Synopses & Reviews
From legendary FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker -- authors of the nonfiction international bestsellers
Mindhunter, Journey into Darkness, and
Obsession -- comes an unprecedented, insightful look at the root of all crime.
Every crime is a mystery story with a motive at its heart. With the brilliant insight he brought to his renowned work inside the FBI's elite serial-crime unit, John Douglas pieces together motives behind violent sociopathic behavior. He not only takes us into the darkest recesses of the minds of arsonists, hijackers, bombers, poisoners, assassins, serial killers, and mass murderers, but also the seemingly ordinary people who suddenly kill their families or go on a rampage in the workplace.
Douglas identifies the antisocial personality, showing surprising similarities and differences among various types of deadly offenders. He also tracks the progressive escalation of those criminals' sociopathic behavior. His analysis of such diverse killers as Lee Harvey Oswald, Theodore Kaczynski, and Timothy McVeigh is gripping, but more importantly, helps us learn how to anticipate potential violent behavior before it's too late.
Review
Liz Smith New York Post A marvelous, thrilling, chilling, and riveting read.
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Patricia Cornwell crime novelist I met John Douglas in the early days of my research. He is masterful and unrivaled in scientific and gifted probing of the violent mind.
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Kathy Reichs author of Déjà Dead Gripping and terrifying. The Anatomy of Motive paints the world of the profiler in vivid detail.
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James Patterson author of Kiss the Girls and Cat and Mouse The Anatomy of Motive finds John Douglas at the top of his form -- as always. This is a terrific book for true crime and mystery lovers alike.
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Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D. clinical psychologist and author of Inside the Criminal Mind Douglas and Olshaker have done it again! In their latest work, The Anatomy of Motive, they offer penetrating insights based on their keen probing of the remotest and darkest dimensions of human nature.
Synopsis
Douglas, an accomplished criminal profiler who founded the FBI's Investigative Support Unit, explores the subject of motive, offering a dramatic and insightful look at the development and evolution of the criminal mind.
Synopsis
From the internationally bestselling authors of Mindhunter, a riveting exploration of the root of all crime. Every crime is a mystery story with a motive at its heart. Understand the motive and you can solve the mystery. The Anatomy of Motive offers a dramatic, insightful look at the development and evolution of the criminal mind. The famed former chief of the FBI's Investigative Support Unit, Douglas was the pioneer of modern behavioral profiling of serial criminals. Working again with acclaimed novelist, journalist, and filmmaker Mark Olshaker, and using cases from his own fabled career as examples, Douglas not only takes us into the darkest recesses of the minds of arsonists, hijackers, bombers, serial killers, and mass murderers, but also the seemingly ordinary people who suddenly kill their families or go on a rampage in the workplace.
For the first time, Douglas identifies the common building blocks contributing to the violently antisocial personality. Drawing on cases from today's headlines, he looks at recent sniper incidents at schools and other public places to penetrate the minds and motivations of mass killers. As Douglas tracks the progressive escalation of these criminals' sociopathic behavior, he also shows the common elements in many of their pasts that link them together.
Through riveting profiles and a narrative that reads like the best mystery fiction, The Anatomy of Motive analyzes such diverse killers as Lee Harvey Oswald, Theodore Kaczynski, and Timothy McVeigh, and helps us learn how to anticipate potential violent behavior before it's too late.
About the Author
John Douglas (left) has become the leading expert on criminal-personality profiling and the pioneer of modern criminal investigative analysis during his remarkable twenty-five-year career with the FBI. A veteran of the Air Force, he is the author of numerous articles and presentations on criminology and the coauthor of the landmark books Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives and Crime Classification Manual. He has been called upon to analyze violent crimes from those of the Unabomber to the Nicole Brown Simpson-Ron Goldman and JonBenet Ramsey murders. John Douglas and Mark Olshaker coauthored Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit; Unabomber: On the Trail of America's Most-Wanted Serial Killer; Journey into Darkness; Obsession; and the novel Broken Wings, which is now available in hardcover from Pocket Books. Douglas lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
Table of Contents
ContentsPrologue: Dunblane
One: What I Learned from the Bad Guys
Two: Playing with Fire
Three: Magnum Force
Four: Name Your Poison
Five: Guys Who Snap
Six: On the Run
Seven: Shadow of a Gunman
Eight: Random Acts of Violence
Nine: You Make the Call
Index