True Crime Stories: The World's Most Monstrous Murderers

by Al Cimino

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[T.A. Beasley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books has short chapters about the world's most notorious murderers. It had some i already knew and had read about, but it also introduced me to more. Some of these i have never heard about them. I glad i got this book because I'm interested in learning more about the new ones found in this book.

These murderers are not nice, have hid in plain sight and are very intelligent, which makes it worse on how some of them went under the radar far to long before getting caught.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do I even begin with this book? It was the most horrific book I've ever read and I write horror. Clearly the real horrors of the world are much more barbaric and traumatic to read than fiction. One chapter after the other talked about a different serial killer and each crime was more horrific than the last. Did I enjoy this book? I don't think that's even an appropriate question to ask because if someone enjoyed this book I feel there might be something wrong with them. In terms of me as a person enjoying a crime book based solely off the fact that it was a crime book sure I guess I could say I enjoyed it but as a book on serial killers and inhuman monsters that existed in this world did I enjoy it? No, nore should anyone.

I only usually read two chapters at a time because one, I usually read on the bus, and two, I could only stomach reading two because anymore would likely cause me to be upset by what I had read even more than I already was. The one plausible thing I took form this was reading about the known serial killers such as Richard Ramirez and Gary Ridgeway. Learning a bit more about them was of slight interest but learning about their kills in detail not so much. The crazy thing is these two were known and the lesser known serial killers were far worse if that is ecven possible.

Overall, I give this book a 3. I can't rate it any higher due to its content but I wouldn't put it lower than 3 because it is well written and the detail the author went through to get every victim's name and crime described as best as he could is impressive. But this book is not for the faint of heart or for squishmish people, I myself am so the fact I fnished this is a goddamn miracle. I will be reading more books by Al Cimino but they will be books on the mafia and likely for research purposes. This book was mentally exhausting to read and definitely the most disturbing book I have ever read. 3 stars.

[Daniel Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was ok, gave a decent incite into some horrible people. Makes one realise that America has had a lot of serial killers 😅

[kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read, if like me, you are fascinated by true crime. It was well written and and had a good number of cases in it which I liked.

There were good parts and bad parts with this book. Lets start with the good.
There were a more than a few killers in this book that I hadn't heard of before reading this book, which I liked, it wasn't just the same old cases that have already been done to death. The majority of the cases were from the USA which I didn't mind either as I found them interesting to read about, however, with the exception of a few from the UK and one that was from the Ukraine, there weren't any that I can recall from other countries, so, I would have liked a bit more variety in terms of location.

The only negative that I really have is that in some cases there was so much information on the murder, background etc of the killer and the cases and yet in others there was only a small amount of information. One that sticks out in my memory is that of John Wayne Gacy who had so many victims and had so much to talk about in his life time and yet his was one of the shortest chapters.

I still really enjoyed it though and would recommend if you like true crime.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Managed to fit in many, many killer stories into quite a short book, lots of which were unknown to me. Each entry was quite short and to the point with a little about the criminal’s background, murders and sentencing. A lot of them were quite repetitive, especially in ones where there were 20 odd murders, with a few of them just listing off names, ages and dates. It was also quite hard to keep track of the time order for some of the stories because the information was given in quite an erratic and unorganised way.

Overall, a decent book but probably could have been organised better.

[Jade Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as there were some cases I was unaware of and some I have read and heard about before. I do feel like that been shorter and maybe focused on so many rather than so many different ones. But still enjoyable.

[NaTaya Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad overview, but the editing was terrible. There were also some factual errors and places where it seems the author exaggerated or told the killer's version of the story as gospel instead of elaborate fictions, which many of them have proven to be.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book if you want to dip your toes into true crime. Each chapter gives you a brief summary of several serial killers across the world; with a high focus on the United States, making this a good way to get an introduction into true crime.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author only dedicated about 8 pages each per serial killer. Left out a lot of details such as how they were caught. Also jumped around the time lines of the killers. This book is more of a collection of summaries of killers. Would not recomend.

[Cassie Hollenbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book introduced me to some new people, and I revisited some that I knew about. This book was really well written, and I definitely recommend it to people who want to understand a little bit more about some of the darker cases.

[Samantha Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very detailed read. Some popular some not so much but what they have in common was they were very monstrous PLUS... so so much more, monstrous doesn't really cover it all

[Lewis Stewardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book filled with information on murderers and their ways of killing, around 8 pages each killer changes. It opens your eyes to the dark world of people and what evil some can do.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read about these individuals who have done heinous things. The book had some clear typos, but the message and stories were still clear.

[Rachel Burgess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels quite weird to rate this to be honest so just going down the middle.
Soe truly horrendous crimes outlined in here and disturbing psychologies that were fascinating and upsetting all at once.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good, very detailed and not for the faint hearted

[Amy Oleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a nice little read. If you are interested in true crime I would recommend. It's broken into 29 loo iller all just a few pages each so makes it easy reading.

[Jacynthe Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reading, easily can be put down and up again. I do believe some of the murderers and cases could have had more details

[Sarah Martiszus · Rating 4 out of 5]

super interesting read, loved it!

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well update on how quick I've ever read a book! I read this in one night and I never do that!

[Sophiefireflyx · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew 90% of these but was interesting to learn a couple of new things. Just too shoved together and not enough depth for me.

[Scott Calder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book
1.5 stars - more like. While the content was disturbing - it needed a good edit and a bit more formatting. The author jumped around in the various stories.

While I am a huge true crime fan - I hadn’t heard of any of these people. Not sure they were the most monstrous murderers. I mean hitler, pol pot, Stalin, etc may have been more monstrous. However, I would agree with the author that these people were vile and horrible for the ways they killed/tortured.

With a good edit and better formatting it may rise to a 2.5. Still not a great book