Journey into Darkness
Written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Narrated by John E. Douglas
4/5
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About this audiobook
In the #1 New York Times bestseller Mindhunter, John Douglas, who headed the FBI's elite Investigative Support Unit, told the story of his brilliant and terrifying career tracking down some of the most heinous criminals in history. Now, in Journey into Darkness, Douglas profiles vicious serial killers, rapists, and child molesters. He is straightforward, blunt, often irreverent, and outspoken, but takes pains not to glorify any of these murderers. Some of the unique cases Douglas discusses include:
-The Clairemont killer
-The schoolgirl murders
-Richmond's First Serial Murderer
-The brutal and sadistic murder of Suzanne Marie Collins
-Polly Klaas' abduction and murder by Richard Allen Davis,
-The tragedy that lead to the creation of Megan's Law
With Journey into Darkness, Douglas provides more than a glimpse into the minds of serial killers; he demonstrates what a powerful weapon behavioral science has become. Profiling criminals helps not only to capture them, but also helps society understand how these predators work and what can be done to prevent them from striking again. Douglas focuses especially on pedophiles and child abductors, fully explaining what drives them, and how to keep children away from them. As he points out, "The best way to protect your children is to know your enemy." He includes eight rules for safety, a list of steps parents can take to prevent child abduction and exploitation, tips on how to detect sexual exploitation, basic rules of safety for children, and a chart, based on age, which details the safety skills children should have to protect themselves.
In his review for Mindhunter in The New York Times Book Review, Dean Koontz said, "Because of his insights and the power of the material, he leaves us shaken, gripped by a quiet grief for the innocent victims and anguished by the human condition." Journey into Darkness continues this perilous trip into the psyche of the serial killer, but also offers a glimmer of hope that profiling may enable law enforcement to see the indicators of a serial killer's mind and intervene before he kills, or kills again.
John E. Douglas
John Douglas is the legendary FBI criminal profiler and former Chief of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit where he researched, investigated, and conducted interviews of some of America’s most violent criminals. Over the past half-century, he either directly worked on or had overall supervision in over 5,000 violent crime cases. He is one of the foremost experts of the criminal mind, its methods, and motivations. Douglas is a veteran of the United States Air Force and holds a doctorate degree in Education, and lives with his wife, Pamela, in the Washington, DC, area.
More audiobooks from John E. Douglas
The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journey into Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Journey into Darkness
228 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I found this boring and superficial and disjointed. I did not like the voice or the tone of the reader either, so I could not finish it. Mindhunter was altogether a more enjoyable listen......
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Good book, yet got slow towards the middle and the end. In my humble opinion his other book Mindhunter is better.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was good cause it was John Douglas and I LOVE him but I didn’t get nearly as into this book as I normally do with his books
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It didnt have as much content as I would've wanted
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5DNF - I'm so close to finishing having read 290/372 pages. However, I ust can't make myself pick it up ny longer. It has been a slow read and is nowhere as good as the author's first book "Mindhunter". There were some good parts such as the Paul Bernardo case which gives a different swing on Karla than I've heard before. But most of it was dry and boring and *not* about how cases were solved For instnce there is a whole chapter devoted to protecting your children from predators. Granted, important information but not what I came to this book for. With only a few more chapters left that don't look promising, I've decided to finish the book at this point. All my DNF's recieve a half-star for my own purposes.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkable man and good writer.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Douglas's follow-up to the fascinating Mindhunter isn't quite as good, but still provides compelling reading for those interested in true crime stories, especially serial killers. Douglas, who pioneered profiling, is obviously bursting with knowledge -- this book's style, much like Mindhunter, is almost manic, reflecting Douglas's passionate desire to communicate the ugly realities of real murders and murderers. One interesting note: Douglas does his own profile of the killer of two young people in a Brentwood, CA home in 1995 (i.e. Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman). His conclusion? The guilty party just might have been a former NFL star . . . .
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If you ever wanted to know how to profile a murder scene, you will learn it here.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good quick read but not as good as I had hoped. Meandered from topic to topic for a number of chapters.