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Book Review of The Shadow of Death: The Hunt for a Serial Killer

The Shadow of Death: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
GainesvilleGirl avatar reviewed on + 215 more book reviews


The writer has done a great job researching this book, and his writing skills are excellent. I'm a fan of true crime books, but find that this genre in particular has many poorly written stories. Sometimes I just have to give up in disgust! Ginsburg however, is one of the best.
The book is long though, and filled with detail, so much so that I often felt bogged down with it and a bit confused at first by the bouncing back and forth between time periods, suspects, and victims. It was a complicated set of murders and attempted murders, I'm sure the author simply had to go with the flow. I'm not giving anything away when I say that the book ends with the serial killer never being arrested for his crimes. That's a fact that is cited on the back cover of the book and can be found in any on-line search one cares to make. But it does give you a feeling of gloom just knowing it. I'm glad I read the book, it was well worth it. This was a series of murders I had known nothing about, so it added to my store of knowledge about serial killers. The psychologist who became the police profiler in these cases was/is astounding, and his explanation along the way, of how he delved into the minds of the killers, was extraordinary. All in all, if you are a great fan of true crime stories, I'd say you must read this book. It's very good.