Rozmowy z psychopatami. Masowi mordercy i szaleńcy

by Christopher Berry-Dee, Tomasz Wyżyński (Translator)

A natural subject for the UK's bestselling true-crime author: a study of people who randomly kill large numbers of others (spree killers), or who set out to do so in specific places or situations (mass killers). Because of the ease of obtaining firearms in the USA, many of these, inevitably, are American, but there have been other recent examples in New Zealand and Norway, while three major mass shootings took place in the UK at Hungerford in 1987 (17 dead, including the killer), Dunblane in 1996 (18, including the killer), and in Cumbria in 2010 (13, including the killer).
As such killings become more frequent, it is easy to blame them on the ready availability of firearms and weak or non-existent background checks, even though many countries, including the UK, have extremely robust firearms legislation. What is more difficult to establish, however, is the motivation behind such killings: some are occasioned by grievance, real or imagined, while others have their origins in a sense of failure or feelings of inadequacy. Other killers, however, seem to be driven by a desire for power over their fellow humans, often coupled with an overriding contempt for the lives of others. In search of answers to the questions raised, Christopher Berry-Dee offers case studies in some of the most infamous mass killings of the past fifty years, from school massacres to workplace killings, hate crimes to familicides. In doing so he demonstrates, chillingly, that such murders are almost impossible to predict, and therefore almost impossible to prevent.

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

272 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2022

About the author

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

Reviews

[Dan Toleman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to admit, I almost hated this book!!
This book threw me into a reading block and this nearly ended up in a DNF / burn pile!

Firstly; this book title is incorrect. Never in this book do we ever get to “Talk WITH Psychopaths” etc. This book should be called “Aimlessly Talking ABOUT” because that’s all you’ll read.

This book is also filled with absolute blab about guns, and confusing and unnecessary explanations of them. I’ve never seen so many unneeded numbers and letters to describe a gun. For example (this is a made up combination of letters and numbers and not an actual extract of the book); the AK47 .345 x100ft per millisecond squared by the moisture in the air at the time of shot, is the equivalent of the handheld .356738 calibre of a handheld water pistol at a water park in Disney.

If that doesn’t make sense above, then don’t be shocked when / if you read the actual book, because you will find absolutely no difference in my sentence there, to some of those in the book.

The book also has zero flow. It jumps backwards and forwards all the time making zero sense, and promotes all of his other books throughout. An example again would be; “I won’t explain who this character is, for the sake of the word count, but read my other book ‘talking with serial killers’ to learn more on this murderer. Instead I’ll just paraphrase what they did here instead, wasting your time even buying this book lol” This book is self promoting advert to his other books.

Not to mention this book has pictures of actual killings for readers reference - IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ACTUAL SENTENCE...8 pages worth or pictures. Some of which, are murders and killing sprees we haven’t even read about yet!! So making absolutely zero sense at the time of reading. Perhaps these pictures should’ve been posted at the back of the book? But this does not surprise me in the slightest because the entire book was a mess. It could be said that this book is an absolute massacre itself.

This book has 100% put me off of purchasing another one in this series, in case they are all written in the same style / manner.

[Sara Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped on page 30, this book is a COMPLETE dumpster fire.
He could have used one page and said...
“Guns are bad, please read my other books, killers are dumb, guns go pow pow and kill people, please read my other books, I’m smart and my opinion is the only one that matters, read my other books, The End.”

[Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author has the most irritatingly self-righteous tone I've ever come across, not to mention his syntax and grammar are appalling. Absolutely nothing to do with the title but rather one angry middle aged man's rant about gun control in a country he frequently declares is idiotic and full of 'losers'.

I think I stopped having any hope for this book at the point where he suggested boar hunting as a remedy for criminality in severely impoverished areas of Britain. This man is unbearably smug for someone who has to rely on quotes from Del Boy to try and bring substance to what is otherwise 200 pages of wildly out of touch soliloquising.

[BeccaJBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read for fans of non fiction crime books and those interested in criminal psychology.

I enjoyed the detail this book had, and I appreciated the research that will have gone into writing it. The style it was written in, wasn't particularly easy on my eyes and I wouldn't say it flowed particularly well, but overall it was a good read.

Some of the things in this one were really quite disturbing and it was an eye opener to read about some of the bad guys that I hadn't come across before.

