"American Demon" by Daniel Stashower is a chilling true crime tale set in 1930s Cleveland, where legendary lawman Eliot Ness faces the haunting case of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Dubbed "The Lady of the Lake," the discovery of a dismembered torso sets off a series of gruesome murders that terrorize the city. As Cleveland reels from the brutality, Ness, fresh from battling Al Capone in Chicago, steps into the fray to confront a sadistic killer who eludes capture with chilling precision. Stashower's narrative grips readers with a riveting account of Ness's pursuit, revealing a battle of wits between hero and mastermind in this captivating historical thriller.

Unfortunately, this one fell victim during my cell phone malfunction, and I wasn't able to review it.

"American Demon" recounts in tandem the rise and fall of Eliot Ness, as well as, the hunt for Cleveland's "Mad Butcher". Prior to reading this title I did not know much about Eliot Ness and his rise to crimestopper fame. In similar regards, I knew of Cleveland's Lady of the Lake, but did not realize how prolific the killer was to American true crime history. In American Demon, Stashower does an amazing job interweaving the two stories and shining a light on the still unsolved murders. With details of the torso killers many victims and quotes from journalist and investigators alike, we are transported back to a place of panic and frustration.

This title is a great read for fan's of The Devil in the White City. You get the true crime side while also seeing the history of a place and the underlying reasons why the murders were able to continue for so long. Though I will say, if you read both, there is the argument that Holmes had already won the title of "America's Jack the Ripper" before the torso killer ever began his reign of terror.

DNF. The story overall was a really good concept. I just could not get over how slow this book was. I think there is another way that can go about introducing Ness instead of consistently bringing up the Al Capone case and even though it was gory and graphic about the Torso Killer, there wasn't much you couldn't learn from a quick search on google. It was hard to focus and took me forever to get halfway through to the point where I was listening to this audio and reading the physical just to try to stay focused.

I really enjoyed this book that chronicles the life of Elliot Ness, leader of the group known as The Untouchables. It starts out with his campaign against Al Capone, with the Tommy guns and organized crime. It then follows as he tries to figure out what to do after he gets Capone for tax evasion. He was one of the first officers to have the police facing the crowd of onlookers; to give them a jump on any bad thing that might be happening. The narration was also really well done. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an e-copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

This book did not disappoint!! Well researched, well written & an easy listen for a nonfiction book!

I received the audio version of this book. Maybe because it was the audio version but I honestly couldn't get into it. I usually love true crime and serial killers. Ive listened to some really boring books because the narrator was unbelievable. This was not one of them. I should have stopped listening sooner than I did

Super interesting!

American Demon follows detective Eliot Ness who has been called to hunt down a serial killer in the early 20th Century. In Cleveland, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run is leaving dismembered corpses around the city, and no one has been able to stop him.

I absolutely love Eric Larson’s writing style, pretty much sounds like a true crime podcast. It's entertaining and doesn't feel like I'm getting a bunch of information thrown at me. With that, the book seems to be written more like a documentary about Ness rather than about the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Not a bad thing, but that wasn't what I expected.

I highly recommend this book to all my true crime fanatics, it's not a book to miss.

Thank You to Daniel Stashower and Macmillan Audio, for the audio-digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

This is a book that gives you insight to a legend of a man, Eliot Ness. It dabs into his rise to fame taking down Al Capone. It then spends the majority of the book on a serial killer in Cleveland. I think this book could have given a lot more with a little bit of direction. There were places that could of used more depth and a little bit more focus. Overall I did enjoy the book and did learn more about the real Eliot Ness.

I really didn't enjoy this book and I love true crime. I was constantly lost and trying to figure out what was going on. The book did not seem to be well laid out and left me confused. It also seemed far too long and the pacing was far too slow. I did stick with it and didn't DNF it.

#NetGalley

Interesting and well researched book about Eliot Ness' career after putting Al Capone behind bars. However, listening to the audio version is not the best option for this type book. There is too many details, names and dates to keep track of.

thank you NEtGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

In one of life's weird little coincidences, I found myself listening to this book shortly after reading a historical fiction novel that was set against the same backdrop - the Mad Butcher murders in Cleveland, which took place in the 1930's at the height of the Great Depression. It was interesting to compare the fictional account to this factual account of the hunt for the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Cleveland's Director of Public Safety at the time was the newly-appointed Eliot Ness, who was fresh from his famous take-down of Al Capone. Stashower's account of the search for the Mad Butcher centers on Ness and the men of the Cleveland police department who tried and ultimately failed to identify the serial killer. Ness is an interesting figure - and not quite what you might think from his portrayal in movies and television. His life after Capone wasn't easy, and the search for the Mad Butcher was hindered by varying degrees of incompetence, corruption and the times themselves. Ultimately he was never caught, although there's a reasonably good consensus as to identity of the killer. I enjoyed this look at the killings and the various players in the events. The narration by Will Damron was excellent.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Daniel Stashower's American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper details the brutal yet oft-forgotten Cleveland Torso Murders and the Safety Director whose career was haunted by them. Ness, the wunderkind who gained national fame for the key role he played in bringing down Al Capone, had the drive and vigor that would put the Energizer Bunny to shame: a relentless workaholic by day and partyboy by night, Ness came to Cleveland vowing to rid the city of corruption and quickly gained respect for delivering on his promise. Yet Ness' near-impeccable record was clouded by a string of at least a dozen gruesome murders, committed in the 1930s by a serial killer in a time when the concept did not yet exist, and who always appeared to be three steps ahead of the police. Although two prime suspects were eventually put forward--one whom modern detectives believe was likely the killer--the murders were never officially solved.

