This was the first of Vronsky’s books I read and definitely made the biggest impression on me. The length and even-tempered narrator have tempted me to use this as a sleeping book (I was awake for my first reading, of course!), but unfortunately that is out–it gave me some pretty unsettling dreams!
Across Vronsky’s titles I did notice a fair amount of repetition, such as similar anecdotes and turns of phrase, but I don’t count these minor sins against him. One of his strongest talking points is about the failures of ViCAP and the exaggerated testimonies which led to the program being greenlit. I like that Vronsky is on the whole an objective writer, and although his condemnation of ViCAP is strong at times, I sense this is because it was a good idea wasted, or at the very least poorly enacted. In his books, John Douglas gives a somewhat milder opinion of ViCAP, but agrees on its wasted potential. I get the sense that the exaggerated figures given by Ann Rule and John Walsh were frustrating to those whose professional lives are dedicated to catching and describing criminals.
This book held a lot of old and new information for me, so I certainly recommend it as a way to introduce yourself to some of history’s lesser-known killers as well as enjoy a new take on some of the more infamous. If you like this one, you can’t go wrong with some other Vronsky titles like Serial Killers and Sons of Cain.