In this fascinating & profoundly chilling account, Detective Kim Mager, a real-life version of Clarice Starling, reveals how she closed in on—and broke—one of Ohio’s most infamous serial killers.

On September 13, 2016, in the small town of Ashland, Ohio, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call from a terrified woman who claimed to be kidnapped. The man holding her hostage was Shawn Grate, a serial killer whom the press later dubbed “The Ladykiller.” A key to his conviction and death sentence were Grate’s extensive recorded confessions—all extracted by one woman: Detective Kim Mager.

As an experienced specialist in sex offenses, Detective Mager was one of the officers assigned to Grate’s case upon his arrest. Grate immediately latched onto her, repeatedly demanding to speak to her and presumably convinced that he could somehow exercise his power over her in much the same way that he’d overpowered and controlled his female victims.

He was wrong.

Over a period of eight days, Mager conducted one interview after another, risking her life by sitting alone in the interview room with a malevolent predator. Using brilliant psychological strategy in a lethal game of wits, Mager successfully elicited his damning confessions to five murders, kidnapping, and multiple sexual assaults of women across Ohio.

Deeply personal and shocking, A Hunger to Kill takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most appalling criminal cases in American history from the woman who stopped his murderous rampage in collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Pulitzer.

Detective KIM MAGER is a 30-year law enforcement officer who retired from the Ashland City Police in 2022. Mager works for a prosecutor's office and still holds a law enforcement commission. Mager specializes in sex offenses, violent crime, and child abuse and has investigated over 2,000 cases. She has a BA from Ashland University and graduated Top Gun of her Police Academy. Mager is married to husband, Dan, and they have three children, Corbin, Macy, and Reed.

LISA PULITZER is a former correspondent to the New York Times and author/co-author/ghostwriter of more than 50 non-fiction titles, including many New York Times bestsellers. Ms. Pulitzer has written about numerous high-profile individuals and celebrities, and has been featured in a two-hour special by ABC News' 20/20 news magazine based on her book.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Mager never intended to write a book, but after the Ashland, Ohio, detective had a tearful conversation with a bereaved mother, she knew she had to tell the real story, the story that the victims and their families deserved. One of those victims was a courageous Jane Doe who made a daring 911 call as her captor lay sleeping next to her. She cautiously guided police to the abandoned house where she was imprisoned and had been assaulted for three days. Jane's rescue would be the harbinger of her abductor Shawn Grate's demise. Grate, a ruthless serial killer who murdered five women, fixated on Mager once finally detained in 2015. He refused to speak to other detectives; only Mager would do. After eight days of strategic interrogation, Mager's psychological skills elicited a full confession that would earn Grate a death sentence. This book has all the hallmarks of a prime-time police procedural and Mager is a real-life Olivia Benson. Mager and coauthor Pulitzer capture the shock of a small town caught up in the story of a harrowing kidnapping escape and a murderer. Moving and methodical, this book belongs in the true crime canon. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.