Talking with Psychopaths and Savages by Christopher Berry-Dee

Have you ever picked up a book and thought, "This is it. This one is going to be fascinating and I don't know if I will be able to put it down!", only to start reading it and with each page you feel your interest hemorrhaging away? That was Talking with Psychopaths and Savages by Christopher Berry-Dee.

I was on vacation in Germany and stumbled upon a book store. I wandered around the shop in awe, excited to see what I could find. As I am looking around, my husband points out this true crime book. I read the summary on the back and it sounded quite promising. I excitedly took it to the counter, purchased it, and brought it home to the States.

Talking with Psychopaths and Savages promises to take the reader deep into the psyche of some of the most fearsome killers alive. Supposedly, it covers interviews with incarcerated criminals (serial killers, mass killers, spree killers) and some of their psychiatrists. This book is supposed to delve into the murderous psyche of these killers and reveal horrific truths about how these murderers can hide in plain sight.

Notice I use a lot of "supposed to"s. I say this because I could not finish this book. It was that bad.

My biggest issue with this book is the author's ego. The contents of this book are dripping with arrogance. You can tell by the way he writes that he thinks he is the most knowledgeable voice in crime ever. Let me illustrate this for you. When I decided to stop reading this book, I stopped at page 77. In those 77 pages, he refers to his other works four times; two of those are on the same page.

That one may not seem so bad, but here's another. Berry-Dee brags about the number of killers he has interviewed eight separate times. This is an average of almost once every 10 pages he reminds readers that he has talked to so many killers over decades. We get it, you've done a lot of interviews. I have read books by FBI agents who coined the term "serial killer" and they don't even brag about how many people they've interviewed. Along these lines, on page 45 he makes the claim that he has "interviewed more heinous psychopathic serial killers, savages, spree killers, mass murderers, and out-in-out nut balls than Stephen King could ever invent." That is quite a claim against the king of horror; especially since on page 17 Berry-Dee brags about talking to "some 30 serial killers." Now, I have not read any Stephen King novels, but this doesn't seem to add up; so, for fun, I went through the synopses of some of Stephen King's works. I will admit, I may have missed some, but I found 49 killers that fit under those categories listed by Berry-Dee. And I didn't even go through half of his short stories. Somehow, I think Berry-Dee is vastly overestimating his accomplishments while trying to bash a well-known, well-loved author for no reason.

Something else that factored in to me DNF-ing (did not finish) this book is the lack of consistency in the style of writing Berry-Dee has presented. Sometimes, the language feels very academic, like it is written for his peers. Other times, the language is casual. It was so strange going from text about kryptopyrrole and the amygdala to using the phrase "in a world where elephants fly, lead balls bounce, and fairies rein supreme" three separate times. Especially compared to the majority of what I have read, this line feels very unprofessional. Along those lines, he uses the word "fuck" twice within the 77 pages I read and none of them were quoting someone.

There was one final thing that did not sit well with me while reading Talking with Psychopaths and Savages. While this one is a single instance, it has really rubbed me the wrong way and it still makes me uncomfortable. On page 73, Berry-Dee is talking about the murder of Reeva Steenkamp and he mentions that the murderer is now in prison for the "savage murder of his beautiful girlfriend". While at first there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this, let me add some context. At 73 pages into this book, the author has talked about multiple victims already. Not once has he used a descriptor, especially not something like "beautiful." Why was this one necessary? I'll tell you, it isn't. Whether a person is attractive or not is not an indicator of how tragic the death is, nor does it make them more or less deserving of their fate. To me, this choice just feels creepy and totally inappropriate.

As you have gathered, I did not like this book. While Berry-Dee is a very prolific writer (60 listed in Goodreads), he is very disappointing. He has the ego of a god but the average Goodreads rating of 3.26.

If you enjoy hate reading something, this could be for you, but I wouldn't waste my time if I were you.

Hopefully my next read will be a little more positive.

Until next time,

~Hella Va'Night