This is a fairly short, rather dry & clinical, account of a killer's life. It's presented through short chapters of interviews, with the killer, & people who've dealt with him. He killed 4 taxi drivers in Buenos Aires in 1982, & has spent the rest of his life in captivity in Argentina...in prisons & hospitals, of which have awful stories in themselves.... It tells of his story of survival there too. The title & cover art are appropriate.
I received this e-book from the publisher Catapult via NetGalley, in return for reading it & offering my own fair & honest review.

Although this is a true crime novel, the reader is left wondering why Ricardo Melogno committed four murders without reason. He flagged down a taxi, gave the driver an address, and shot him in the head when the driver turned to him in the back seat to relay the fare. He then turned off the car and sat in the front seat with the dead driver for up to half an hour before taking the taxi's identification and whatever money was available and going to eat. Is he a forgery or a serial killer enigma? The FBI Behavioral Science Unit describes killers as "future dangerousness." These deaths have no sexual context or violence - they are nightmares played out in horrible deeds in which the eventual murderer begins with lesser crimes or violence, such as torturing and killing small animals. No previous behavior could explain mindless murders in this scenario. The killer knew none of the drivers. Irregular. Despite the fact that the perpetrator was quickly identified, apprehended, and imprisoned for nearly 30 years, he has not been released due to "future dangerousness." According to one mental health specialist, the killer was on the autistic spectrum as a young man and lived in his imagination, which collided with reality. The Who and When of the crime are known, but the Why is unknown. Could the killer have recognized he needed help and thought the only way to get it was to kill because of his autism, unusual childhood, and parents' and instructors' lack of empathy and understanding? Unknown.

I appreciate that the killer gave his perspective of what happened. He tells about the difference between prison and the mental institution. He tells about the different drugs he was forced to take. His case as is sad as he was young and doesn't seem to make sense of why he chose to kill.
A doctor and others give analysis on the murderer. We don't hear much about the victims. The killer is given all sorts of labels.
I don't feel sorry for him, as he did kill. I don't think the system did anything to get him help. It is a sad system when innocents are killed and killers are not rehabilitated.
I appreciate the honesty of all involved in writing the book. I do think he was sorry for what he did. If anyone can learn from his story, then it is a helpful read.

I did not enjoy this book and I did not finish it. I typically like true crime books and other forms of media. However, the format of the book was difficult to follow. It was presented as a conversation. It may be better as an audio version, but in print, it definitely could benefit from a rewrite or some editing to make it easier to read.

DNF at 45%.

I don't think I care about serial killers and their perspectives. It comes across as blaming their actions on their parents or other outside influences.

know I haven’t yet posted a lot of it on the blog, but I really enjoy reading true crime. Like, a lot. I think that delving into what causes people to do terrible things is endlessly fascinating. I also love seeing the baddy get caught. I was really excited to find Magnetized, because it is pretty rare for me to find true crime that doesn’t center around American or European killers. So, I went into this one really excited!

Sadly, Melogno is not very forthcoming about what caused him to kill. I left the book unsure if this is because he legitimately doesn’t know (which is what he claims), or if he simply doesn’t wish to share. It just sucks that my biggest reason for loving this genre is totally absent here.

Overall though, at least this book made me think. It also brought to mind the following quote:

“It strikes me profoundly that the world is more often than not a bad and cruel place.”
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

Maybe sometimes horrible things don’t even make sense to the person doing the horrible things. Maybe sometimes, our disconnect from reality can become so severe that we legitimately don’t know why we do the things we do. Who knows?

It can be hard to rate true crime because you have to remember you’re rating the author’s telling of the story and their information gathering. And it’s harder still when the true crime is in an interview-type format. And more so again when it’s translated. But I tried. It was an interesting book, and certainly tells a lot about the state of mental health care and criminal justice in Argentina (it doesn’t seem a whole hell of a lot different than in America, and that’s not a compliment). However, I wish there was a little more meat to it. I’m just not sure how much I really learned about Melogno that I couldn’t have learned on my own.

