Evil Psychopaths - Softcover

Kerr, Gordon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0708802109 ISBN 13: 9780708802106

Publisher: Futura, 2009

Synopsis

Psychopaths are superficially charming but ultimately self-centred individuals possessed with the ability to manipulate others into predatory situations. This psychiatric anomaly, when combined with a violent or abusive childhood, mental illness or addictive personality can help to create that most feared and hated of human beings - the serial killer.
EVIL PSYCHOPATHS is not a book for the faint-of-heart. It explores the lives and crimes of deranged and dagerous men and women such as Jack the Ripper, Ed Gein, Albert Fish, Gary Heidnik, Ian Brady/Myra Hindley, The Yorkshire Ripper and Fred/Rose West; men and women who have practised and pefected the art of killlng.

About this title

Review:

' This brilliant and serious novel is Frayn on absolutely top - if unashamedly smart - form' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Deeply satisfying ... Frayn has written nothing better' INDEPENDENT 'Bernard Shaw couldn't do it, Henry James couldn't do it, but Michael Frayn does do it: write novels and plays with equal success' JOHN UPDIKE, NEW YORKER 'In Michael Frayn's novel Spies an old man returns to the scene of his seemingly ordinary suburban childhood. Stephen Wheatley is unsure of what he is seeking but, as he walks once-familiar streets he hasn't seen in 50 years, he unfolds a story of childish games colliding cruelly with adult realities. It is wartime and Stephen's friend Keith makes the momentous announcement that his mother is a German spy. The two boys begin to spy on the supposed spy, following her on her trips to the shops and to the post, and reading her diary. Keith's mother does have secrets to conceal but they are not the ones the boys suspect. Frayn skilfully manipulates his plot so that the reader's growing awareness of the truth remains just a few steps beyond Stephen's dawning realisation that he is trespassing on painful and dangerous territory. The only false notes occur in the final chapter when the central revelation (already cleverly signposted) is too swiftly followed by further disclosures about Stephen and his family that seem somehow unnecessary and make the denouement less satisfyingly conclusive. This is a much sparer and less expansive book than Headlong, Frayn's Booker Prize-shortlisted 1999 novel, more understated in its wit, but it is, in many ways, more compelling.' - Nick Rennison, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW 'Beautifully accomplished, richly nostalgic novel about supposed Second World War espionage seen through the eyes of a young boy.' - SUNDAY TIMES

Book Description:

Dramatic accounts of real-life psychopathic killers

About this edition

• Publisher: Futura
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0708802109
• ISBN 13: 9780708802106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512