Talking with Serial Killers: A Chilling Study of the World's Most Evil People

by Christopher Berry-Dee

The Man Who Talks to Serial Killers World-renowned investigative criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee has gained the trust of infamous serial killers throughout the world, entering their prison cells to discuss their horrific crimes and alarming lack of remorse. With over twenty-five years and hundreds of hours of audio and video interviews, he collects ten chilling true crime stories from the murderers themselves, describing some of the worst crimes known. Within these pages, hear from the most notorious murderers such as American serial killer Harvey Louis Carignan, who murdered two women in the early 1970s, and Mary Bundy “The Sunset Slayer” who was convicted of killing several young prostitutes and runaways in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Berry-Dee not only shares their stories in their words but also describes how to investigate their criminal minds. It's time to step into the visitation room, turn on your inquisitive mind, and delve into Talking with Serial Killers, the beginning of Berry-Dee's bestselling true crime series.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Psychology, Crime, Audiobook, Biography, Dark

351 pages, Paperback

Published September 20, 2018

About the author

Chris was a former Royal Marine intelligence officer. He is now a criminologist who has interviewed over 30 serial killers.

Reviews

[Gracie McCubbin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear, this was a struggle. It feels as the the author strives to be a fiction writer with little success, the book is written with additional theatrics and additions which make it a difficult read.

The structure is also confusing at best, as there is very little distinction between fact, reliable confessions, and pure speculation. Similarly, the book itself is predominantly talking about the killers, rather than (as the title would suggest) talking with them. I feel as though this is unfortunate as the author clearly has an abundance of information through the interviews overall.

Perhaps my expectations were misdirected, and though difficult it was still a book I could get through.

[amberley · Rating 1 out of 5]

most of the men in this book don’t love killing they just hate women

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like Talking About Serial Killers.

I think I expected more of an interview style storyline and hear more from the prisoners, rather than have the author summarise the countless interviews and correspondence with the serial killers he claims to have had.

I didn't hate it, I didn't love it but I also wouldn't read it again.

[Eve Grice · Rating 3 out of 5]

maybe would have rated it higher if it had less victim blaming and less grammatical errors

also this book cover is one way to get men to leave you alone on the train 👍🏻

[Faye Sirs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it was interesting, but quite a lot was very disturbing. I read it in chapters bit by bit in between other reads and I think that’s the only way I could have managed it.

[⊹ ✧ Beyond_the_Bookmarks ✧ ⊹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audiobook and it was very podcast-y. The audiobook contains actual interview snippets and dialogue which I think makes the difference so I believe the read reviews when they mention how difficult it was to follow. 4 stars for the audiobook version.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. Some of the chapters were well written and interesting but others felt like they had a complete different author

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good gym motivation to make sure I can run away from them

[Katie (Redhead Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sums up my thoughts on this book pretty well.

A lot of this is just men hating women, sexist remarks and the like, but I suppose should you really expect any less from serial killers?

If you are a big true crime fan like myself, you will find this a fascinating read, but at the same time hard to swallow as it seems to be all about men killing women which is a difficult read for, well, a woman.

The audiobook itself, which is how I read this book, is okay, although I wish it was done in more of the interview style rather than the narrator just reading off the conversation with the killer - this seems like it could have been possible as there is a section at the beginning of each chapter there is a recording of the killer themselves talking, which was very interesting to listen too - other than that, the audio book was fine, and the voices the narrator used for each of the serial killers were on the ok side to listen to as well.

All in all, a 3 star; if you are really interested and can stomach the rather sexist and woman hating agenda, give it a go!

[Kellyann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg I loved loved loved it . I love the way Christopher Berry-Dee writes its so enjoyable to read. Every chapter is another serial killer. The serial killers mentioned were really good ones not all the over spoken about ones that you already know every detail about. I love that it's like reading a short stories book on true crime. I absolutely smashed this book and currently reading the sequel that I love just as much. I really enjoy the way the author writes and true crime so I think I'll be ordering many more of his books to come. This is so far my favourite book that I've read in 2021.