Recommended to fans of true crime and criminology.

www.thebeautifulbookbreak.com

[Kelsey Darragh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The content of this book is interesting but the poor grammar and syntax gave me a headache. This man really needs a decent editor. Spotted two errors in the blurb and should have known the meat of the book would be just as bad.

[Noctvrnal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see a lot of criticism for Christopher but what thing I do like about his writing is that he doesn't sugarcoat. The killers he presents in this book are losers, incels and just garbage of society. While many authors try to stay tactful - this type of honesty does feel refreshing when talking about likes of Elliot Rodger or Columbine killers.
Now, how informational this book is? Very, if you're a casual true crime reader. As I am a bit more seasoned than some - this book didn't give me any new information, however it didn't report any false facts either (as far as I can tell) which is a big big plus in the age of true crime misinformation.
Still, I would've liked more if author stopped promoting his own books so often. At first it was okay as references for more reading if one likes what they find in this book but after a while it started feeling like Chris is shilling for himself and it came off as tacky and tasteless in the light of the subject he's writing about.
Generally - not a bad book, I liked author's perspective on criminals mentioned among the pages but it could've been more, so much more, if this book wasn't such a "introductory guide" to one aspect of true crime.

[Bibi · Rating 1 out of 5]

ta książka nadaje się jedynie na podpałkę

po pierwsze, nie jest to książka na temat sugerowany przez tytuł. bardziej przypomina to wywody starego uprzywilejowanego mężczyzny, który na przemian obraża Amerykanów, wychwala Brytyjczyków, wyśmiewa "dobrze opłacanych" psychiatrów i kompletnie lekceważy złożoność spraw, które prezentuje. a i jeszcze można by powiedzieć, że jest to bardziej książka o broni jakiej używają masowi mordercy oraz o dostępności broni w usa, bo to chyba jest dla autora najważniejsze - nie może się o tym zamknąć nawet na rozdział.

a tak co do dobrze opłacanych psychiatrów, którzy według autora są debilami, ciekawa jestem co powiedziałby o tym, że sam wydaje na potęgę beznadziejne książki byle tylko zarobić.

niesamowicie powtarzalna, mam wrażenie, że pewne zdania czytałam z 10 razy. spraw wymienionych w książce jest miliony, ale są opisane kompletnie po łebkach - autor często pisze, że ma za mało miejsca w książce żeby coś opisać, albo żeby czytelnik sobie w internecie wyszukał. a może by tak wyselekcjonować mniej przypadków, ale je porządnie opisać? skądże. bo nie jest to literatura faktu, a subiektywny stek opinii i pisania "co ślina na język przyniesie".

[Kassia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked his previous books. This one just comes across as slightly too pretentious for my liking.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Ali Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have loved all of the previous books by this author but this one just failed to hit the spot. It lacked a cohesive structure, was far too detailed with regards to guns (people who don't live in the USA tend not to understand calibres and specific detail about guns and this book gets too bogged down in that), and the "conversations" aspect is largely missing. Such a pity as it had potential to be as good as the rest of the series. I stopped at about 80%.

[Dominika Maraszkiewicz · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
Przede wszystkim tytuł bardzo wprowadza w błąd. Tu nie ma żadnych rozmów Z tytułowymi psychopatami, to rozmowy O psychopatach. Miejscami książka to wymienianie nazwisk morderców z krótkim opisem co zrobili, czasem rozdzielone przemyśleniami autora. Więcej dowiedziałabym się czytając Wikipedię.

[vnivlis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nie wiem,czy to zasługuje na choćby 2 gwiazdki...
Na pewno porusza bardzo ważny temat,ale wykonanie pozostawia dużo do życzenia.
Tytuł jest mylący,nie są to rozmowy z psychopatami,a jak już to opowieści autora o nich.
W jednym momencie autor przedstawia nam profesjonalne i skomplikowane opisy broni,żeby za chwilę wpleść swoje wywody,które wyglądają jak wpisy internetowe sfrustrowanego faceta,nie mogącego prowadzić sobie ze swoimi emocjami.
W całej książce przewija się też zupełny brak szacunku do innych zawodów,tj. psychiatrów, psychologów, sędziów.Męczące staje się udowadnianie czytelnikowi,że ich praca nie ma sensu,a jedynym argumentem na to jest to,że czasem stawiają nie do końca trafne diagnozy.
Oczywiście autor zdołał wpleść też swoje poglądy polityczne (i to nie raz).
I do tego sarkazm na prawie każdej stronie... W tym wykonaniu nie do końca udany.
Ta książka to była męczarnia i do tego strata czasu.