A story of a serial killer told by the killer himself. Even though I found this book a bit compelling, I found myself disappointed but I can't say exactly why. Overall, I enjoyed the book and I'll give it 3/5 stars.

Fascinating look inside the mind of Buenos Aires serial killer, Ricardo Melogno. I would’ve enjoyed more of the story but it was interesting nonetheless.

Magnetized by Carlos Busqued was an interesting read about a 19 year old serial killer named Ricardo Melogno who lived in Buenos Aires in September 1982. At first reading this book it was a little hard to follow. This could have been because of the formatting of the book on my device, but once it was figured out was a very interesting read of a young man that no one, including father and brother would have thought he was capable of the killing of taxi drivers in his hometown. The interviews that Busqued did show a man (30 years after the crime) that is still disjointed and unable to tell why he committed the crimes. I am a fan of true crime and did find the book interesting and think that others that like true crime will find it fascinating as well.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book for an honest opinion.

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

Questions about why serial killers do what they do evoke answers as varied as the new mysteries they generate. Carlos Busqued, Argentine radio producer, engineer and professor at the University of Córdoba, had the opportunity to spend more than 90 hours with imprisoned serial murderer Ricardo Melogno. In Magnetized, Busqued compiles the transcripts of their conversations along with details of the crimes and Melogno's troubling history.

Busqued recorded interviews with Melogno in 2014 and 2015, relating to "a series of brief, strange, and almost restrained murders" in Buenos Aires in 1982. During a one-week period, the bodies of four taxi drivers were found slumped in their seats with .22 caliber bullet holes in the temple. The only items taken were vehicle registrations and victim IDs. The police were stumped. A week later, Melogno's brother turned him in.

Melogno, then 22, was an enigma. Described as unimpressive, "a regular, skinny kid," he expressed no motive or rationale for killing and felt nothing afterward. His affect resulted in a complete lack of consensus on his psychiatric status. The Federal Capital declared him unfit for trial due to insanity; the Province of Buenos Aires tried him and sentenced him to life in prison.

In his own words, Melogno describes his violent upbringing and his mother's use of religion as a weapon. Busqued, nominated for the Premio Herralde for his debut novel, Under This Terrible Sun, provides a chilling glimpse into the psyche of a killer wrapped in a meek facade.

STREET SENSE: Those curious about what goes on in the mind of a (one particular) psychopath will find these interviews riveting.

COVER NERD SAYS: The color (used to hate orange, now I am attracted to it, go figure) and striations attracted me here, as did the subtitle. The title and imagery didn't become clear until reading, but other than wishing the title fit a bit better, I took no issue with those factors. A serial killer and a speeding car were sufficient to intrigue me.

I'm not sure if it's the translation or the format, but I am finding this book to be unreadable. I keep losing the thread, finding that I cannot focus on the content at all.

Ricardo Melogno was a young Argentine man just back from the service, when, within the first few months, kills four innocent cab drivers. In this book, the author sets down the results of countless hours of interviews with Melogno to try to discover the character of a man who would do such heinous acts. Most fascinating is why Melogno felt he was magnetized after killing one of the cabbies.

I didn’t find anything new in reading this book. For me it was just okay.

Ricardo Melogno killed four taxi drivers in Argentina in September of 1982. They took place over the course of one week, then he was turned in by his family and has spent the last 30 plus years in prison and psych facilities.

He obviously has mental health issues and his childhood was horrible. Nothing new from most serial killers. I don’t even know if you could really categorize him as a serial killer. He did more of spree killing to me. He killed 4 drivers in a span of a week and then never again. He has been an exemplary prisoner. Never stole from other prisoners, or fought.

I think he likes to be alone and not having to have anybody rely on him makes him comfortable being locked away.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

3 stars

I’m a big fan of true crime, and especially enjoyed I’ll Be Gone in the Dark — a book this one was compared to. So I went into it expecting more storytelling and narrative structure.

