chilling than an unsolved crime, particularly one involving direct harm to human life; be it murder or rape, these are the crimes whose effects extend furthest and cause most pain to humanity: how much worse when they go unsolved and, as such, unpunished?

Such crimes, so-called 'cold cases', are all too common, especially in big cities where hundreds, if not thousands of such incidents remain on file. But there is hope. With the development of science, and the continuing improvements in detection techniques, the re-examination of old, unsolved cases is yielding positive results, often decades after the case originally went 'cold'. This book documents the most fascinating of these cases, and includes:

The murdered heiress, Helen Brach
Albert Fish, child killer
The Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgway
Gerald Parker, the 'Bedroom Basher'
The woman in a box
The bone breaker, Joe Clark
Frank Bender, forensic sculptor
Dennis Rader, the 'Bind, Torture, Kill' killer

My thoughts: This book was interesting and informative. In contains information about many different ‘Cold Cases’ (crimes that have been re-investigated years after the crime occurred).

The book is split into five chapters:
In Cold Blood - Murders that were especially shocking.
Cold Comfort - Crimes which made the front page of the newspapers and raised controversial issues.
Cold-steel Killers - Serial killers.
Cool Heads - Crimes solved with a variety of detection methods.
Cold Sweat - Crimes solved with DNA technology.

Each chapter contains details of several cases. For each case we learn about the crime, the detection, how it was solved, and how the criminal was finally brought to justice. There are also several black and white pictures for each case.

This book was very easy to read and understand, as all of the technical terms are clearly described. A good introductory book for anyone interested in crime solving methods.