Mindhunter

By John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker

This was a step outside my typical reading. This book is a work of nonfiction, and despite the subject matter being that of an FBI agent who interviewed the most violent and scariest offenders in prison, this book does not go into the gory details of the crimes. Nor is it a glorification of the killers discussed in the novel. It is one man’s journey through life and where it took him. Tapping into hidden skills of reading people since he was young, Douglas became a force within the FBI to help find the worst of us.

One subtle aspect I took away from the book is how much Douglas promotes law enforcement agencies working together and acknowledging it is not always the officers who are at fault when they need the FBI to step in, but merely a lack of knowledge due to inexperience with specific types of crimes.

Nonfiction is a genre I shy away from. I always look at them skeptically, but as a part of my growth as a reader and a writer, I am committed to branching out of my comfort zone. What better place to start than with that other subject that women like me are enthralled in true crime? While I am not a “crime junkie”, I do find human behavior fascinating, it is one of the reasons I find imperfect characters so captivating because real people are flawed and filled with so many contradictions.