[shahd hazem]

Dnf'ed at only 100 pages left and let me tell you why.
I like true crime cause I'm more interested in the psychology of it, the motive behind the crimes, how the criminals justify what they do and always always seem to think that they are on the right path and finally how they are punished. This book, if it proved anything, it proved how corrupt the US criminal system is and also that journalists shouldn't be writing true crime. The book is full of extreme details of the crimes and I honestly cannot find a reason other than those 3 for someone wanting to read a detailed crime; it's either you're an investigator, a copy cat ( which by the way is extremely common ) or a sadist. To conclude, I don't think such details should be released to the public at all. In addition, the author keeps boasting about how he got the criminals to confess a hundred times over to the point that I thought he might be making things up. Definitely don't recommend reading true crime written by journalists and won't be repeating this experience cause I believe they are bound to exaggerate and they literally have no saying in the matter, true crime should be described by investigators or psychologists for me.

[Kirst Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected! I would have liked a few more British … is that me being patriotic over serial killers 🫢 but other than that … pretty bog standard documentary style read.

Loved how no details were held back and the fact you can write to them with there addresses WHAT!!!

Overall quite fun read in a gruesome weird way but hey, I’m a crime kind of girl. Would I reread it? No, would I recommend, erm not a highly recommend but I have mentioned bits and pieces of the book to my sister who is now reading it so, bit of both.

[Soph Thurlby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally enjoyed this book, however I preferred its “savages” counterpart. Several killers chapters felt like they were repeated here as they are across several of CBD’s books, which is a shame. I’d have hoped each book would contain different people rather than repeats. Didn’t like Chris referring to himself as “the author” throughout which added a weird “what tense is this book in?” feeling, but I learned some facts I didn’t know, and therefore rate it 3 stars.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will make you a cynic, so disturbing how ordinary some of the individuals seem at first

[Charlie Cuinnea · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some tapped individuals out there

[Ryan Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a book about real life serial killers, the stories (mostly) are very interesting and the author clearly has a substantial amount of information about them which makes for an interesting read. At times though this book was a struggle to read with the countless spelling and grammatical errors clearly missed by the publishers which almost made me give the book 2 stars.

Rather than talking with serial killers this book was more like talking about serial killers. There were few actual excerpts from his interviews with these serial killers and more of the authors opinion on them and facts about their lives. He does however, show through his own investigations into these killers that some may not have murdered a lot of the people they were actually convicted for.

[Meg Quinn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is highly misleading and contains information that can be found easily online, however written in a repetitive, often confusing and juvenile way. It is hard to to discern what is a hard fact about a case gathered from the interview and what is just the opinion of the author. There is so many editing errors and only a handful of direct quotes from the interviews, despite this being called ‘Talking with serial killers’.
If you’re interested in any of the cases in this book, just google it and save some cash.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so glad I listened to this as an audiobook as opposed to reading it.

I really enjoyed hearing Christopher narrating the story and absolutely ADORED the clips from the killers themselves.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in serial killers as it was utterly fascinating to learn about them from someone who has spent so much time researching and speaking with the killers direct.

[Vitória Cancio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new to true crimes fans. But it was a decent reading.

[Joe Boote · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting concept and a good holiday read though not entirely what I expected.

The book does not shy away from the gruesome methods used by serial killers, and from what I can see follows a simple format.
Each chapter revolves around a serial killer and begins by discussing their early life and formative years. It then goes on to describe the "story" of their serial killing career, usually in chronological order, with the odd excerpt about police actions etc. The end of each chapter then usually takes a small dive into the science of serial killing, or psychology, talking about the individuals condition and what might have led them to their actions.

The issues I found where that I was expecting actual dialogue from conversations between the author and the serial killers in question. This is included in the book but usually it's only a couple of lines at the start and end of each chapter so not quite what the title of the book suggests. Although the more I think about it, I'm not sure a script of serial killer to author is actually a more interesting book so maybe it's a win. I also found that, where the author obviously worked with investigators, they're not shy on details that would be important for law enforcement or the detection of the murders, but maybe aren't so important for the reader. I occasionally found myself lost in car registrations or addresses or an abundance of names that I have no doubt where crucial in court some thirty years ago (sometimes more), but distracted from me reading the actual serial killers story.

All in all, a good read that will definitely keep you hooked for a couple of days, I might even pick up one of the authors other books at some point but I'm in no particular rush...

The author is clearly very experienced in their field and has doubtlessly provided immeasurable peace to those affected by the actions of serial killers by managing to obtain locations of bodies and other gruesome details that may have otherwise gone undisclosed. Despite that the book avoids being a self-congratualtory memoir, parading their wins and instead focuses on the killers themselves. A classy showing from an individual who clearly does very important work.

