Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Killer Across the Table by John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker

12 reviews

taylorlanxon's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Rape, Murder, Pedophilia, Torture, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Stalking

rose_poirot's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

3.5

John Douglas get into the horrible horrible things humans have done to each other but I believe he focuses on the narrative of stranger danger rather than the realities of most people being killed by someone they are close to. 

He does give merit to the tormented childhoods of many of the criminals he discusses. John lands on incarceration and ultimately the death penalty being the ideal outcome and spends little time focusing on intervention and policy or funding to provide services before these people get to the point of assault and murder.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Racism, Animal death, and Violence

alyssa_s10's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Murder, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

urreadtome's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Death

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This was an interesting look into the work that's gone into linking the fields of criminal investigation and psychology/psychiatry. To have to pretend to empathize with murderers and violent criminals as a necessary part of one's job sounds incredibly draining. One of the hospitals mentioned in the section addressing the two killer nurses is familiar to me.  It was unsettling, though I guess my reaction points out the idea a lot of us live under, which is that violent crimes happen to other people in other place. It can't happen to us, or near where we feel safe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Body horror, Car accident, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Rape, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction and Alcohol

mrselaineskinner's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.5

I enjoyed this more than Mindhunter but Douglass frequently comes across as pompous and self-congratulatory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Child death

kelly_e's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

Title: The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter
Author: John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker
Genre: True Crime
Rating: 4.0
Pub Date: May 7, 2019

T H R E E • W O R D S

Insightful • Haunting • Candid

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Renowned FBI profiler, John Douglas delves deep into the cases and minds of four high-profile predatory killers, offering details about his profiling process and the strategies used to crack some of the most gruesome cases. An exploration of nature vs. nurture through interviews that shaped his career.

💭 T H O U G H T S

The Killer Across the Table is like nothing I've ever read before! My interest in the criminal psyche was piqued in my very first criminal psychology class over a dozen years ago. Well-written, Douglas provides insight into the minds of the killers, while taking into account their personalities and their pasts to find triggers for the unspeakable behaviour. Beyond just the profiling, this book turns the focus to the victims, their families, and the fallout of the crimes, which to me is what made this one stand out from the pack.

Told in four separate sections, each detailing one high profile case, it kept my attention throughout, and I came out having learned a lot. However, it was clear that the author thinks fairly highly of himself, and at times it was hard for me to get passed, and dampened the reading experience a little. Highly recommend the audio for this one.

Note: the crimes detailed are gruesome and disturbing, so proceed with caution.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• true crime fanatics
• readers with an interest criminal psychology

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"I familiarize myself with every detail of their crimes and loathe what they did. At the same time, I may feel tremendous empathy and sorrow for what they went through in their young lives that contributed to their adult behavior"

"Lesson learned: Everyone is a potential suspect, and don’t let looks or behavior fool you." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Child death, Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Torture

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Stalking, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Incest, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

lauren_the_bookworm's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

5.0

This was a perfect true crime book for me; it went into depth about 4 cases and  each gave enough detail about the case for me to understand but not too much that I got bored. I also enjoyed the way each case was set out and particularly the interview element John Douglas is well known for. I liked that the cases weren’t particularly well known, I’d not really heard of any of them, which added interest. Definitely an interesting true crime book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

thelovelylibrarylady's review against another edition

dark informative tense slow-paced

4.0

When I stumbled upon this book written by John E. Douglas, the FBI criminal profiler who served as an inspiration for Mindhunter (a Netflix series), I knew that I had to read it. Not only am I a huge fan of the show, but I also have an interest in true crime. Douglas has talked to some of the most infamous criminals - mostly murderers - in the United States and his recounts of these meetings are phenomenal. He takes time to explain why murders commit the heinous crimes they do while walking the reader through four key interrogations he has led. I want to add that there is some content in this title that is disturbing. Douglas does share some graphic descriptions of violence and readers should take note of that before diving in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Physical abuse