Pure research, although I had to wait for a while to get this one, popular book. John Douglas used to be a Fed, a profiler in fact, and turned his skills to educated the public about how dangerous some people can be.
Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):
Legendary FBI profiler and #1 New York Times bestselling author John Douglas explores the shocking case of John Robinson, a harmless, unassuming family man whose criminal history began with embezzlement and fraud — and ended with his arrest for the savage murders of six women and his suspected involvement in at least five disappearances. Most disturbing was the hunting ground in which Robinson seduced his prey: the world of cyberspace. Haunting chat rooms, targeting vulnerable women, and exploiting the anonymity of the Internet, his bloody spree was finally halted by a relentless parole officer who spent ten years trying to nail Robinson as a cold-blooded killer.
A cautionary tale set in a virtual world where relationships are established without the benefit of physical contact, and where mainstream Americans can be drawn down a dark path of temptation and death, Anyone You Want Me To Be is a contemporary real-life drama of high-tech crime and punishment.
My Thoughts:
Some of his statistics were so unbelievable I noted them so I could google as soon as had wifi again. And every time, the stats were actually worse today that what he quoted when the book was written. For example, John claimed 66% of death penalty convictions were overturned on appeal. I thought, no way. It’s now 75% since the death penalty was reinstated. He said in 1960 the clearance rate for homicide was 90%, now it was down to 64-67%. Well, as of today, it’s less than 60.
Makes me think my detectives are just too good. LOL. I need to play with my dialogue a bit.
I really enjoyed his profiler’s description of a sociopath. I plan to let it flavor my serial killer.
Over all, I found this an intriguing read. It was mildly repetitive. Unfortunately, it was very heavy on the foreshadowing, which released the tension, rather than building it.
T.A. Henry 