A Mind for Murder: The Real-Life Files of a Psychic Investigator

by Noreen Renier, Naomi Lucks

Details the true story of a psychic who has assisted law enforcement officials throughout the world, revealing her abilities, investigation methods, strangest experiences, and most shocking cases.

Genres: Paranormal, Memoir, Nonfiction, Metaphysics, Psychology

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 3, 2005

Reviews

[Katie Reus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely outside my normal wheelhouse but this was an entertaining, fascinating read (though I wanted more details lol. Always!).

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at how a psychic works to solve crimes. It would be hard to be a skeptic after reading this. The only complaint I would have about this book is halfway through the book the stories started to sound the same and there was little background information about the crimes except for her part in it.

[Mahdyah Alidina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 estrelas.
"Mentes Criminosas" ... ou "Assassinas" - como estava na contracapa ... não foi bem aquilo que estava à espera.
Estava à espera de encontrar um relato detalhado sobre as capacidades psíquicas de uma médium, de como é que elas se processavam e de como é que ela pôde ajudar a polícia a resolver as coisas.
No fundo, era disso que o livro falava, mas ao mesmo tempo não era. Parecia que líamos sempre a mesma coisa...
Casos diferentes, mas a escolha de palavras era sempre a mesma. Ia dar sempre ao mesmo.
Há uma frase no livro que me causa nervos de tantas vezes que já a li. Até me custa escrevê-la aqui, mas é importante para transmitir bem a ideia. "Não sou eu que resolvo os casos. A polícia resolve, eu apenas forneço as pistas" ... Aparecia capítulo sim, capítulo não. Uff ALÔO JÁ PERCEBI!
Ao início tinha imensas expetativas em relação ao livro mas depois foi se tornando desinteressante.
Se quiserem lê-lo recomendo que leiam apenas os primeiros capítulos. Não passem do meio do livro. Não vale o tempo.
Se quiserem informar-se a sério sobre o assunto, façam uma pesquisa :)

[Sabrina Rutter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noreen Renier is one of the psychics featured on the show Psychic Detectives. She works with police providing clues to missing persons cases, and cold cases. In this memoir she tells how she discovered her ability, and how she eventually worked with the FBI.

[Sharon]

Intresting book, like that she seems a pretty normal person (drinks and smokes during her sessions) and that she will tell people who consult her, that she just speaks the images she gets, it is up to them to process and inturpret them, she makes no promises that she will be 100% correct.

[Marika Charalambous · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Not the best writing style, but afterall she's not a writer, she's a psychic - and a very good one at that. If you're interested in the occult aspects of life, this is one to be on the bookshelf.

[Sofia Oliveira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um livro que cruza o paranormal com o policial. Não está mau, mas ficou aquém das minhas expectativas...

[Tiny Octopus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I call bullshit.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good one, the memoir of a psychic who solves crimes and who claims to be recommended by Robert Ressler. The cases were certainly interesting.

[Donna Marino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. It is unlike other psychic memoirs because Renier does not identify herself as a psychic until her adulthood. There are no stories of childhood predictions or "friends" only she could see. She claims that her ability was accessed involuntarily during a meditation exercise. After that day, she felt her difference and awareness. From that point, readers follow her into the relationship she develops with law enforcement agencies, from small stations to the pinnacle of the FBI. Her stories of how she helped solve cold cases are amazing. She also pursued the talk show circuit as well.
The work is over 15 years old, so readers will have to do their own research to discover where she is now. I only heard about it while watching a History channel program, and I decided to pursue it to understand the claims of that historical investigation. After reading it, I was surprised that I had never heard of her before since it appears that she never hid her talent and what she was doing with it.
I found her claim that every one of us can access this ability in ourselves to be the most fascinating aspect of her work. Since she feels she unlocked this latent ability in herself, she cannot help but believe that it is available to all. In addition to that, I was fully captivated by the end of the work when she attempts to solve the death of a horse. Up until that point, she had described her ability to see a crime from the perspectives of the victim, the murderer, and a third party witness. Like her, I was excited to see if she could enter the memory of a horse and what she would find there. I would have liked to see more of that and to hear some analysis of the awareness of the animals. As a result, she left me wanting more.
As for the prose itself, this is no award-winning talent. The language conveys what it needs to with no flare or flourish. Since I was not expecting it to, I did not find this to be a flaw. I do recommend this work for those who are interested in this type of thing. Reading it would not be a waste of your time.

[June Kuehn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been impressed with the author when I’ve seen her on television but in her book, she seems to continually relate how much people appreciated her work, commended her skills and accolades to the point that it comes across as defensive and insecure. It would have been better to take these stories and tell the stories in a more comprehensive manner. Instead, there were little vignettes or parts of stories. For example, she relates how Laci Peterson’s Mother hired her, wrote her a check which she chose to copy and then later denied hiring her. That seemed so unnecessary. Most of the stories related her prevailing even though people did not believe her in the beginning. That was a constant refrain. There were a lot of details like that. It would have been a much more interesting read to relate what you were able to relate and how the story unfolded.

