As a true crime fan it’s always exciting when you come across a book that showcases methods and research that go into catching criminals. Criminal profiling has been fictionalized on television for years, but books like A KILLER BY DESIGN allow the general public to truly learn the history. I greatly enjoyed the background on Burgess and how she ended up working with the FBI. The explanation of her unique skill set was written in a way that made it easy to understand for the average reader. In addition to the insight we gain on the FBI and profiling, Burgess provides real examples of well-known cases to drive home to the reader how these methodologies have worked over time. A KILLER BY DESIGN is a fascinating read for any true crime fan!

A huge thank you to Hachette for my gifted copy!

Ann Wolbert Burgess is the trailblazing woman who led groundbreaking research on sexual assault and trauma and created the FBI’s approach to investigating serial killers. In this book, she describes how the Behavioral Science Unit built its methodology to the art and science of criminal profiling.

I appreciated how Burgess gave historical context about the FBI and spoke to her experience as a woman in the field. At the time, FBI agents didn’t learn about sexual violence because men “didn’t get it.” What?!

She also points out how disturbing it is when serial killers are glorified as cultural icons. Burgess always keeps the victims at the heart of her work and fought against harmful misconceptions around sexual violence.

While much of this is conceptual about profiling and the author’s experience, it also describes several true cases. You should know this includes graphic detail about violent crimes and consider that before reading.

I did a mix of the physical and audio. I would recommend both if you’d like to learn about a pioneering woman, criminal profiling, an a touch of history about the FBI.

Burgess was one of the first criminal profilers, and this story is fascinating.


Review copy provided by publisher.

What a great book! I knew who Ann Burgess was before getting this book, so I was excited to read it. And it was worth it! The book is well-written and flows very well. She explained how she became part of the profiling team at the BAU when it began and gave her input as a forensic researcher that specialized in sex crimes.. I think her research and input was so invaluable. She included stories from offenders and different investigations she was involved in. I think it is a great book, one of the best I read this year. I highly recommend it.

This was really good. I’m very interested in true crime and this was about the birth of “profiling” criminals and I found it fascinating! I learned a lot about the nuts and bolts that go behind catching serial killers and how they studied them. The novel went into detail how profiling began and the persons who would be the first team. I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
This won’t give the reader closer but will give insight to what goes on in the mind of a killer. I commend the authors and the great detail they took to make this.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the like the narrator.
Thanks Hachette Books via NetGalley.

If you are someone who loves true crime or thrillers that include a serial killer, this book is a must read! Ann Burgess takes you through her experiences in helping to identify, interview, and track down dozens of notoriously violent serial killers and rapists. She was also one of the first women to participate in these types of FBI tasks. She does such a great job of combining her experiences into a book that will just suck you in from the beginning. There are obviously a ton of content warnings, so please proceed with caution when reading or listening to this book.

This was a really interesting look into the work that goes into catching a killer. Ann Burgess takes the reader through detailed profiling, and it was really interesting to see how that work is done (and how spot-on it is)! This is a dark book, and I wouldn't recommend it for readers that are squeamish about gory details. It was incredibly interesting though, and I recommend it for anyone that likes to learn more about true crime!

This was an interesting non fiction book that covered the creation of the FBI criminal profiling unit. A lot of the information in this book has been covered in other books like Mindhunters so avid true crime readers won't find a lot of new details. This book provides the experience of the first female profiler on the team and I expected there to be more about her challenges being a woman in a man's world. Instead, this book mostly recounted the popularized history, rehashing the crimes of popular serial killers. It was a well written book with a concise narrative, but it just wanted anything new.