The FBI criminal profiler and inspiration for the Mindhunter series shares the stories of four of the most complex predatory killers of his career, offering previously undisclosed insights into his strategies and profiling process. 100,000 first printing. TV tie-in. - (Baker & Taylor)

The FBI criminal profiler and inspiration for the "Mindhunter" series shares the stories of four of the most complex predatory killers of his career, offering previously undisclosed insights into his strategies and profiling process. - (Baker & Taylor)

The legendary FBI criminal profiler, number-one New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration for the hit Netflix show Mindhunter delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most disturbing and complex predatory killers, offering never-before-revealed details about his profiling process, and divulging the strategies used to crack some of America’s most challenging cases.

The FBI’s pioneer of criminal profiling, former special agent John Douglas, has studied and interviewed many of America’s most notorious killers—including  Charles Manson, ”Son of Sam Killer” David Berkowitz and ”BTK Strangler” Dennis Rader—trained FBI agents and investigators around and the world, and helped educate the country about these deadly predators and how they operate, and has become a legend in popular culture, fictionalized in The Silence of the Lambs and the hit television shows Criminal Minds and Mindhunter.

Twenty years after his famous memoir, the man who literally wrote the book on FBI criminal profiling opens his case files once again. In this riveting work of true crime, he spotlights four of the most diabolical criminals he’s confronted, interviewed and learned from. Going deep into each man’s life and crimes, he outlines the factors that led them to murder and how he used his interrogation skills to expose their means, motives, and true evil. Like the hit Netflix show, The Killer Across the Table is centered around Douglas’ unique interrogation and profiling process. With his longtime collaborator Mark Olshaker, Douglas recounts the chilling encounters with these four killers as he experienced them—revealing for the first time his profile methods in detail. 

Going step by step through his interviews, Douglas explains how he connects each killer’s crimes to the specific conversation, and contrasts these encounters with those of other deadly criminals to show what he learns from each one. In the process, he returns to other famous cases, killers and interviews that have shaped his career, describing how the knowledge he gained from those exchanges helped prepare him for these.

A glimpse into the mind of a man who has pierced the heart of human darkness, The Killer Across the Table unlocks the ultimate mystery of depravity and the techniques and approaches that have countered evil in the name of justice.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Famous as a groundbreaking FBI criminal profiler, a prolific true-crime writer, and the catalyst for Mindhunter on Netflix, Douglas, along with coauthor Olshaker, reveals what he's discerned in the minds of notorious killers. Among the men he portrays are a high school chemistry teacher who beat, choked, sexually assaulted, and strangled a Brownie delivering Girl Scout cookies to his house; a man who took the lives of his friends' kids; and a "medicinal" murderer who prematurely hastened the deaths of dozens of old people in hospitals. The critical question in solving these cases is why? After a lifetime spent talking with the likes of David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Charles Manson, Douglas understands their common motivation: "manipulation, domination, control." He focuses on four predators, but weaves in details about others and shares his opinions on famous cases and big legal questions, such as who qualifies as legally insane and psychotic, rather than as a criminal sociopath. Douglas's experiences seem to have made him wary of rehabilitation and parole. "Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior," he says, noting that as children many killers exhibited such disturbing behavior as torturing and killing cats. This fascinating and haunting expert account helps us understand why the most shocking homicides occur.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Douglas is legendary; his books are best-sellers, and this one will be of particularly urgent interest. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.