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the title of the book and the publisher's blurb this felt like it was all information I could have gleaned for myself with just a bit of online searching and a dose of patience. I'm not too sure about the veracity of the author's claims that he was in personal contact with each and every one of these people as there doesn't appear to be anything in the book that feels like it is new information.

Now, that's not to say I didn't enjoy the read because I did - very much. The book tends to cover the backstory of the Killers that are included and that is the information I am interested in. I am less interested in the when and how than in the why. The nearest we can get to answers on the Why question is by looking at the upbringing of the person and how their behaviour was growing up. Because that is what interests me, I enjoyed this book. It also helps that it covered cases I was completely unaware of so this likelyy made it much more interesting for me.

The full list of the killers covered is:

Michael Bruce Ross
Ronald Joseph "Butch" Defeo
Aileen Carol Wuornos
Kenneth Allen McDuff
Douglas Daniel Clark and Carol May Bundy
Henry Lee Lucas

Of these I had only heard of Defeo and Wuornos at the time of reading. As these things go I then saw documentaries online about a couple of the other people/cases and if we're being honest they probably gave me more information that this supposed expose. Yes, I am sticking with my initial 4 Star review on this because I really did enjoy this read and it did give me information I did not have at the time of reading.

This review has been a long time coming. I actually read this book between the 22nd and 25th May 2020 so my memory is a bit foggy about all the plot lines. Fortunately, I have a notebook where I jot some initial thoughts on the book and an overall ranking so between the book blurb and that I did have a reasonable handle on what I thought at the time of reading.

[Yvonne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a huge disappointment. Here are some problems I have with this book:

1. As many people have pointed out, the content of the book does not fit the title or the description; it contains biographic information about several serial killers. You’ll learn about the same amount of information by just reading Wikipedia articles.

2. The writing style is very weird and disorganized, and it is hard at times to distinguish between fact, fiction and speculation.

3. The chapters very often seem to be written by different or various people. While sometimes the reader is given detailed descriptions of the weather or a historical (and not relevant) paragraph about some city, other parts that would be interesting to read more about seem to be thrown in as an afterthought. There are many examples of providing readers with useless or excessive information (like the zodiac sign of one of the killers, or an ACTUAL ADDRESS[!] of one of the victims).

4. The way the author uses to describe some of the victims is quite dehumanizing, sexist and completely unnecessary. The description “once-attractive woman was now a walking skeleton. A known prostitute with ragged and unkempt demeanor, she had long dirty hair, sliced-bread complexion, and ragged needle marks from her elbows to the backs of her fingers.” and speculating that she “had AIDS and perhaps herpes” is just disgusting. The tone of many of these descriptions is unnecessarily cruel, apathetic and borders on victim-blaming.
5. In this book Christopher Berry-Dee refers to himself in both the first and the third person (sometimes he uses "I", sometimes "the author of this book"), which is just weird. I don’t have a clue if he’s trying to distance himself from what he's writing or give his reader personal insight.

Just save your money and go watch some youtube videos about the cases.

[Ruth Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy a good book about the mind, however skewed that mind is, or how mixed up or evil. It all makes an interesting read, these case studies the author has compiled, as the dots can either be connected or not, and the people behind the masks can be seen.
There is a case in here that I would argue, after reading, that the man in question was railroaded. The author agrees, and does point this out, but being 'fitted up' is nothing new, though being fitted up as a serial killer is something I find hard to get my head around: surely someone along the line should be able to spot an innocent person? You'd think so, wouldn't you? Not always so!
I need, at some point soon, to come out of my hole and read something uplifting, I'm getting too good at thinking what it would be like to be in these people's cells and talking to them! What would you ask? I think my first question would be 'what did you feel and was it what you expected to feel?'. I'm pretty sure that's not healthy! Especially as I watch TV shows about murder most of the evening as well - there's very little else I'm doing at the mo, but I go through these phases, and I'll come out of it, back to the real world (or is that the real world: there's a question, eh?).
In the meantime, what's next on this quest for knowledge about the evils prevalent in the world? I do have another of the author's books to read just waiting, but there's something else I want to read first x

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting concept but failed to truly deliver. Each case includes parts of an interview given by the serial killer, parts of their letters to the author, and a summary of the case and murders. Its descriptions are made more palatable by 'dramatic' writing style giving it a very criminal minds feels and distancing you as the reader from the horror. But considering the years of commitment this took, the hundreds of hours interviewing and dozens of letters, there did not seem to be very much 'new' in substance. You got nothing really in-depth about the majority of the murderers, their motivations seemed to be nothing groundbreaking and the lack of true interest in their victims or crimes is only surprising in its callousness. In truth they were just wrong people, wrong place with the majority of the killers having little to no recollections of them as people. The biggest issue I have with this is the author's ego is as heavily imprinted into this text as the killers. But he reveals even less about his thoughts or feelings than the killers do. I think he needed to commit to either a clinical scientific approach, with new substance or admit the lack of me substance and described his experience and emotions when dealing with these killers.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would really enjoy this book as I love watching documentaries like this on TV, but it turns out I struggled to keep focus on this book and was easily distracted.