[Janis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is mostly incoherent rambling.
Despite his obvious fascination with firearms (half the book is facts about firearms) the author can't stop to blabber on again and again about his painfully underinformed opinion on gun control based only on a single factor analysis of mass killings. Politics is always about trade-offs; it's just idiocy to focus only on what you would like to achieve in a single aspect of a much larger issue and ignore any reason why things might be the way they are.
He talks mostly about all the experience he has with criminals and practically not at all about the actual experiences themselves.
"Talking with Psychopaths and Savages" is not only a misnomer but at least in this edition also a terrible book. It's so bad I couldn't finish it. Maybe I just got the wrong version.

[Jolanta Pasieczna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spodziewałam się czegoś innego, autor w dużej mierze skupiał się na wygłaszaniu swoich poglądów, opowiadaniu historii Ameryki, Wielkiej Brytanii i Niemiec. Dużo opowiadał o broniach, którymi posługiwali się mordercy. Liczyłam na więcej wątków o popełnionych zbrodniach, gdy się pojawiały były ciekawe i dobrze opisane. Nie skreślam autora i na pewno przeczytam inne jego książki ale ta średnio mnie zainteresowała.

[maja ❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the USA and Trump hate

[nas · Rating 2 out of 5]

is it me or are his books getting worse?

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall informative and takes a slight in depth look at the things that may influence the subjects of the book. However, there is a lot of filler such as talk about weaponry, which is not entirely necessary.

