My library button
  • Book cover of Mindhunter

    Now a Netflix original series Discover the classic, behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas’ twenty-five-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals. In chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes of some of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases—and into the darkest recesses of our worst nightmares. During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time: the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, the Atlanta child murderer, and Seattle's Green River killer, the case that nearly cost Douglas his life. As the model for Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Douglas has confronted, interviewed, and studied scores of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. Using his uncanny ability to become both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim's actions in his mind, creating their profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves.

  • Book cover of Mindhunter

    THE BESTSELLING TRUE STORY THAT INSPIRED THE MAJOR NETFLIX SERIESFBI Special Agent and expert in criminal profiling and behavioural science, John Douglas, is a man who has looked evil in the eye and made a vocation of understanding it. Now retired, Douglas can let us inside the FBI elite serial crime unit and into the disturbed minds of some of the most savage serial killers in the world.The man who was the inspiration for Special Agent Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambsand who lent the film's makers his expertise explains how he invented and established the practice of criminal profiling; what it was like to submerge himself mentally in the world of serial killers to the point of 'becoming' both perpetrator and victim; and individual case histories including those of Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and the Atlanta child murders.With the fierce page-turning power of a bestselling novel, yet terrifyingly true, Mindhunter is a true crime classic.John Douglas knows more about serial killers than anybody in the world - Jonathan Demme, Director of The Silence of the LambsA cracker of a book - Esquire

  • Book cover of Journey Into Darkness

    New York Times bestselling author of Mindhunter John Douglas reveals more unique cases from his time as head of the FBI's elite Investigative Support Unit. 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.

  • Book cover of The Anatomy Of Motive

    “A marvelous, thrilling, chilling, and riveting” (Liz Smith, New York Post) look at the root of crime from FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, the authors behind Mindhunter, the inspiration of Netflix’s original series of the same name. Every crime is a mystery story with a motive. With the insight he brought to his revolutionary work inside the FBI’s elite serial crime unit, John Douglas pieces together motives behind violent criminal behavior. He not only takes us into the darkest recesses of the minds of arsonists, hijackers, bombers, poisoners, assassins, serial killers, and mass murderers, but also the seemingly ordinary people who suddenly go on a shocking rampage. With in-depth analysis on real cases and killers, such as Lee Harvey Oswald, Theodore Kaczynski, and Timothy McVeigh, The Anatomy of Motive sheds light on the surprising similarities and differences among various deadly offenders. More importantly, it teaches us how to anticipate potential violent behavior before it’s too late.

  • Book cover of The Anatomy of Motive
  • Book cover of Obsession

    The FBI's legendary profiler probes the psyches of killers, rapists, and stalkers and their victims and tells how to fight back.

  • No image available

    The FBI's legendary pioneer of criminal profiling and inspiration behind the hit Netflix show Mindhunter, John Douglas has spent decades working with law enforcement to understand the criminal mind and hunt violent predators. Now Douglas, along with his long-time collaborator Mark Olshaker, turns his keen eye to four of the most disturbing killers he has confronted. Offering never-before-revealed details about his interview techniques and profiling process, Douglass goes step by step through his encounters with these murderers, connecting each sadistic predator's crimes to his conversation with them. In doing so, he shows his unprecedented ability to get into the heads of both predator and prey as he talks to the country's most dangerous men, and how he used his interrogation skills to expose their true evil.

  • Book cover of The Cases That Haunt Us

    Did Lizzie Borden murder her own father and stepmother? Was Jack the Ripper actually the Duke of Clarence? Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? #1 New York Times bestselling author and legendary FBI criminal profiler John Douglas, along with author and filmmaker Mark Olshaker—the team behind the famous Mindhunter series—explore those tantalizing questions and more in this mesmerizing work of detection. Violent. Provocative. Shocking. Call them what you will…but don't call them open and shut. In The Cases That Haunt Us, Douglas and Olshaker explore the mysteries that both their legions of fans and law enforcement professionals ask about most. With uniquely gripping analysis, the authors reexamine and reinterpret the accepted facts, evidence, and victimology of the most notorious murder cases in the history of crime, including the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, The Zodiac Killer, and the Whitechapel murders. The cases touch a nerve deep within us because of the personalities involved, their senseless depravity, the nagging doubts about whether justice was done, or because, in some instances, no suspect has ever been identified or caught. Taking a fresh and penetrating look at each case, the authors reexamine and reinterpret accepted facts and victimology using modern profiling and the techniques of criminal analysis developed by Douglas within the FBI. The Cases That Haunt Us not only offers convincing and controversial conclusions, it deconstructs the evidence and widely held beliefs surrounding each case and rebuilds them—with fascinating, surprising, and haunting results.

  • Book cover of Unnatural Causes
  • Book cover of Deadliest Enemy

    A leading epidemiologist shares his "powerful and necessary" (Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone) stories from the front lines of our war on infectious diseases and explains how to prepare for global epidemics -- featuring a new preface on COVID-19. Unlike natural disasters, whose destruction is concentrated in a limited area over a period of days, and illnesses, which have devastating effects but are limited to individuals and their families, infectious disease has the terrifying power to disrupt everyday life on a global scale, overwhelming public and private resources and bringing trade and transportation to a grinding halt. In today's world, it's easier than ever to move people, animals, and materials around the planet, but the same advances that make modern infrastructure so efficient have made epidemics and even pandemics nearly inevitable. And as outbreaks of COVID-19, Ebola, MERS, and Zika have demonstrated, we are woefully underprepared to deal with the fallout. So what can -- and must -- we do in order to protect ourselves from mankind's deadliest enemy? Drawing on the latest medical science, case studies, policy research, and hard-earned epidemiological lessons, Deadliest Enemy explores the resources and programs we need to develop if we are to keep ourselves safe from infectious disease. The authors show how we could wake up to a reality in which many antibiotics no longer cure, bioterror is a certainty, and the threat of a disastrous influenza or coronavirus pandemic looms ever larger. Only by understanding the challenges we face can we prevent the unthinkable from becoming the inevitable. Deadliest Enemy is high scientific drama, a chronicle of medical mystery and discovery, a reality check, and a practical plan of action.