Although interesting I struggled with the fact that he spoke about each killer differently, some of them you got parts of actual conversations with the killers and their feelings but others you didn’t. A lot of the time I wasn’t sure if he was talking about facts or his opinion/own summarised version of things.

Some of the details in this book were very disturbing, one man I wasn’t entirely sure was guilty and the way some of the cases were handled was absurd, a few of these killers were set free to kill over and over again, so that part was an interesting read.

It was very sad that they all seemed to have a terrible upbringing, there was definitely a pattern there. In the book is a paragraph written by Dr R Joseph a Psychotherapist, neuropsychologist and neuroscientist, his explanation about your childhood staying with you was very interesting.

Give this book a try, you may enjoy it more than me… I may stick to the shows on TV from now on.

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for any true crime books and was super excited to start Christopher Berry-Dee’s books. And all I can say is that while I enjoyed the content of the book, I disliked Berry- Dee’s narrative, tone of voice and at times his lack of humanity when it came to the descriptions of victims.

I found his writing style to be arrogant, with an air of superiority. He uses clichéd phrases and I found a handful of editing errors and oversights. The one thing that really irritated me was his use of the phrase “told the author” or any such variation. Just say “told me” we know who the author is! And to put the cherry on top of this cake, there was an inconsistent use of “told the author” and “told me” - pick one and not the idiotic one (“told the author”).

Otherwise, I enjoyed learning more about the serial killers picked for this book and will only continue to read Berry-Dee’s books for the learning experience (and do my best to overlook his narration).

[Amelia Bujar · Rating 2 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
http://thebookcornerchronicles.com/20...

This book is said to be a book where the author is talking with serial killers but in my opinion this book isn’t about talking with serial killer as much as it was talking about the serial killers.

This book would be better if the author would have given us information about these serial killers or the crime scenes which we couldn’t find anywhere on the internet. But the author gives us the same fucking information which we can find on Wikipedia or somewhere else on the internet

This book is not as much about the interviews which the author has with the serial killers in this book than it is about the author telling us about them. The author could have at least given us some fragments of the interviews at least.

[Gabsbookshelf16 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. It provides a lot of detail into the killers childhood, who and how they killed and the law proceedings after. However, the wording of the novel really annoyed me. The writer made many comments about the killers physical appearance, use of the word ‘ugly’, or outdated slurs. Of course they’re bad people but isn’t the author supposed to be a professional? Why does the author write like that when he’s an expert and director of Criminology research?
.
Another annoyance I had was that the author interviewed the killers yet maybe 3 pages gave detail on these conversations. I was expecting larger snippets as the blurb eludes to.
.
I recommend this book to you if you’re a fan of true crime. However, if you’re interested in the specific cases rather than them all, I’d suggest just googling them. 💀

[Catherine Edgson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read about 9 prolific serial killers, many of whom I had not heard of from other documentaries
Well written although I would advise a big trigger warning for horrific sexual and physical assault
Need a strong stomach
It is very detailed
Would recommend reading in small chunks. Each chapter is roughly 30 pages
Christopher Berry-Dee gives very detailed insight into the lives of these people, explores many of the murders and their family and communication with them
If you love true crime who may enjoy this
Although many moments will be disturbing possibly upsetting
I look forward to reading more of his books which are on my want to read list including talking with female serial killers, talking with psychopaths and savages and serial killers at the movies

[Belle Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was honestly disappointing. The amount of grammatical and spelling errors in this book was ridiculous. I can't honestly believe that this book was edited. I also expected there to be more of an analysis of these perps, rather than just telling their story. Their backgrounds interested me, and I loved hearing more detail about the crimes and the direct quotes from them, but I expected more. I expected an analysis of each perp from such a notorious criminologist. I don't think I would read this one again. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't what I expected. Maybe it's because I'm used to reading John Douglas books, but I did come into this thinking I would have a thorough explanation for everything.