Professional Killers

by Gordon Kerr

PROFESSIONAL KILLERS

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

Gordon Kerr was born in the Scottish new town of East Kilbride and worked in the wine trade and then bookselling and publishing before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of numerous books in a variety of genres, including art, history, true crime, travel and humour. He has a wife and two children and lives in Hampshire and—when he can—South West France.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't what I expected it to be. Before reading it I thought it was going to be about contract killing and all the planning that goes into carrying out a hit, before, during and after. It was actually about some of the famous, not so famous and obscure killers in history. I found it a really interesting read. I'd heard of some of the killers before such as Al Capone,Billy The Kid, Jesse James, van Hoogstraten and some others. These were interesting characters to read up on, with the ones I knew nothing about being even more interesting, and it covered a lot [511 pages], with them being broke down into different sections.It started with Killers for the mob, then covered other American killers, Sicilian Mafia killers, Wild West killers, Greatest Hits, Killing all over the world, killer gangs, British killers and finally women killers. Kept me glued throughout and is well worth a read.

[Tlingit · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's okay. It gives information on a variety of professional killers so it does it's job. The book is like reading a third grade school book. I don't mean to be insulting but if you're not interested in this material this book is going to be distracting. Even being interested in this material the writing style is basic and the paragraphs are elemental. Sometimes I found the same information worded almost the exact same way in one section as it was in another. I found it very distracting to be paying attention to paragraph structure and repetitive phrases that I had to put it down often.
I am not a professional writer in any way. And that is what really gets me. I got annoyed at the writer for making lurid information so unvaried. This book should have been written for elementary school kids. I have seen other books on similar subjects like serial killers have better writing and be basic yet still interesting so there's really no excuse for the way this book has been written and edited. I suggest that if you're over the age of 12 you go look for a better written book.