Cannibal Killers
by Moira Martingale
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Description
Anthropophagy - humans eating their fellow-humans - creates a curious blend of revulsion and fascination. When the perpetrator is a murderer - most commonly a sadistic serial killer - the crime is not only shocking, but also bewildering. Moira Martingale's comprehensive study, Cannibal Killers: The Impossible Monsters, was originally written in 1993, when the Internet was in its infancy, when few homes had computers and when the character Hannibal Lecter from the book and movie The Silence show more of the Lambs was regarded as an entirely fictional character, with no real-world counterparts or inspirations. The book demonstrated that this was an erroneous assumption. Translated into several languages and widely used as a resource by students studying for criminology degrees, this seminal work tracked the phenomenon of cannibalistic murderers throughout history, from the monstrous Sawney Bean, who killed and ate hundreds of travellers in Scotland five hundred years ago, to Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrei Chikatilo, Ed Kemper and Issei Sagawa - all loners, hiding their most terrible of secrets. Then came the World Wide Web. In this comprehensively updated edition we see that in the twenty-first century cannibals who thirst for human flesh and blood are still among us, and, alarmingly, they have moved online to find their victims. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Cannibal Killers by Moira Martingale is very much a hit or miss book for me, some aspects very solid yet a self-righteous tone throughout as well as some absurd groupings of both people and lifestyles.
If you want to learn about the many cases of cannibalism that have occurred in the fairly recent past, this is the book for you. Both the well-known and the more obscure are included and each is given some attempt at understanding. Admittedly, I see myself as potentially using this book as a springboard to learn more about specific cases rather than as a comprehensive look, largely because of Martingale's tone and apparent comfort in grouping disparate groups of people together in order to condemn them.
Which brings me to why I couldn't show more rate the book any higher. I found the authorial voice almost as offensive as the crimes she describes. She has obviously found her niche and is milking it. What insight could have been offered gets obscured by her seemingly narrow view of who in the world is good and worthy.
That said, I would still recommend this to readers who want to know more about this particular type of crime. There is a lot of good information here, just make sure you don't let her holier than thou attitude infect you as well.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less
If you want to learn about the many cases of cannibalism that have occurred in the fairly recent past, this is the book for you. Both the well-known and the more obscure are included and each is given some attempt at understanding. Admittedly, I see myself as potentially using this book as a springboard to learn more about specific cases rather than as a comprehensive look, largely because of Martingale's tone and apparent comfort in grouping disparate groups of people together in order to condemn them.
Which brings me to why I couldn't show more rate the book any higher. I found the authorial voice almost as offensive as the crimes she describes. She has obviously found her niche and is milking it. What insight could have been offered gets obscured by her seemingly narrow view of who in the world is good and worthy.
That said, I would still recommend this to readers who want to know more about this particular type of crime. There is a lot of good information here, just make sure you don't let her holier than thou attitude infect you as well.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less
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1 Work 129 Members
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government, History
- DDC/MDS
- 364.1523 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Crime Criminal offenses Offenses against the person Homicide Murder
- LCC
- HV6515 .M3 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Crimes and offenses
- BISAC
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- Members
- 127
- Popularity
- 253,781
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.69)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 1