[mommy_and_books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moim ulubiony autorem piszącym o psychopatach i mordercach jest Christopher Berry-Dee. Jak tylko zobaczyłam jego najnowszą książkę „Rozmowy z psychopatami. Masowi mordercy i szaleńcy.” musiałam ją przeczytać. Od jakiegoś czasu wiecie, że uwielbiam zaglądać w umysły morderców i psychopatów. Ten autor mi to umożliwia. Tym razem mogłam bliżej przyjrzeć się masowym mordercą i psychopatą działającym w amoku.
Dzięki tej książce wiem więcej na temat broni, której używali „bohaterowie” tej książki. Mogłam dowiedzieć się jak one działają i jakie rany wywołują. Autor poświęcił na to znaczną część swojego dzieła, jednak ja wolałabym dowiedzieć się więcej na temat masowych morderców. Gdyby nie broń palna nie byłoby tylu masowych morderców. Kto jest za to odpowiedzialny? Moim zdaniem krew na rękach mają po pierwsze te osoby, które tworzą ustawy pozwalające na posiadanie broni przez obywateli. Potem organy, które wydają zezwolenia danej osobie i sprzedawcy broni. Co myślicie na temat dostępności broni dla zwykłych śmiertelników?
„(…) Swoboda dostępności broni tego rodzaju (wojskowych karabinów i pistoletów maszynowych o dużej sile rażenia), służącej jedynie do zabijania, łatwo przemienia urojenia chorych maniaków w tragiczne koszmary.
Magazyn „Time” 24.06.2001 r. (…)”
Chory psychicznie człowiek po otrzymaniu pozwolenia kupuje sobie niezły arsenał. I co dalej robi? Dalej wymierza swoją urojoną sprawiedliwość mordując zwykle przypadkowe osoby. Giną dzieci, młodzież, dorośli i starsi ludzie. Zazwyczaj masowi mordercy, gdy już mają nóż na gardle popełniają samobójstwa lub zostają zastrzeleni przez policjantów, snajperów lub zwykłych obywateli. W nielicznych przypadkach trafiają do więzienia lub do szpitala dla psychicznie chorych. To drugie to jakieś nieporozumienie, ponieważ po czasie zostają wypisani ze szpitala i wychodzą na wolność mając możliwość ponownego mordowania niewinnych. Boli mnie, że sprzedawcy broni nie sprawdzają czy dana osoba przez przypadek nie ma zakazu posiadania broni. Wystarczyłoby tak niewiele, żeby uratować tak wiele istnień. Niestety pieniądz musi płynąć. Po każdej masakrze ludzie masowo kupują broń. Wyobrażacie sobie prosicie na Boże Narodzenie o radio a dostajecie broń. Tak robią niektórzy rodzice w USA. To jest tragiczne. Potem emocjonalnie niedojrzali biegają z bronią po szkole i mordują niewinnych uczniów. Jeżeli wybieracie się do USA lepiej uważajcie na siebie.
Czym różnią się masowi mordercy od seryjnych morderców i szaleńców działających w amoku? W idealny sposób wyjaśnia to Christopher Berry-Dee.
Masowi mordercy – zabijają od razu lub w niewielkiej odległości co najmniej cztery osoby.
Seryjni mordercy – działają schematycznie. Mordują na raz zazwyczaj po jednej osobie. Ich morderstwa są takie same, tzn. mordują w taki sam sposób np. raz w tygodniu, raz w miesiącu, raz w roku lub w innych odstępach czasu.
Szaleńcy działający w amoku – działają pod wpływem impulsu, np. zostają zwolnieni z pracy, ktoś się z nich śmieje – sięgają po broń i pozbywają się „problemu” często mordując również przypadkowe osoby, które po prostu znalazły się w złym miejscu i w złym czasie.
Czy wiecie, który kraj przoduje w masowych mordach w szkole? Odpowiedź poznacie po przeczytaniu tej książki. Jednak zdradzę wam pewien sekret. To nie jest kraj, o którym myślicie. Będziecie w głębokim szoku. Przynajmniej ja w nim byłam.
Na ogromną część masowych morderców ma wpływ Hitler. Duża liczba z nich jest za czystością rasową i popierają nazistów, a nawet do nich należą. Niektórzy idą w ślady innych masowych morderców i mordują w taki sam sposób. Kolejnym punktem jest nienawiść do kobiet. O innych punktach dowiecie się czytając „Rozmowy z psychopatami. Masowi mordercy i szaleńcy.”.
Z najnowszego dzieła Christophera Berry-Dee dowiecie się między innymi o masakrze na kampusie Uniwersytetu Teksańskiego w Austin, o strzelaninach w szkołach w Sandy Hook i Dunblane. Poznacie masowych morderców i szaleńców działających w amoku, między innymi: Carla Roberta Browna (szalonego nauczyciela), Alexa Hribala oraz Charlesa Whitmana. Oczywiście w tej książce poznacie dużo więcej psychopatów.
Jestem zadowolona z tej lektury. Od dłuższego czasu czekałam na kolejne dzieło Christophera Berry-Dee. Podoba mi się to, że autor co chwile odsyła swojego czytelnika do pogłębiana wiedzy na temat omawianych przypadków. Poleca np. filmy na YouTube oraz oglądania zdjęć sprawców umieszczonych na różnych stronach. Jedyny minus tej książki według mnie to brak zdjęć omawianych morderców. Widząc fotografię danego psychopaty lepiej do głowy wchodziłaby ta lektura. Mam nadzieję, że autor kiedyś się poprawi. Uwielbiam jego żarciki.
Jeżeli tak jak ja uwielbiacie książki z gatunku „True Crime” to nie możecie przegapić tego tytułu. Jednocześnie zachęcam do przeczytania pozostałych dzieł tego autora. Tylko musicie pamiętać, że to nie są łatwe, lekkie i przyjemne lektury. Tutaj opisane są prawdziwe zbrodnie i prawdziwi zbrodniarze. Część opisanych psychopatów już nie żyje, a część z nich gnije w więzieniach na całym świecie.
Mimo ciężkiego tematu zachęcam was do przeczytania „Rozmowy z psychopatami. Masowi mordercy i szaleńcy.”, a ja już nie mogę się doczekać kolejnego dzieła Christophera Berry-Dee.
„(…) NAJDZIKSZE ZWIERZĘ NIE JEST TAK KRWIOŻERCZE JAK CZŁOWIEK, KIEDY DZIAŁA POD WPŁYWEM NIEPOHAMOWANYCH NAMIĘTNOŚCI I ROZPORZĄDZA ODPOWIEDNIĄ SIŁĄ.
Plutarch (…)”.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I found the accounts of mass murders as outlined interesting, I didn’t find there to be much depth to the book. Other than (rightfully) arguing against the gun possession laws in the US, he doesn’t make many arguments and with an issue as complex as mass murders I think perhaps he should’ve explored it in more depth.

[Irfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive and fact filled exploration let down by crass observations, casual judgmental tone and off colour humour.

TWP is one of a series of books written by Christopher Berry-Dee in the area of dark criminal behaviour. CBD has stamped his place in the literary world through a variety of books focusing on morbid curiosities such as serial killers, criminals and psychopaths.