American Demon does a fine job of recounting the cold case, but the finished product is a bit underwhelming. Was Ness' career and psyche really undermined by the Torso Murders, or was that more the result of his own personality and decisions? (As one contemporary notes, Ness peaked young). And for a case where nearly every victim remains unidentified, more focus could have been given to them rather than to the investigators who may have been driven to solve the case as much by politics as by a desire for justice. Ultimately, Ness feels too detached from his own story--a mysterious protagonist rather than an impassioned human that the audience can connect with--to give American Demon enough of a pulse.

DNFing as this books beginning does not hold the interest at all.

I love true crime and was really interested in the premise, but the story and the narrator had me falling asleep. I know that sounds awful. Maybe I’m just not the target market for this book, but all the information felt like walking through mud.

I may try it again as a physical book, but the audio didn’t do it for me, unfortunately.

Rating it 3 stars to give a neutral rating as I was not able to complete.

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive. Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland’s besieged mayor turned to his newly appointed director of public safety: Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of “Untouchables” led the frontline assault on Al Capone’s bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career.
While some might know the story of the Cleveland Torso Killer, this book does more than tell that unsolved cased. This book talks about the man who for better or worse ended the Cleveland Torso Killings. This audio book offers the story of Eliot Ness and his work to try to solve what was known as America’s Jack the Ripper Case. This was a true crime book that does exactly what it sets out to do, tell the story of Eliot Ness and the Cleveland Torso Killings, sticking to just the history needed to tell for us to understand the case.

DNF @ 20%. I did not enjoy this narrator and his style. It did not keep my interest enough. The story sounded interesting, but the narrator didn't save this audio for me.

𝙈𝙮 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars)

𝙈𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨:

I studied criminal justice in college. I think my very first semester, I took a class about serial killers (𝘚𝘖 𝘧𝘶𝘯). I also took classes about organized crime. Then there was the class where the professor brought in a briefcase full of drugs… but I digress.

My point is I knew a little bit about Eliot Ness. I knew about his exploits in Chicago. But I 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 know about his work in Cleveland (who leaves Chicago to move to Cleveland? Again, I digress). And I never knew 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 about this Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. I feel a bit cheated. It was gruesome and horrific and I feel like I should have learned about it in college (I had to write a paper on Hannibal Lechter, and he wasn’t even real).

For any of my history or true crime nerds, this is a great book. I kind of hated the ending, but I mean, it’s a true story so what can you do.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books and Daniel Stashower for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝘿𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣 is available now.

I really wanted to like this one but it was soooo drawn out and long. This should have been made into 2 books. One about Eliot Ness and the other about the serial killer. Some parts were very interesting while others just dragged on and on.

I really wanted to DNF this book but I wanted to see if they ever find the killer. I was hoping the book would pick up. It wasn't until about 60% until I thought it picked up a bit.

I felt this book was more about Eliot Ness than the killer. I was looking for more about the killer, oh well. Live and learn.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this book.

I had a really hard time making it through this title. I found it difficult to make it through marks 20 to 40 percent of the book. It just did not hold my interest and had little to do with the murders the book is about.
I appreciate the information in the first couple of chapters and it was a good set-up but it was a slog to get through.
I feel this title would have worked better as two books. One book about the murders and one book about Elliot Ness.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I would highly recommend American Demon for fans of Devil in the White City. While this book does have true crime elements, it was much more a biography/history book rather than a traditional true crime book. For true crime fans that are particularly interested in the Butcher of Kingsbury Run, or even in Al Capone, this book will also be of interest. However, for a typical true crime fan, the extensive historical detail, as well as the deep dive into the political climate and Ness’ life might overshadow the crime story too much. The first half or so of the book is particularly heavy on historical details. Overall, the book was well researched and written. I do wish that it had been able to end with a more solid conclusion regarding who the killer was (this is another thing that makes this book different from the typical true crime book) but the author did a great job of using the available information to make an educated guess. I did really enjoy learning more about the arrest of Al Capone. I have an interest in forensic accounting and this is always a case that is used to show what forensic accounting can do, but I never really knew the details until I read this book! Overall I am glad I read this book even though I am more interested in true crime than history. The history really did enhance my understanding of the crime and why detectives handled the investigation the way they did. I can highly recommend this book. The narrator for the audiobook had the perfect voice for narrating this type of content. The voice was serious without being monotone or boring. He was easy to listen to even for hours and enhanced the content without distracting from it. I really enjoyed listening to this book while doing chores around the house and that made it a lot easier to get though the long sections of history.