Instead, Magnetized read more like a stream-of-consciousness. It felt really disjointed, and didn’t serve to endear me to Ricardo in any way. I felt like I was reading raw records and sifting through the details to find the meat of the story myself. Sad to say this one didn’t hook me at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and Catapult for the opportunity to read the ARC of Magnetized: Conversations with a Serial Killer by Carlos Busqued. It is out on June 2nd, 2020. I gave this book 4 stars!

Magnetized is an interview with Ricardo Melogno, the man convicted of killing four taxi drivers in Buenos Aires in 1982. He’s admitted to the killings and spent his life in prison and mental hospitals. As always, looking into the mind of a serial killer is fascinating and chilling. Melogno speaks with clarity and even wisdom, at times. The thing that most intrigued me was Melogno admitting that he really didn’t and still doesn’t know why he killed those men. He didn’t premeditate, he just did it when he felt like it.

Busqued goes through the typical questions you’d ask a serial killer; why’d you do it, what was your home life like, what went through your head. He also follows his life in jail, his multiple diagnoses throughout the years and treatments at his various places of confinement.

Though we don’t see much new here in regards to the usual investigation of a serial killer, it’s not any less intriguing and the book is well written.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Carlos Busqued writes of a serial killer from 1982. The young man killed 4 people in one week. The deaths were shockingly gruesome and totally without motive. Interviews with the killer are written in the format in which they were given. Mr Busqued has resisted the temptation to sensationalize the facts and instead gives us the picture of a very troubled young man whose life influenced his criminal activities while his imprisonment has reinforced his mental state. A fascinating look into a killer's life story.

The last few years, the demand for true crime has become a louder and louder cry, prompting many authors to step up and provide fresh content for greedy consumers like me. Needless to say, I've devoured many of these books and am as familiar with most of these cases as I am with the back of my hand. Magnetized: Conversations with a Serial Killer tells one of the stories I previously had no knowledge of. 

Buenos Aires, September 1982. Four taxi cab drivers are slain over the course of one week. Richard Melogno is convicted of these crimes and thus begins author Carlos Busqued's interview with a serial killer. This book not only tells the story in Melogno's own words, but takes a deeper look at the prison system. 

This was a fascinating read and I am eager to read more from Busqued. My only complaint: I wish there was more about the victims. When I study true crime, that aspect is usually what I look forward to most and when it is not delved into, it makes the victims take a back seat in their own story.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for proving an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting book. I went into expecting really deep, intriguing conversations with a serial killer. I thought new information or details would be revealed - I guess what I really expected was more drama, more of a "wow factor". But I also have to remember that this is real life, not a TV show.
I did like that the author asked Ricardo questions on all different topics, trying to determine what really caused Ricardo to kill 4 men without motive or reasoning. And while Ricardo did explain his thinking/reasoning for the murders, it just felt like the conversation should've gone deeper. But maybe that's just it - perhaps Ricardo is telling his entire story and there is nothing deeper to it. I suppose I'm used to more "traditional" serial killer stories, and this was anything but.
Ricardo is definitely an interesting man. Between his ongoing faith, his varied diagnoses, and his unusual childhood, he is definitely not your typical serial killer. It was very interesting to hear about all the different medications he's been given in prison and the effects that those medications have on people. I also like that the author listed the different diagnoses that Ricardo was given over the years, as well as discussing them with a Dr towards the end of the book that explained what their diagnosis would be, and why.
It was definitely not a bad book by any means, it just didn't have the fast-pace that I anticipated and didn't cause me to feel like I couldn't put it down.

I was lucky enough to win a electronic ARC of MAGNETIZED: CONVERSATIONS WITH A SERIAL KILLER through a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thank you so much for the chance to win, and stay safe out there!

Author Carlos Busqued started looking into the four murders of taxi drivers in Buenos Aires that happened back in 1982, spread out over a week. Then he moves on to the murderer. The man who is in prison for the killings is Ricardo Melogno, who was just 19 at the time it happened over 30 years ago. This is an interesting true crime book about a killer in a foreign country. I enjoy this type of book that has input from the killer in interviews. It tells what his time has been like in various mental institutions versus prison facilities, and the kind of treatments he got at different times and places. Advanced electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Carlos Busqued, and the publisher.