A review by lackof_shelf_control
Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer by Katherine Ramsland

2.5

‼️TW: murder, violence, obscenities, graphic descriptions ‼️

I picked this book up because I had just read While Idaho Sleeps and it mentions Katherine’s work and this book. BTK has always horrified me and I was intrigued, but this fell a little short for me. It was very repetitive at times and also hard to really tell what is fact and what is fiction since most of it is coming from his perspective. I am sure he portrayed the image of himself that he wanted to be portrayed. He definitely thinks he is smarter than he is by the way he talks about his crimes. 

The most fascinating parts were little things that I was not aware of. For instance, how he would use a water glass and then put it back after his crimes, so essentially his DNA was there the whole time at the crime scene. Also, the psychological insights were very interesting. It is baffling to me that he is so sexually deviant, yet he never raped a victim. Also, he admits he is a “little bit pedophilic”, but the cops said he doesn’t fit the criteria. Hard to believe that someone openly admits to that and yet you say they aren’t. 

All in all- a horrifying guy that committed atrocious crimes. I haven’t read any other books on BTK, but I suspect there are better ones out there.