Mark Olshaker

In The Killer's Shadow, John Douglas, one of the first full-time profilers to work for the FBI, recounts his role in helping to capture a serial killer who went on a racism-fuelled killing spree across the U.S. in the 1970s. Some of the methodological information is interesting, if not always for the reasons that Douglas thinks—there's quite a bit of back-patting about the success of certain techniques used, even though forensics specialists are increasingly dubious about their utility. show more (At one point Douglas mentions a case where, if his characterisation here is correct, someone was jailed for murder on the strength of a criminal profile and bitemark analysis—and that's not a standard of evidence I'm comfortable with!)

Douglas does tie what we can learn from the actions of this killer to more contemporary events linked to white supremacism, such as the Charlottesville march or the Charleston church shooting, but doesn't push his analysis far enough. At one point he seems to suggest that if the killer hadn't been blinded in one eye as a child he would have joined the local police force—and thus, it's implied, never become an avowed Nazi. I mean, maybe? But from everything I've observed about the behaviour of U.S. police over the last few years, I'm not sure that logic holds. He might just have felt free to terrorise Black and Jewish people from a position of authority. show less

Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was looking for non-fiction that would help me to further understand pandemics. I saw this book but thought that there would be no chance in finding it on the shelves and ordering would take months. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see this on the shelf of my local, with an updated preface on COVID-19. Of course, it’s not up to the minute data given that our knowledge on COVID-19 grows and changes every day but it’s comforting to read. Why? show more Because this team pretty much predicted a pandemic and the scenario they run through is very eerily similar to what the world is experiencing now.

So why didn’t people and governments prepare?

That’s the overall theme of Deadliest Enemy – preparation is the key. Having adequate stocks of equipment and treatments if available. While the predicted pandemic here was influenza, there is a lot we can learn from this book and our current situation. Pandemics of various diseases aren’t new, and will continue to occur. What we can do is prepare our response. In this very readable book, Osterholm describes his career in epidemiology and the common and uncommon infectious diseases that occur. It starts with the early signs of what was to be known as HIV/AIDS – a medical mystery that had many baffled. How best to fight the unknown? To discover more? Epidemiologists are medical detectives, looking for signs and trends anywhere (right down to tampon absorbency in cases of toxic shock syndrome). The book is easy to understand and read, with chapters devoted to various diseases. There are the common pathogens like influenza, the uncommon but well known (Zika, Ebola) and the scary (SARS, MERS). The book also discusses bioterrorism, antimicrobial resistance and vaccines. Complex terms and situations are explained well. My only annoyance is that there is no bibliography included in the book so I could look at some of the original articles. But I also recognise that most people are not nerds like me.

This is probably one of the best, most approachable books about public health as it demonstrates the link between those working in the field and the average person. Osterholm knows his stuff and his people (Dr Anthony Fauci gets several mentions) and is passionate in discussing it. It’s not scary nor fear-mongering but downright fascinating.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less

Okay, so the last book I read about true crime was like "sometimes reality is worse than fiction" and then didn't really deliver any fucked up crimes to prove that point. This book however? Jesus. Fucking. Christ. I consume A LOT of trume crime, I've watched a lot of seasons of Criminal Minds and so on, but there were things in this book where I had to take a moment and just stare out the bus window before I could continue reading. I mean ... the guy with the teeth. I will never get over show more that.

So, yeah, if you're into true crime and murder, you are going to enjoy this book. I even like the personal stories, I don't know how many people I retold the story of the failed (but not really) proposal because it's pretty hilarious. Sometimes I think it's a bit too much "he he he we're such a bunch of goofy pranksters" but you need some lightness in the book too.

I completely disagree on the death penalty though, and this book is pretty pro-death penalty in the case of really evil people. I agree that they're horrible people and I don't mourn them for a second, but a democracy cannot have the death penalty and still be a democracy. Just ... insert that Gandalf quote here I guess. But that opinion was not presented in a way that made me dislike the book and given what the author must've seen in his life, I definitely see why you'd think that. But I do not agree.

Oh, and when I picked it up I had no idea it was released like 20 years ago. It was so weird reading about how we don't know who BTK is, but obv there was a time we didn't (hell, until very recently we didn't know how the Golden State Killer was either). But you quickly adjusted to how "old" the book was, so no problem.

Next up: Mindhunter the TV series! show less

This was a fascinating look at how criminal profiling got started in the FBI, written by the man who was so integral to its application. Douglas discusses in detail how profiling was used in many infamous, as well as lesser-known, cases (so detailed that it sometimes got hard to read because of what he was describing). I did feel the book, particularly the early chapters, sometimes felt too much like a biography of Douglas, as opposed to a focus on profiling, and that Douglas sometimes came show more across as bragging a little too much. But everything he accomplished with his team is amazing, and so interesting. show less