I live in the Wichita area. I was not a resident when BTK (Bind Torture Kill strangler) committed his first crimes. I am, however, interested in serial killers, their crimes, and what makes them tick. Since BTK committed his crimes where I live today, and I lived at one point within the circle where his crimes took place, I thought this personal knowledge of the place would enhance my book reading experience.

I was not disappointed! Mr. Beattie, a Wichita attorney, has done a superb job with this book. Perhaps the best book I've read on a serial killer (I've not read *THAT* many, though). Throughout most of the book, Beattie's prose is well measured and clear. Beattie uses mostly plain English, falling mostly into clinical, professional-speak when the subject matter warrants such(autopsy information, for example), and uses college-level words in some cases. Most educated readers will read the book without much difficulty. May be challenging for those with less education or low reading skills.

Beattie did his homework. In fact, this book is attributed to having made BTK resurface after 30 years. BTK did not want anyone else telling his story. Beattie's research makes him the foremost expert on the BTK crimes in the world, above the WPD even, due to their practice of "starting over" with new investigative teams so that ideas from the new team were not tainted from the previous team. Beattie is the only person alive who has spoken to the members of the various investigative teams about the nearly 30-year-old investigation. In fact, after BTK resurfaced, the WPD and KBI began consulting with him about the latest communications, ideas, etc. Beattie's contribution to BTK's capture must not be overlooked.

Beattie paints a mostly vivid picture of the history of the BTK investigation, and in his own words does so to communicate about the people of Wichita and the investigation, not to chronicle BTK's exploits, but to show how BTK affected investigators and civilians alike, terrorized them Beattie says. Beattie notes on several occasions in the book that BTK's activities fit within the definitions of terrorism as defined by the U.S. government. It is this terrorism and its impact that Beattie chronicles. Though Beattie provides information about BTK's crimes, he does not linger on them or embellish them. He provides the facts as necessary and moves on. Beattie does an excellent job keeping the book focused on the terrorism aspect of BTK's activities.

Beattie's self-described purpose of the book is at once its greatest strength and it greatest weakness. For those interested in minute details about BTK's crimes, the crime scenes, etc., Beattie will disappoint. He provides captivating narrative about the crime scenes and what investigators believe happened at those scenes, but he also glosses over the details such that this reader failed to empathize with the victims as completely as I desired, or to feel the horror the community of Wichita must have felt when the crimes occurred. Despite even the addition of photographs of victims (but not the crime scenes) and Dennis Rader, the purported BTK strangler, I could not place myself in their shoes, to disregard the distance of time. This may be more this reader's modern desensitized psyche than Beattie's weakness, too. It's easy to understand what I mean by those who spend any time in front of the TV and in movie theaters.

Despite my inability to close the 30-year gap and be completely transported back to BTK's active years, I could not put this book down. I read it in a single sitting last evening, and was awake long after midnight, when I finished the final page. For those with a fascination about serial killers, the experience may well be the same. Beattie's gripping narrative propels readers through, as though the book were a museum itself.

One last note. The edition that I read had been updated to include the latest information about the BTK case, up to and shortly after the suspect's arrest in February 2004. This edition appeared or will shortly appear on the New York Times Best Seller List. Once the BTK trial is over, I bet that Beattie will update this excellent book again, to include the latest information and insights gleaned from the trial and whatever other information is then available. If you buy your copy today, you'll *HAVE* to buy another copy after the trial. You'll just have to! I will. And since I live in the Wichita area, I think I'll ask Beattie to autograph the book for me for my signed book collection!

Recommended:
Yes