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    The Killer Across the Table: From the authors of Mindhunter
    Unavailable
    The Killer Across the Table: From the authors of Mindhunter
    Unavailable
    The Killer Across the Table: From the authors of Mindhunter
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Killer Across the Table: From the authors of Mindhunter

    Written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

    Narrated by Jonathan Groff

    4.5/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    ‘John Douglas is the FBI's pioneer and master of investigative profiling, and one of the most exciting figures in law enforcement I've had the privilege of knowing’ Patricia Cornwell

    ‘John Douglas knows more about serial killers than anybody in the world’ Jonathan Demme, Director of The Silence of the Lambs

    In The Killer Across the Table, legendary FBI criminal profiler and number one bestselling author John Douglas delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most disturbing and complex predatory killers he’s encountered, offering never-before-revealed details about his profiling process and divulging the strategies used to crack some of his most challenging cases.

    Former Special Agent John Douglas has sat across the table from many of the world’s most notorious killers – including Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, ‘Coed Killer’ Edmund Kemper, ‘Son of Sam Killer’ David Berkowitz and ‘BTK Strangler’ Dennis Rader, and has also been instrumental in the exoneration of Amanda Knox and the West Memphis Three. He has gone on to become a legend in the world of criminal investigative analysis, and his work has inspired TV shows and films such as Mindhunter, Criminal Minds and The Silence of the Lambs.

    In this riveting work of true crime, Douglas spotlights four very different criminals he’s confronted over the course of his career, and explains how they helped him to put together the puzzle of how psychopaths and predators think. Taking us inside the interrogation room and demonstrating the unique techniques he uses to understand the workings of the most terrifying and incomprehensible minds, The Killer Across the Table is an unputdownable journey into the darkest reaches of criminal profiling and behavioural science from a man who knows serial killers better than anyone else. As Douglas says:

    ‘If you want to understand the artist, look at his art.’

    If you want to understand what makes a murderer, start here.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateMay 7, 2019
    ISBN9780008346539
    Unavailable
    The Killer Across the Table: From the authors of Mindhunter
    Author

    John Douglas

    John Douglas, the legendary FBI criminal profiler and veteran author of true crime books, has spent over twenty-five years researching and culling the stories of America’s most disturbing criminals. A veteran of the United States Air Force, he has directly worked and/or had overall supervision in over 5,000 violent crime cases over the past 48 years. He is currently chairman of the board of the “Cold Case Foundation.” One of the foremost experts and investigators of criminal minds and motivations, he currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area. Mark Olshaker is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and author of ten nonfiction books and five novels, including Einstein’s Brain and The Edge. His books with former FBI Special Agent and criminal profiling pioneer John Douglas, beginning with Mindhunter and, most recently, Law & Disorder, have sold millions of copies and have been translated into many languages. Mindhunter is now a dramatic series on Netflix, directed by David Fincher. He and his wife Carolyn, an attorney, live in Washington, D.C.

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    Reviews for The Killer Across the Table

    4.5/5

    157 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I read this after Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. Really enjoy John Douglas's insight into the FBI world and also the human psyche. Highly recommend to any true crime fans.
    • 3/5
      Thought this was only okay, I preferred Mindhunter a lot more!
    • 4/5
      This is my second book by Douglas, [b:Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit|126584|Mindhunter Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit|John E. Douglas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308169929l/126584._SY75_.jpg|3979692] being the first. If I remember correctly, my biggest issue with Mindhunter the impression I got of John Douglas as a human being: sexist and egotistical. I didn't get that impression with this one.

      Maybe because this book is much more recent? I don't know but it was fascinating to get inside the heads of these killers. I occasionally got frustrated by the jumping back and forth between the current killer being discussed and some other one who the author(s) wanted to compare him to. The narration (done by the actor who plays the John Douglas-esque character on the Netflix show) was sometimes slow and the inflections he used to denote something that must have been italicized or in some other way set apart in the written text were halting. Even though I understood the reasoning behind the change, it was still annoying.

      This is a book I'd definitely recommend to any true crime buff. I hadn't heard of many of the killers discussed and was mostly riveted throughout the book.
    • 4/5
      Douglas is the original FBI profiler and the author of Mind Hunter, along with several other books about the work he and his early colleagues did in creating profiles on the worst criminals in America. In this book, he discusses many murders, some that involve children, where he was able to conduct extensive interviews with the killers. Much of the book is about how he studied the murderers beforehand, and what techniques he used or advised parole boards to use in order to get the murderer talking, and often giving unintentionally honest answers.
    • 3/5
      This is fascinating and deeply unsettling. It left me questioning why I listened to the whole thing, because while it is very interesting, it also gives you so many details about the crimes and motivations that it was very dark.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book. This is a very interesting book written by well known criminal profiler, John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. Very detailed description of interviews with 4 killers.
    • 5/5
      Super! I've been waiting for this book since watching the Mindhunter mini-series on Netflix. A real, fleshed-out (sorry for the pun) version of what actually happened. The way the author has of drawing you into the situations he faced is amazing. You feel like you are there in the room with him, interviewing these people. And the way he has of getting these monsters to open up to him is incredible. You would have to think that if the author wasn't a law enforcement professional, he would have made a great priest, getting people to confess their sins. While only covering a handful of cases, the author is given time to delve deeper into each case. The result being a great read!I can't wait for his next book. And for the next season of Mindhunter!
    • 5/5
      Author and FBI criminal profiler John Douglas has done it again. In this book he describes interviews with a variety of killers to try to ascertain why they did what they did. It is a fascinating read that takes the reader inside the minds of some of people who have committed some of the worst acts known to mankind. While many of them suffered as children, what most of them have in common is that they have made the choice to do what they did to others. It is a frightening look that makes one really think and wonder if there will ever be a way to prevent people from taking this path.
    • 3/5
      While this book has some interesting content, I was disappointed by the overall presentation and tone.The basis of the book is an overview of four killers Douglas interviewed. We learn about their lives, from childhood up through their crimes, and then we're told about the interviews Douglas later did with each of the men. Direct quotes are included, so we get a good sense of their thought processes. I found these parts informative and interesting.Unfortunately, the content gets kind of messy as Douglas continually strays from the subject at hand. We wander off into long passages about various killers featured on the Netflix show Mindhunters in which Douglas took part. These killers are far more notorious and well known, but their stories are unnecessary and distracting. Many of the passages are so long that, by the time we got back to the original story, I'd forgotten the point of it all. Tossing in tidbits for comparison would've been fine, but the volume and tone felt gratuitous, as if we had to keep being reminded about the Netflix show and all the infamous killers Douglas worked with.The writing style is conversational. While the topic is dark and disturbing, the book itself is an easy read. In fact, for me it's a little too light. I was hoping for something more science-based, and the tone here is very much pop culture.Finally, I have to mention the Epilogue, because, well, it made me cringe inside. Douglas talks about Dr. Stanton E. Samenow, a forensic psychologist whom he praises as "a hero". Samenow, in my view, is anything but. He wrote a book in which he claimed that genetics, upbringing, poverty, and environment have absolutely nothing to do with the making of a criminal. All our actions are choices we make from equal ground. He spoke about a man who'd sexually abused dozens of children, calling his crime an "irresponsibility". Another man who'd been arrested for possession of child porn was only looking for "a relief from boredom", and Samenow authoritatively stated that the man should not have received such a harsh prison sentence. I know this is not a book about Samenow, but when Douglas referred to him as a hero, I had to stop and question this author's judgement. *I received a review copy from the publisher, via NetGalley.*