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BookblogbyCari (345 KP) rated Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Crime Unit (Now A Netflix Series) in Books

Mar 10, 2019

Douglas is a show-off

This is hands-down the most action-packed biography I have ever read! And it’s almost the most egotistical and narcissistic sounding biography I have ever read.

In his opening scene in the prologue, Douglas finds himself waking up from a coma in hospital expecting to be tortured by sick criminals, having (almost) single-handily run the FBI’s psychological profiling unit, handling hundreds of cases for several years.

I haven’t had the opportunity to watch the Netflix series based on this book, but I am quite a fan of the Criminal Minds series, so I had an idea of what to expect. However, you need to get 6 chapters in before Douglas starts talking about his work as an FBI profiler. He starts off talking about growing up, his love life, and getting into his career.

Douglas may call himself a profiler, but in my opinion, he is first and foremost a story-teller, with a talent for a drama-filled yarn. And rather than being put off by his constant bragging, I found myself hanging on his every word.

This light and long prelude to the criminal profiling section of the book made the crime details feel all the more gruesome. Some of the predictions made by Douglas about the murderers are barely believable. I mean, how can a crime scene really tell you the age of a murderer or what kind of car he drives?

Unfortunately, Douglas doesn’t offer much explanation into these kinds of things, and the leader is left assuming it’s all down to statistics. And if there’s anywhere the book is let down it would be here, because this would be why readers would pick the book up.

I once read a similar book called The Profiler, by Pat Brown. Brown, however, was a mere spectator to criminal goings on and had no influence whatever on getting criminals brought to justice. Douglas, however, would meet with local police and provide strategies on getting the bad guy, and getting him to confess.

To me, the most crucial chapter was Battle of the Shrinks. It looks at how criminals are dealt with once apprehended. Here Douglas meets with a psychiatrist whose job it was to assess whether criminals can have their sentences shortened and be let off early. This psychiatrist didn’t bother reading police reports to see from an outsider exactly what the criminal had done because he didn’t want to be made biased it and wanted to meet the criminal exactly as they presented himself to him. Douglas was appalled by this attitude and tried to get this over to the psychiatrist, but sadly, to no avail.

In short, this is a very entertaining book, and while it can teach you lot, reading it will never make you as good a profiler as John Douglas himself.

Kudos

Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated First Love in Books

May 10, 2018

First Love is a story of two young people, Alexandra and Robinson. Axi is sitting at Ernie's, a cafe in their small town, waiting for Robinson. Next week, she has finals for her two AP classes. Now, normally, this straight laced, straight A student would be studying for those finals, but today she has something else on her mind. As Robinson enters the store, all thoughts of finals escape her mind and a smile spreads across her face. He has that skill, to brighten her mood whenever he is around. As he sits down, worry starts to envelope Axi. What if her plan backfires? What if Robinson isn't interested in what she has to say? She takes a deep breath and says..."Let's Run Away".
All over the country they travel, breaking the rules and trying not to get hurt or arrested along the way. When this carefree trip takes a devastating turn, Axi comes to realize that life is way too short.

We all remember our first love. I know at that time, there was almost nothing I wouldn't do for mine. Would you lie, steal, cheat? Would you sacrifice your own life for their happiness? First Love is definitely not your typical James Patterson book. While he does have other books that are non-crime/police drama, they are few and far between. This was a cute story about teens trying to make the best out of a bad situation. Time is of the essence for them and they intend to ride it until the wheels fall off. Penning themselves Bonnie and Clyde, Axi and Robinson take a cross-country tour neither of them will ever forget. Starting in Oregon and ending in North Carolina they cross the country seeing the sites and trying to avoid the police. If you're interested in a quick, cute love story about a couple of kids, then you will enjoy this story!

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The Many Lives of Cy Endfield: Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu

Brian Neve

(0 Ratings) Rate It

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Cy Endfield (1914-1995) was a filmmaker who was also fascinated by the worlds of close-up magic,...

You Don't Know Me

Imran Mahmood

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

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'An eye-opening, slick and compulsive thriller with an important message and unique writing' ADAM...

Zoe Nock (13 KP) rated The Last in Books

Jun 26, 2019

The Last

Hanna Jameson | 2019 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller

6.6

(5 Ratings)

Book Rating

Different take on a dystopian theme (0 more)

Lost it's way a little towards the end (0 more)

What scares you the most? Ghouls, vampires, slime-fanged aliens ...or something terrible that truly could happen? For me it's definitely the latter.

Our narrator, Jon, is a historian witnessing the most monumental event of humanity but at a great distance. He feels compelled to keep a record of the people isolated with him in a vast hotel. He collects their stories and feelings in the faint hope that some sort of civilisation will survive long enough to rediscover them. Through his journal we experience what it would be like to be aware that the world was ending, billions dying, but be totally disconnected from the horrific events.

Most books set during an apocalypse are fraught with traumatic dashes, violent brushes with death, horror and misery. There are elements of that here but this book mostly poses the question of what you would do if there was little drama but lots of time to dwell on things. The people in the hotel are comparatively safe in an old hotel surrounded by forest. They wait for something to happen, for someone to rescue them, or perhaps just for their food to run out. Jon embarks on a quest to solve one cruel murder, taking him down a path of mistrust and near hysteria.

I enjoyed the blend of dystopia and murder mystery; the first half of the book reads like a modern day progeny of George Orwell and Agatha Christie. Asking your audience to imagine bombs wiping out entire countries but then drastically limiting their focus to one death amongst multitudes is startling. I also liked the references to real people and places, there were definite shades of the Cecil Hotel here for a true-crime/horror podcast junkie like me to appreciate. However, I do feel that the novel lost it's way towards the end - trying to be all things to all people perhaps. It's definitely worth reading and I'm keen to see more from this author.