UBC: Paulides, Missing 411: A Sobering Coincidence

Missing 411: A Sobering Coincidence by David Paulides

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
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UBC: Ressler, Whoever Fights Monsters

Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI by Robert K. Ressler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is exactly what it says on the tin: Ressler's memoir of being an FBI profiler. He talks about a great many murderers, and has a wonderfully practical, commonsense style, both in writing and in his approach to analyzing homicidal psychotics and psychopaths. In his hands, the "organized/disorganized" schema makes sense and is a useful analytical tool. (He bemoans the fact that all his students want a checklist, a black box they can put their data into and get an accurate profile out of, and I totally see how that desire has shaped a lot of "profiling" since Ressler's retirement.)

He has the same problem that bedevils all the books in this genre; "I did this and this and this was awesome and this got me a commendation and this changed the way we understand sociopaths . . ." I know Ressler isn't bragging--he and Bill Bass are the only two of these guys I've found thus far who will tell stories on themselves--but there's no way he can explain why he's writing this memoir without sounding like he's bragging: because it's a memoir about what he's done, not who he is. Much of who he is shows through in what he does, but the emphasis is most definitely on actions and accomplishments--and how can we possibly know why what he's done is important unless he tells us?

Ressler comes across better than anyone except Bill Bass. I appreciate deeply pragmatic people. And he writes very lucidly about some very murky subjects.



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