10 books like The Holmes-Pitezel

Berg’s groundbreaking study of Peter Kürten, a blood-drinking serial killer with a diverse variety of victims in Düsseldorf, Germany, became a classic criminology text during the 1940s. Because Berg, a pathologist, had performed the autopsies, he had a privileged perspective on the murders. He noticed the use of different weapons and did his own research as he hypothesized how the assaults were linked. Going beyond mere case analysis, Berg offered a means for other professionals to consider the psychological details in the development of extreme sexual cruelty. When Kürten was arrested, Berg spent many hours face-to-face with him in his cell, watching his excited manner as he recounted his deeds. The Sadist is one of the earliest attempts to penetrate the deviant mind of a repeat offender, told by the person with the most accurate knowledge of how the killer had treated each victim.

Starr, a journalist, dug deep into French archives to document the crime spree and investigation of “French Ripper” Joseph Vacher, whom journalists speculated might be the still-uncaught Jack the Ripper. Lacassagne evaluated Vacher, who was accused of viciously murdering and mutilating fourteen young people around the French countryside. Starr includes the story of how a magistrate meticulously created one of the earliest behavioral profiles, which Lacassagne used for his own analysis. This is an impressive story of mental detection in 1896, a time when there were few resources, especially for cross-jurisdiction investigation. It took a special kind of inventive mind to link incident reports and make this savage killer accountable every crime he committed. Years before the publication of the first story featuring Sherlock Holmes, Lacassagne exercised full critical examination and became one of the top innovators in Europe.

The Blooding recounts a gripping true tale of murders in the picturesque English countryside-but aside from its haunting atmosphere, it is a detailed account of the beginning of DNA as a crime-solving technique. We have come a long way since the mid-1980s, and we can get much more information from newer DNA methods, but the detailed explanation of exactly how this worked as a revolutionary method is invaluable. Reading this book puts the reader at the very beginning of a revolution.

Belle Sorrenson Gunness is a rare female serial killer who was exceptionally predatory. This Norwegian-American had insured her first husband and two of her children before killing them in the early 1900s to enrich herself. She bought a pig farm in LaPorte, Indiana, which she soon turned into her personal graveyard. The twice-widowed Belle published matrimonial ads, and those men who answered arrived, one after another, before each disappeared. She’d warned them not to reveal where they were going, but Andrew Helgelein did. When Andrew’s brother announced he was coming to look for him, Belle’s six-year spree abruptly ended in a house fire in which she seemed to have perished. A search of the property produced bodies and body parts. Before it was over, an estimated twelve to thirteen sets of remains had been removed from the ground. Schechter vivdly describes this case every step of the way, and dispels… show more.

I went into this book blind, I can’t remember the exact circumstances but if I’m not mistaken it was when I was advertising myself as a reviewer for indie authors. This takes the serial killer theme to all new levels as based on a truth fiction tale. Hammott has an enjoyable writing style that flows and draws the reader in. It is an excellent retelling that kept me wanting to know more about Holmes. I have subsequently researched the killer and found Hammott's accounts to be factually correct which just makes the story that much more chilling. 

Another nonfiction book and the only one on my list not set in England, Devil in the White City takes readers to Gilded Age Chicago and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. 

Great storytelling and incredible research introduce readers to the gleaming white exposition city and its ultimate juxtaposition, the World’s Fair Hotel just west of the fairgrounds. The hotel was built by Henry H. Holmes, a young and handsome doctor, who was also a sadistic killer. 

Holmes lured women to the hotel, a place complete with a dissection table, a gas chamber, and a crematorium. The horrors of the murder are made all the more real—and creepy—against the background of city leaders, determined architects, and joyous fairgoers. 

The biggest strength of this book is a large spoiler, which is a shame. I’d love to gush about it. You (should you choose to read it) get to learn about it as the work unfolds, though. For that, I’m jealous. Who doesn’t love to enjoy something so fun for the first time? The choice of victims and the reason for the kills makes the serial killer so compelling I rooted for the detective to always be one step behind. I loved him, don’t get me wrong. He is flawed and damaged, and I wanted him to succeed eventually. Thomas Holgate makes it easy to do that—want them both to “win”—as both have a point-of-view. The book was fun, interesting, and just a little brutal. 

This is a mystery within a mystery—an end-of-the-world survival story that slowly unfolds how the world's end happened. The mystery of a little girl found dead, but not from anything happening in the world. This book made me think about how I’d react in a similar situation. We all hope we’d be level-headed and survive. But as this book tells, you never know.

Eighteen-year-old Mac is still coming to terms with the murder of his best friend, Connor, the fourth and final victim of a serial killer who terrorized their community the previous summer. Stumbling upon a note Connor wrote to him the night he died that suggests Connor knew the identity of the killer, Mac embarks on his own investigation to learn what the victims may have had in common. The author deftly threads throughout his story tantalizing clues that draw readers deeper into the mystery, building wire-taut tension as the characters move inexorably toward a resolution that readers won’t see coming but is ultimately satisfying. Far more than a skilfully crafted whodunit, Keep This to Yourself is a compelling coming-of-age story that explores the evolution of friendship and the consequence of truth.

This serial killer thriller will have you up all night, even after you’ve finished it! Full of blood, gore, and shocking scenes, it tells the story of The Echo Man, who appears to be copying the world’s most famous, or infamous, serial killers, such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, and Ed Kemper. Will the police catch up with him before he strikes again? Keep the lights on, this one is not for the faint-hearted!