Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94699 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 205 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781597775755
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Brown, CEO of Sexual Homicide Exchange (S.H.E.), which helps survivors, believes that people are misinformed about serial killers, primarily because of the attention given to selected criminals in the press or film. Having once rented a room to a murder suspect, Brown became an investigative profiler. Here, she attempts to debunk the many misconceptions about serial killers, including those regarding their educational background and family relationships. Brown presents her information in a straightforward, slightly cynical manner, which detracts from the book. The subheads within chapters are often too obvious-"Are There Serial Killers in Other Countries?" and "Can Watching Pornography Lead to Serial Killing?" Furthermore, Brown's casual style is sometimes insulting. She describes Munchausen syndrome by proxy as "a nasty little psychological development." When the author talks about whether killers seek victims who look like family members, she says, "When white serial killers kill black women and black serial killers kill white women, this theory is blown out of the water." The book does offer a nonsensational overview of serial killers and profiling that some readers may find interesting. However, what's missing are comments from other experts-police, doctors, etc. Brown includes quotes from killers along with her own commentary on a variety of cases, which is occasionally tantalizing, but this is not a complete reference on serial killers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Different opinions out there
I have never written a review before and am sorry that I felt I had to write this one. After looking forward to this book I was greatly disappointed. I have read other profile books and always came away feeling like I learned something. The author seemed to have little to no use for law inforcement or profilers and made many of the profilers sound egocentric. It almost seemed like there was some hard feelings between them. I think I could learn more watching forensic files for an hour then reading this book. She tended to explain the most mundane words in the book so you felt almost as if she was talking to a child with the whole "SHE" examples. I felt it was poorly written. It did not give any information that I felt most people don't already know. It didn't seem to be written well. There really is much in the book to recommend. I would try other profile books out there first.

Ignorance Is Bliss Zero stars if possible
Pat Brown is a virtual fraud looking for easy money. She has no training and has never worked for any law enforcement agency. Her book (and television appearances) prove she knows nothing more than the average lay person and sometimes says/writes things that shows she knows less than the average person on the street. I quote Pat Brown in a recent appearance: The killer is in a rush to leave the area and wash the blood off his clothes." Anyone who watches Forensic Files or CSI knows that all blood does not wash off and can also leave traces in the sink, pipes, washing machine. Come on, people, do you really want to listen/read anything this con artist says? Waste your hard-earned money somewhere else.

Terrible introduction to the subject
Having read this book, I will never listen to a thing Pat Brown has to say.

I purchased this book used for $8 from a local book dealer, and I can't remember the last time I felt more ripped off. Judging by the book jacket and introduction, it seemed like it may have been at least a decent introductory text on the subject. Instead, what I found was a book full of unsupported opinions with no research materials listed, no footnotes, and no indication of any actual, first-hand knowledge of the subject. Instead, the author makes constant, thinly-veiled attacks against the superstars of the profiling world--authors like ex-FBI profilers John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood--who DO have the decades of experience and research necessary to provide informed opinions about how serial killers and other violent criminals function. Pat Brown is a great example of the "Hollywood expert," those people that have no real credentials, but look good on camera (and make ample use of that fact.) For my money, I'll take the ACTUAL experts any day. I kept thinking, "What's the matter, Pat? Did the FBI turn you down for a job? Get over it already!"

Another thing that irked me about this book was the sheer amount of needless filler and bad formatting. At 194 pages (not including the ridiculously unnecessary "glossary"), it seems like there should be more material there than is actually present. Sometimes-large sections of each page are taken up with serial killer quotes, with no credit given to her sources (some of which are from interviews with the very same experts that she constantly slams). In fact, one of the "killer quotes" wasn't even from a murderer, but from a convicted necrophiliac. The Q&A formatting, while seemingly a good idea, just serves to take up more space, with each question in large, bold print. Essentially, it looks as though the book was designed to stretch a relatively small amount of information into a book-length manuscript. Since the primary purpose of the book is to pimp her own profiling agency, maybe she should have stuck with an advertising pamphlet.

Brown states in the introduction that she wants her readers to be offended, that the book is written from the perspective of the killers themselves. She certainly succeeded in offending me, but for all the wrong reasons. If you want to read a decent (if still flawed) book about serial killers from the perspective of a killer, try "The Gates of Janus" by Ian Brady. There's a guy who knows, from ample and grisly experience, exactly what he's talking about...