[Leslie Clary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating because it involved people and places that were actually in my life. My husband worked for a department when Ms. Renier led them to a missing person. She actually lived in an area that I grew up in as a child in another state. There was so much familiarity in this book that I was intrigued the entire time. Definitely a good read that gives the reader pause to decide if it’s possible for anyone to tap into the right side of the brain and be as intuitive. I know I’d certainly love to have her input on a case close to my family.

[Melissa Earnest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book to read after seeing Noreen Renier on "To Tell the Truth." It was very interesting, learning about how she came into the psychic detective realm later in her life. She covers several cases throughout the book, all with their own characteristics as far as her involvement and approach. I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about this aspect of detective work.

[SARA ROADES · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard the author speak in person in the spring of 2025, and was so fascinated by her that I bought her book. It was interesting to hear her say in person and in the book that we all have psychic ability inside us we just need to tune into the energy around us. She herself was skeptical of her abilities when they first appeared, but overtime, she began to trust herself as did many law enforcement agencies. A fascinating person and a fascinating story. A quick read.

[Sue Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of a psychic- from a shocking start to helping police detectives solve crimes!

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5☆

[Jim Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skeptical as I read the various cases that Renier depicts in her book. General internet search revealed both positive and negative stories about the author and her abilities. A search of Newspapers.com for the entire country from 1980 to date results in numerous articles where Law Enforcement comments favorably about Renier's participation with them after traditional investigative methods have been exhausted. There were many articles where Law Enforcement attested to the accuracy of the information that Renier had provided to them.

[Lisa M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've used this website because I just started grad school! Grad school + internship + work = kicking my ass. But I was going crazy not taking time for myself to read. So on my birthday I splurged and spent $140 on books (primarily used,) and this was the first one I chose to read. I chose to buy this book because I watched the Psychic Detective shows years ago. Some were entertaining (some were very disturbing - the case about the nun still sits with me.) So when I saw it at the used bookstore on my birthday I thought, "Why not?"

First, the layout. It's awful. I hate that they used "file folders" to act as the titles of the chapters. I hate that the use "magazine clip out font" (like a ransom note) for page headers. I also really hated that they included a passage from each chapter in the beginning of the chapter, in italics. You go on to read the rest of the chapter and the text you just read is there, a few pages later. The chapters are really short so I'm not sure what the point is. I'm already reading the book, I'm clearly interested. Why are we doing these weird little previews?

I enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot. We learn about how Noreen discovered her psychic abilities, how she explored them, and how they grew. We also learned about what her philosophy about psychic abilities. I liked this section because she seems so willing to do anything to learn more and more about herself - the situations she gets herself into are entertaining. She explains how she first got into police detective work.

The last half of the book seems disconnected from the first half. The chapters turn into profiles of different cases. That's ok, I don't mind - but these chapters are basically the same. A crime occurred, Noreen reads for them, Noreen helps solve the crime. While interesting, it gets repetitive, but it's not like the quality of the text is thrilling. We get less and less about her thoughts on psychic abilities - does she ever resolve where they come from? Does she continue to explore them? How does she keep getting police work? What's it like to be profiled in the news and on tv? I wanted more information, and than the continuos profiles would have been ok with me.

This book was not very impressive but it was more impressive than the last psychic book I read - "There's More to Life Than This" by Theresa Caputo. But than again, I can't really handle pseudo-Christian psychic shit.

[Mike S · Rating 5 out of 5]

The books is just GREAT, it has everything I could want in a psychic's autobiography. When I think about a psychic I find I always wonder about the same things - what kind of person were they, how did they work, how did they learn to do what they did and refine their technique to work best with their own nature, how did they deal with doubters, who influenced them - including their recommended reading, how did they realize they were psychic, and what was their experience of being a psychic. Noreen answered all of them, in very clear, honest, humble, sometimes humorous, and always direct terms. I laughed out loud more than once, and I got pretty annoyed at the people who berated her too. I felt like I was right there with her. Well done.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been told I have strong psychic abilities and have had many 'strange' experiences BUT remain skeptical yet with a genuine fascination for all things in this area! Even though I know noreen is well thought of I still felt like 'how could this be true?' That's not me saying I don't believe It though. My mind will remain open until I am either proved wrong or proved right with evidence I witness for myself. The book was well written I thought and I enjoyed it very much :)

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Noreen Renier has been involved with some high profile cases, assisting the FBI. But, there are parts of this book that I have difficulty with; such as when she levitates. I had a hard time buying into many of her stories.

[Eduardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante leitura, mas um pouco auto-elogiativo demais para o meu gosto.

[Allison Stanfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best written book I have ever read, but certainly entertaining.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not like the "pre-view" in italics, that repeats itself later in the text.

Absolutely hated so much energy--and text--dedicated to dispelling the naysayer's fears and lack of belief. Just do your thing; if they don't "believe" . . . ignore.

Did not need the buildup in the beginning of the book about how she went from CAN'T DO to CAN DO. Chapters wasted. I skipped to the last third when all of that had dissipated.