The Devil's Right-Hand Man: The True Story of Serial Killer Robert Charles Browne

From a New York Times bestselling author and an award- winning journalist comes the gripping true story of a cold-blooded killer.

In 2000, Robert Charles Browne wrote a letter from his prison cell in Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of a young girl. "The score is you one, the other team 48," wrote Browne. "Seven sacred virgins entombed side by side, those less worthy are scattered wide."

No one in local law enforcement knew what to make of this message, nor could they guess the bizarre murder saga about to land in their laps. Then in 2002, three retirees formed their own cold case squad-and wound up tracing Browne's tantalizing and enigmatic clues to unsolved murders in six states.

This is the gripping, powerful true story of a cold-blooded killer-and the tireless investigators who defied all odds to uncover his chilling truth.

"In a chilling, if sometimes meandering, account of alleged serial killer Robert Browne, Michaud and Price paint a grisly portrait of a man with no remorse or regard for human life. (The case was also recently written about in the New York Times Magazine.) The all-volunteer cold-case squad in Colorado Springs, Colo. — headed by retired FBI agent Charlie Hess and retired police detective Lou Smit — first encountered Browne after his 1995 conviction for the abduction and murder of 13-year-old Heather Church. Convinced that the enigmatic, well-spoken Louisianan had killed before, Hess began what would become a five-year dialogue (initially through letters) with Browne at the Colorado State Penitentiary. Teasing the investigators with riddles and vague details, Browne led them on a gruesome hunt through almost 20 years of unsolved rapes, murders and dismemberments stretching from Louisiana to California. The killer proudly proclaimed the 'score' to be police 'one,' Browne 'forty-eight.' Veteran true-crime author Michaud (Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer) and former Washington Post staffer Price meticulously catalogue the squad's investigation, at times inundating the reader with names, dates and case details that are difficult to keep straight. But this unsettling account of the man who may be one of the country's most prolific serial killers is a must-read for true-crime fans." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

From a "New York Times" bestselling author and an award-winning journalist comes the gripping true story of a cold-blooded killer--and the tireless investigators who had defied all odds to uncover his chilling truth.

Stephen G. Michaud is the New York Times bestselling author and co-author of more than a dozen true crime books.

Debbie M. Price is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in numerous publications.