In this book he focuses specifically on the phenomenon of mass murders and spree killers. CBD delves deep into American gun culture, school shootings, historical shootings, UK based massacres such as Hungerford and Dunblane before concluding with some thoughts on the "incel phenomenon".

As you can see there is quite a bit of exploration of the different aspects of mass killings but it's the judgmental and often crass tone which the writer employs which is off-putting. For example, his opinion on American culture and gun ownership I found surprisingly offensive, borderline xenophobic. The words he employs about our cousins across the pond are quite offensive and I doubt he'd get away with using them so flippantly about any other nation.

This isn't Pulitzer prize winning writing (one look at the grammar and punctuation mistakes littered throughout the book will leave you disappointed) but feels more like the smartest guy in the pub giving you a lecture on the subject matter. Apparently, the writer was a former Royal commando and the informal barracks humour and regular employment of the vernacular is undeniable. CBD can't help but express his personal opinion on these murderers as being infantile cowards not mature enough to deal with problems in a grown up way. He also affords incredibly insightful opinions such as that mass murderers are normal men pushed to breaking point when compared to intrinsically evil serial killers.

On the whole a comprehensive, easy to read, fact based book with interesting personal opinions let down by amateurish writing and at times unneeded judgments. Perhaps you can read it as a guilty pleasure (pun intended).

[Scout Dawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first and last book I'll be reading by Berry-Dee. What a terrible book by a terrible author.

Whenever we get into talking about (never 'to') a spree killer, the author mentions that he spoke to this killer or that killer, but we don't get a repeat of what was said. He just says 'see my other book, I won't repeat it here' or says 'plenty of books are written about this so I don't need to talk about it'. Oh and my favourite 'there's a YouTube video about this' (without saying what video or where to find it).

Talk about an unreliable narrator.

There is no index in this book, so you can't even see what books or sources he's talking about. Not that I'd read anything he recommended, if I'm honest.

Berry-Dee also uses terms like 'mental retardation', and happily quotes someone writing the word 'n*ggs' but censors words like 'fuck'? He has a clear conservative outlook on crime (in that people have lost God, are just plain 'evil', and so forth) and refutes what decades of qualified people have learned before him about the behaviours of such people. He literally just claims that people should 'go on Wikipedia, for God's sake' instead of performing professional psych evaluations. If you value true crime, criminology or similar - avoid this book and this author.

I won't be reading another.

[RehanaBanana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know what possessed me to pick up this absolute dog t*rd of a book - long train journey and desperation is the only reason it happened. I’ve listened to some true crime over the lockdown so I thought I’ll give it a go. Bad choice. It’s designed to give you brief salacious, tabloid-style details of some horrific events, complete with unnecessary photographs, with absolutely no attempt to dig any further and provide any insight. It’s all designed to titillate, and feels like grubby voyeurism rather than an attempt to understand how someone could do this kind of thing. What’s worse is that in between the salacious details, the author treats you to some wild ramblings about really random stuff, some of which really reek of underlying questionable leanings. He used the phrase “slack as a hooker’s morals” in the intro, and has a little bash at “lefties”, and waxes lyrical about the beauty of dads taking their sons out to shoot wild boar, before then going on to talk about mass shooters. I really dislike the voice of the author. The whole book is absolute garbage - please don’t waste your time and money. I lasted about 50 pages and only because I was stuck on a train. It’s going straight in the recycling as soon as I get home.

[Olivia Husik · Rating 1 out of 5]

- most of the book is guns are bad and the US shouldn’t allow them (no shit - way to state the obvious but not actually point out the complex lobbying system behind why assault rifles are still legal in the us)
- Ends up being a pretty good example of something the author self titles as a study but doesn’t actually do any studying of the topic. For starters studies should have a works cited portion especially when they one off site things in the book and have QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER WORKS
- the writing is awful and disjointed, it’s also very hard to follow
- I think the author should have titled this as an opinion piece on why guns are heavily used in mass murders and spree killings and how banning assault rifles might reduce the number of mass murders and spree killings or something to that effect but he really doesn’t do much exploration of the crimes themselves and the motives behind them
- the author is incredibly dismissive of psychologists which I find very hypocritical since they at least have to cite degrees and education when apparently being a green beret and calling yourself a criminologist with no degree or info on your experience other than talking to serial killers. If that’s the case then I’m an expert on human psychology since I talk to humans every day.

