[Review] The Science of Serial Killers
The Science of Serial Killers
Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence
Released on October 2021
Skyhorse
4 out of 5 stars
First, I’d like to thank the authors, Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence, for the opportunity to be an advanced reviewer of The Science of Serial Killers and for providing me with a digital arc in exchange for an honest review. I’m an avid consumer of true crime content across all platforms, including podcasts, documentaries, and books. Therefore, I was more than excited to read this and went in with high expectations, and I’m happy to say that most of them were met. I found the coverage to be a little too superficial with the cases themselves, but it’s understandable considering the authors cover thirty murderers and many subjects concerning criminology.
Sadly, not all of the murderers depicted in the books were serial killers: the individuals Robert Defeo, John List, and Lizzie Borden cannot be classified because their murders did not occur in different locations with a cooling-off period in between the killings. Even though the Lake Bodom case is interesting, it is both unsolved and not connected to any other murders, which makes it an isolated incident committed by an unknown perpetrator instead of the work of a serial killer. Robert DeFoe’s coverage focuses intensely on the supposedly supernatural influence suffered by the killer, going as far as interviewing a ghost hunter, which felt out of place in a book about real-life murderers. Both things were a little disappointing to me, especially since there is no shortage of potential candidates to fill several books; however, all the individuals presented were well researched and interesting.
The inclusion of movie adaptations and non-fiction books inspired by the murders also had me torn. There are a lot of great recommendations for movies that I wouldn’t have known otherwise, and it’s fun to see which elements the films altered and those they kept. But sometimes the authors become a little too focused on the movies, even when their plots differ from the actual real-life cases, which remove the attention from the crimes themselves and focuses on the films instead. Another interesting element is the small boxes of text separated from the main body of the book, which contains “fun facts.” These captions can be about the murderers themselves, the city where they took place, or details regarding the movie adaptation; however, some facts were irrelevant and only tangentially related to the case in question.
The book also features several interviews with people who have experience with criminology, a specific case, or who can give a unique perspective on the subject at hand. I gained so much insight reading those interviews, especially the one with Lisa Schliebe, a DNA tech who shed light on how DNA science really works and the advancements that have been occurring in the field. You don’t find this variety of interviews with individuals with such diverse specialities in true crime books often, and as I progressed along with the book, I found myself anxious to reach the next interview. Overall, it was a fun and informative read. I learned about several cases that I wasn’t familiar with, and I feel confident in recommending it to those interested in true crime. However, keep in mind that there might be a lot of information that you already know regarding the more popular murderers.
What truly sets The Science of Serial Killers apart from the other true crime books I’ve read is the fact that the authors show a significant amount of respect towards the victims, and it doesn’t glorify the killers. They clarify that their support lies with the men and women who were murdered, and my absolute favorite quote from this book is one that summarizes my feelings towards all serial killers: “He deserves no pedestal, only the dark soil under which he is buried” (Hafdahl and Florence, 138).
Marina Garrido.
