Kevin G. (sackett) reviewed I Have Lived in the Monster : Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Serial Killers (St. Martin's True Crime Library) on + 14 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This was an interesting read, albeit not as interesting as Ressler's first book, Whoever Fights Monsters. The focus this time is more on international crimes than domestic ones, and the cases covered are from Ressler's post-FBI consulting rather than his in bureau investigations. While this does allow coverage of some lesser known/media-exploited crimes; overall, I found these cases less satisfying both in a cultural and a psychological context than his bureau investigations have been ... perhaps because much of his consulting involvement is engaged as post facto analysis in the courtroom phase of the crime rather than being focused on the identification and apprehension phase of getting the psychos off the street. There's also a significant chunk of interview transcription from Ressler's interviews-while-incarcerated with John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer that I found a bit dry in the read of it, but Ressler's commentary on what is being said and why it is being said is some of the more interesting insights offered. All in all, for someone interested in Ressler's work after retiring from the BSU, this is worth reading even if it doesn't match the more interesting and less politically polarized "Whoever Fights Monsters." If the work doesn't interest you in and of itself, however, Ressler indulges in enough "I did this" and "I did that" and "I didn't do that even though my rivals say I did it" rhetoric this go round to be actively offputting, often making the book read more like a rebuttal to personal criticism levied by his peers than it does the kind of fascinating insight into the criminal mind Ressler can deliver when he chooses to worry less about what people think of him and more about the crimes he's discussing.
