Escape Artists
PseudoPod => Chamber of Horror => Topic started by: Ivy Wood on March 03, 2013, 12:39:50 AM
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If you could recommend what you feel are the very best books (either fiction or non-fiction) depicting the mind, the thought processes of deranged murderers, what would they be?
I'm getting ready to start reading "Silence of the Lambs". I hear it's very different from the film. I'd appreciate other titles to put on my reading list. :)
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I've heard THE COLLECTOR (1963) by John Fowles is excellent in this regard - but it's still unread on my shelf.
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I'd argue that Silence of the Lambs as a film is better than the book. Stop here if you want to avoid "spoilers" but I would advise against the time to read the book. The movie is able to cut between scenes more effectively to build tension (specifically the portion where Clarice is ringing Buffalo Bill's doorbell) than a book can. Also, if you take the the films most iconic line, and combine it with what was written in the book, between the two you wind up with the best interpretation.
To provide perspective, Silence is one of three books I'd argue for "better than the book". Fight Club is another and rum is impairing the third. But I know there's a third one.
For this specific concept of in the mind of a disturbed killer, have you read The Shining? For all his faults, this is one of King's best.
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"The Face that Must Die" by Ramsey Campbell. Very possibly his best novel. He really gets into the mind of a killer, and not the brilliant mastermind kind, the paranoid, delusional had a bad life kind. It's very different from most of his other books (that might be good if you dislike him, but I like him and I don't find it bad either, it's just different.)
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I've not heard of "The Collector" nor "The Face That Must Die" (what a great title!). I will look those up! Yes, I agree, Jack Torrance in "The Shining" is a great example of a descent into madness. :)
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The Collector is not so much something that gets into the mind of a serial killer. I'd peg it more under, well, I want to say "the banality of evil," but really it's more the evil of the banal.
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If you could recommend what you feel are the very best books (either fiction or non-fiction) depicting the mind, the thought processes of deranged murderers, what would they be?
I'm getting ready to start reading "Silence of the Lambs". I hear it's very different from the film. I'd appreciate other titles to put on my reading list. :)
I suggest that you read RED DRAGON first...it's an excellent and creepy serial killer novel that introduces Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. Then read SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which is just as well written but not as disturbing as RED DRAGON.
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If you could recommend what you feel are the very best books (either fiction or non-fiction) depicting the mind, the thought processes of deranged murderers, what would they be?
I'm getting ready to start reading "Silence of the Lambs". I hear it's very different from the film. I'd appreciate other titles to put on my reading list. :)
I suggest that you read RED DRAGON first...it's an excellent and creepy serial killer novel that introduces Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. Then read SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which is just as well written but not as disturbing as RED DRAGON.
Seconded
Also look for the Chaingang books from Rex Miller. Slob is the first one.
Also the Prey books by John Sanford.