A Special Place in Hell: The World's Most Depraved Serial Killers Kindle Edition

by Christopher Berry-Dee

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the complimentary eARC. I am choosing to leave a fair and honest review.

Mr. Berry-Dee begins his book with a forward the feels like Monty Python and Hannibal Lechtor Write a Cook Book. Sly, cheeky British humor begins a book that is very serious, making it easier to make it through the stories. *** Just a note: Hell as a name probably popped up when Vikings decided to make the whole of Europe an episode of the Bachelor: Ted Bundy. It probably popped up from Hel the Goddess of the Dead. And no, Marvel did not make her up.

Mr. Berry-Dee gives us histories of serial killers of the worst kind. While the US was the capitol for serial killers in the 1970s-1990s, we are treated, if you can call it that, to information from all corners of the map. And he spares no details.

Even as gruesome and grim as the biographies of the demons wearing human suits, the writing style is delightfully wicked. The reader feels as if they were at one of the best cocktail party talking to the most interesting person in the room. I would read anything he writes, on any subject. There is just something so delicious as the snark and gallows humor. It is the writing style that makes this very dark book shine brightly.

The killers he picks range from Ted Bundy to Thomas Watt Hamilton. The killers come from six continents and he treats them all equally. Treating their stories with a iron willed empathy for the victims, it is clear that Mr. Berry-Dee gives them no quarter for their behavior, even as, with the story of Richard Speck and his many traumatic brain injuries, he presents small bits of information that may explain the horrors they committed

Mr. Berry-Dee can't seem to help himself. He editorializes on efficacy of various form of execution as well as commenting on the current state of the US government and on Covid-19. Most of the time, these asides are dead on and educational.

This is a book for both seasoned true crime readers and newbies to the genre.

3 ½ stars rounded up to 4 out of 5 stars

https://www.amazon.com/Special-Place-Hell-Depraved-Killers-ebook/dp/B08Q3D94SZ

This is a comprehensive, no holds barred, book of the authors choice of serial killers who most deserve a special place in hell.
He certainly doesn’t hold back on his opinions! And this makes for a refreshing change.
A great read for true crime fans and well researched.

I was offended by the writing style in this book. It's talky, kitchy, casual and jokey and the subject is murder and horror. The author claims to have personally interviewed at least a dozen of the most well known serial killers in the US. Who is this author? There are renowned experts who haven't been allowed access to some of these people. Did they give him an okay because he's generous with the FUCKS, FUCKING and other really cool words that make perps comfortable? The book reads like a tell all gossip column for freaks. Yes, there are people who will buy this, if that's what you want to know.

An unflinching look at the criminal history of some of the most well known serial killers in history. Christopher Berry-Dee has conducted face to face interviews with these killers as they wait for their punishments to come. The coldly stated crimes unwind as the killers provide information that will definitely cement their "special place". This book is not for the faint of heart and not for those who have vivid nightmares after watching horror movies. This horror show is all too real and all too close for the comfort of anyone. It is for those readers who question how anyone could be able to commit these crimes and continue their everyday lives until the time of their capture. 5 stars because this information needs to be shared and there are few people who could do what Berry-Dee has done.

This was honestly a struggle for me to read. Not because it was gruesome but because I felt myself skipping more than I read to try to get to the actual story of the victims and killers and not the droning on of scripture and personal feelings of the author.

This was definitely not what I expected when I read the synopsis of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ad Lib Publishers for the arc of A Special Place in Hell by Christopher Berry-Dee.

4 Stars- This book goes deep into the main reasons as to why killers do in what they say they can't control, there are psychological works from doctors whom had studied some of the killers, so it makes you draw your own conclusions of what the killers true motives actually were! There are also some of his own theories on this subject. This definitely isn't for the faint hearted as it is graphic in detail so definitely rate this an 18+ to read this, I really love Christopher's books there so detailed and thorough and so interesting the way to just is so unique to other true crime writers with all fact and not fictionize or romanticise them.

Highly recommend
4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

He certainly doesn't hold back.

This is an account of the author's opinion of ten killers he believes should be in hell with a brief description of their lives and the killings they committed to send them there.

Some of the killers are famous and others aren't. It's done in a very blunt style with even a few expletives occasionally thrown in for a good measure. Regularly, throughout the book he tells us what he thinks about such killers. However, he does it too often and it comes across as sounding like a tabloid editorial. It is obvious that the author is experienced as a criminologist and knows the information about the killers. If you didn't know he knew a lot, he will soon tell you at regular intervals too. I am interested in true crime but for me there was too much pandering to the hang them and flog them brigade in the book. I have read books by this author before that were more academic and a lot better than this one.

Interesting if you like true crime but this is only very basic and there are plenty of better options out there.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Serial killers. They disgust us, enrage us, and yet enrapture us. We want to know what goes on in their minds and what forces drive them to act out such heinous desires. A Special Place in Hell doesn't offer these answers, rather delve deep into the main reasons killers do what they claim they can't control. He uses psychological works from doctors who studied some of these killers and leads the reader to draw their own conclusions on what their true motives were. He give pushes here and there, and even offers up his own theories on what he believes based on actual physical encounters he has had with these men.

I appreciate this book so much, because alot of the times I read books about killers, multiple or single ones, it can feel like the author is trying to humanize or even romanticize them by the end of their segment. Not Christopher; he states plain and simple how many of these men had siblings that went through the same if not worse abuse and didn't end up killers

I really enjoyed this collection of the ninth level of hell residents. I recommend it for anyone 18+(he spares no details!) looking for something different than their normal read or people who love.true crime. Thank you for your list, Christopher. I 100% agree with you in that these people deserve that special place in hell.

I have read many a book on serial killers and this is nothing really new and different. The first two killers in the book, I'd heard of only in brief paragraphs in another book by another author so that was new to me. The rest weren't new but still interesting to read about.

I had gotten burned out on these compilations at one time a while back and have been giving them a pass. But this one caught my eye, along with this writer, who I am unfamiliar with. So I thought I would check it out and give it a chance. Apparently Berry-Dee has interviewed quite a number of serial killers in prisons far and wide, and has his own take on them after doing so extensively.

I did enjoy Berry-Dee’s stories of going into prisons and meeting with various serial killers to interview them for different reasons. He has an interesting way of interacting with them, at times being a bit snarky in his attitude, which kept things a little amusing, despite the subject matter. He interviews a surprising array of killers, from the more common to the less common. A good read, overall. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Christopher Berry-Dee, and the publisher.