[Becca Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was excellent. I don’t usually read non-fiction but this was amazing. I was so surprised reading about all the mass murderers and spree killers. Ofcourse I’d heard of a few of them but there was loads I hadn’t! It really shocked me just how bad gun violence is and how people who clearly shouldn’t be allowed them have easy access to them. The author was really witty, making it clear how he thought all these murderers were scum. He’s correct! What goes through their heads when they kill men, women and children!? The school shootings were the hardest to read about. The thought of my daughter going to school and not coming back makes me ill, I dunno how the parents coped. Unfortunately this seems to be a regular occurrence in America. I can’t quite believe how many kids seemed to look up to the Columbine killers and wanted to be just like them. Monsters! I learnt a lot in this book, I highly recommend!

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read the majority of Christopher's books and have to say this one isn't his best piece of work.

If you've read some of his other books you might know that sometimes his style of writing comes across as a little sneery, but there's usually a bit of humour with that.

This book, however, is a different kettle of fish - he sneers more than Cyril Sneer from The Racoons, seemingly having absolutely no empathy for some people who clearly have some severe mental disorders (yes, we know many killers blame on it mental health when deep inside they're just bad) but Berry-Dee seems to completely discount the fact that mental health disorders exist.

And there's more "Talking About" than "Talking With" in this book.

As I say, I've read most of his books and still have at least one more on the bookcase to read, which I will do, but this isn't the best he's ever come up with.

(Probably why it was so heavily discounted in The Works, too :D)

[Jenni Coutts · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I DNF because I was bored to tears. I struggled in vain to the halfway point before accepting that the time I had already invested in this book was time wasted.

This book was very poorly put together, whilst others in the series focused on a particular killer, their psyche and interview (which was what made them interesting!), this failed on all of those fronts. It read like a patchwork of notes that someone strung together, with no real depth of research, which meant there was very little of interest for readers to cling onto.

I don’t care about a list of guns and crimes. I want to know why, because that’s what I find interesting, and it’s certainly the thing that if understood may actually help prevent things like this in future. I got halfway, before eventually giving up.

[G P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t read this book if you have a genuine interest in the psychology of killers. This is basically one man’s rant about a society which allows guns and boring detail about the guns themselves. Occasionally we also get a name drop or reference to one of his other writings. Totally unnecessary. The grammar and spelling mistakes are a joke and make it seem like this book was never edited or proof read and feels self published. I had to check I actually bought it in a real shop!
If you want to read about the mind of killers there are plenty of amazing books out there, this isn’t one of them. I swore I’d never read this author again and then a friend bought me this book. I have a thing of never not finishing a book so I pushed through, but it was hard work!
Do yourself a favour and skip it.

[Amos Lamb · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is bizarre what a stark contrast this book is to Berry-Dee's previous book on serial killers, not only does he make it abundantly clear that he is uninterested in examining spree killers and mass murderers in the same way as he does serial killers, but he also often resorts to waffle. Waffle about different types of guns, going down rabbit holes of calling the killers losers & weirdos (often in those exact words), and even mocking a Quora answer at one point (which is the most boomer thing ever). He brushes past things that I would consider important and interesting for analysis, the most obvious example being the link between fascism/right-wing ideology and these killings. Compared to his other book you can tell he doesn't care and is simply trying to reach the wordcount. Not worth anyones time, go read his books on serial killers instead.

[Abi G · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a catfish of a book!

There’s no interviews with any criminals in this book at all. All the author ever states about mass murderers or spree killers is who they are and how many people they killed. Also, I don’t need to know that much detail about the guns used? Like, it’s really boring to try and read through what velocity the bullets would fire at from a certain range?

The flow of this book is awful. Chapters have different killers in the same paragraph so makes it so confusing to form a complete thought about one killer.

The fact that most of this book is just blaming gun laws in USA (I’m from England) makes the whole book feel like a it was just to piss off the Americans.

Can’t believe I finished this book in the end.

[Georgia Swain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly not at all what I thought it would be.

There is not one point at which you actually get to read ANY of his apparent MILLION interviews with murderers and serial killers. Lost count of how many times I read the sentence, “I’ve interviewed him twice before.” Where can I read that interview, if not in a book entitled TALKING WITH PSYCHOPATHS AND SAVAGES?

Basically just involves vague summaries of different mass murders, in very limited detail, with multiple references to his other books (which I can only imagine are equally as boring and self-promoting). The majority of the book is actually just a criticism of gun laws in the US.

Don’t waste your time or money on this book, honestly.