Good SERIAL KILLER books?

For starters, I'd suggest "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper" by Phillip Sugden. Sugden is widely acknowledged to be one of the world's foremost Ripper experts and he doesn't pretend to have a solution to the Ripper's identity (as a side note, Patricia Cornwell's "Portrait of a Killer" is to be avoided at all costs and she personally deserves a smack in the teeth for such dribble). He simply sets forth all of the facts known at the time, identifies each serious suspect and the pros/cons of why they could or could not be the Ripper. Fascinating read about a fascinating character in a fascinating time in history.

I was about to say, Sugden "Complete History of Jack The Ripper" is pretty much the only Ripper book you need.

Anything by John Douglas. He's one of the guys who started the FBI's profiling program, and some of the stuff they figured out is ridiculous. By just looking at a crime scene they could tell you what kind of person did it, and how he was related to the victim. One murderer he correctly pegged as a stutterer... from just looking at the way the victim was killed. Ridiculous.

Definitely recommend Mind Hunter and The Cases that Haunt Us.

Thinking about your question, however, I have to recommend "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" by Erik Larson. It's absolutely brilliant and, as a minor history buff, one of my alltime favorite non-fiction reads. It's really two parallel tales intersecting at the 1893 World's Fair held in Chicago: in the first, it tells the story of how Chicago managed to host the World's Fair and the effort that went into producing it, focusing mainly on Daniel Burnham, the architect who designed the Fair. In the second, it tells the story of H.H. Holmes (you may have heard of him), a gentleman serial killer who built the World's Fair Hotel, a murder mansion complete with acid vats, secret passages and airtight rooms. I can't recommend it enough.

Agreed about The Devil in the White City- fantastic story that just doesn't seem believable, even if it is. Plus, you'll have a leg up on the movie adaptation (whenever it gets done).

'The Monster of Florence' by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi was a good read. Preston is known more for his fictional thrillers with Lincoln Child, but this is a really solid non-fiction book that looks into Italy's equivalent of Jack the Ripper.

This gave me the willies as a teen.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

I can't believe this has never been adapted into a movie. It's madness, I tells ya, madness. Oh, and I'd recommend its sequel, as well: "Angel of Darkness".

Angel of Darkness is pretty good but Alienist is head and shoulders above it. But it's one of those properties that there have been attempts at but never a successful adapatation.

That and Carr hasn't really gone anywhere since those two books.

"River" by Roderick Thorp is probably the best serial killer novel written thus far. OOP unfortunately, but plenty of copies to be had on Alibris, Ebay, etc.

Check it out.

I had hoped that he'd continue the series, switching to yet another first person narrator: Cyrus, Kriezler, etc.

For fiction, I'm a big fan of the early books by Michael Slade. In the beginning, Michael Slade was the pseudonym for several Vancouver lawyers who wrote together. Of late, it's just one of the original lawyers and his daughter; the books have turned to shit.

Essentially, you're looking at the mounties vs serial killers. The books are pretty gruesome but entertaining reads. I'd recommend 'Headhunter' through 'Ripper', and I'd discourage you from reading anything from 'Death's Door' onward.

The Alienist's been in development hell forever. Rudin owns the rights to it, but balked at the subject matter. There's a script floating around that's pretty easy to find on the screenplay sites.

But yeah, I'd love to see that as a film with Russell Crowe as Teddy Roosevelt.

As for "serial killer" books, it begins and ends with Bloodletters and Badmen.

I swear I remember someone scouting locations in Philadelphia for the film version that never materialized.

As for fantasy casting, here's some of mine:
John Moore - John Cusack
Sarah Howard - Julianne Moore
Laszlo Kriezler - Johnny Depp
Cyrus Montrose - Michael Clarke Duncan

Ted Bundy: "The Only Living Witness" by Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth. Of the many books about Ted, this is by far the best and most comprehensive. Along with this you may wish to read "Conversations with a Killer" by the same authors, which are transcripts of their interviews with Bundy, where he talks about the kind of person who would have committed the crimes (sort of his version of OJ's "If I Did It.") A riveting, incredible account of America's quintessential serial killer.

Of the other Bundy books, Ann Rule's "The Stranger Beside Me" is pretty good given her background as a crime writer and insights into criminals (she worked with Bundy on a suicide hotline in the late 60s), and if you find it, "My Phantom Prince" by Patricia Kendall(?) is the POV of Bundy's fiancee during the later years of his predations, an interesting account of how it feels to discover your lover is one of America's greatest annihilators of women.

Robert Keppel was the Seattle detective who hunted Bundy for his Washington murders, and was later tasked with hunting the Green River Killer. In 1984, Bundy contacted Keppel and offered to provide his services in helping him profile the GRK, and Keppel wrote "The Riverman" about this 'collaboration'.

"Angel of Darkness" by Dennis McDougal is the story of gay freeway killer Randy Kraft, who was eventually convicted of 16 murders but had a 'scorecard' that investigators believe meant he had murdered 67 or so young men. The book also covers the other California freeway killers of the time, Bill Bonin and Pat Kearney. One of my top five favorite books about serial killers.

Edmund Kemper is one of my favorite murderers. 6' 9" tall, extremely smart and personable, he shot his grandparents at age 15, and then dissected a half-dozen coeds in his 20s before finally turning his wrath at the person he hated most. Margaret Cheney wrote "Why: The Serial Killer in America" about Kemper, and it's a terrific account of the case. It also covers the other two maniacs at work in Santa Cruz at the time, schizophrenic serial killer Herbert Mullin and mass murderer John Linley Frazier.

Phil posted "Deviant" by Harold Schechter, which covers Ed Gein. Schechter also wrote "Deranged" (about sadomasochistic serial child killer and cannibal Albert Fish) and "Depraved" (H.H. Holmes, the subject of the aforementioned and excellent "Devil in the White City"). Excellent books, all.

The best book on John Wayne Gacy is "Buried Dreams" by Tim Cahill, and the best book on Jeffrey Dahmer is "Jeffrey Dahmer" by Dr. Joel Norris. Similar to Dahmer (and predating him by 20 years) is Dennis Nilsen, the British man who murdered 15 men because he was lonely, the definitive accoint of his crimes being "Killing For Company" by Dennis Masters.

On the detection/profiling end, the aforementioned books by John Douglas are great, but let me recommend "Whoever Fights Monsters" by Robert Ressler. Ressler was Douglas' FBI partner, and with him pioneered profiling and behavioral science.

That should keep you busy for a while.

Nekkerbee, I read "Deranged" some years ago. I seem to remember it being a good read.

Another one for the list, Bluelou: "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi. That may be an obvious one, but you can't beat the story of the Manson family as told by the lead prosecutor. I've read it twice and it never fails to fascinate.

bluelouboyle: thanks for starting this thread. I can't wait to take some of these suggestions to the bookstore.

That kind of reminds me of John Sandford's Prey books. THey have been unreadable as of late. That and Sandford has one of the laziest named characters in existence. A Minneapolis cop named Del Capslock. I am not joking.

His brother Tab is a riot.

I gave up on Sandford a while ago; thank you for confirming the wisdom of that decision.

Going back to the Slade books: no character is safe in these stories. Main characters are killed off/maimed in very nasty ways if it serves the story. In one book, the serial killer actually dupes the mounties and gets away at the end.

While they can be read out of order, they all feature the same group of characters and reference each other.