I was really excited about this book, as I am from Texas and had never heard of the Corll murders. There was lots of great information about the victims and the process of identifying them, but it felt muddied with too much information throughout. I don’t mind a lengthy book, but it shouldn’t FEEL long through the whole thing.

I appreciate the insight into the victims and giving their stories and memories air to breath. But timeline jumps between chapters and veering into the pornography ring and shoddy police work took away from those boys’ experiences, in my reading.

Mind your TWs for this if you have them. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Reading The Scientist and the Serial Killer hits different when you live in the Heights—chilling, brilliant, and unsettlingly close to home.

I've tried twice to read this book, but alas the writing just doesn't work for me. I don't know what it is that doesn't jive for me. Right now this'll be a DNF, but someday I may come back to it.

I was so excited to read this book and the first chapter was very promising. It was well researched and the passion comes through. Unfortunately, it just started to run flat and I began to dread reading it. The timeline and the amount of people became overwhelming.
It’s an important story that needs to be told and I’m glad that it was, it just felt like it was loaded with unneeded information.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read this eARC.

This book is a dense and heavy read. I mean this complementary. It’s so well researched and full of information. It’s not a quick read, and the subject matter, being a true crime case (and a mishandled one at that) is heavy in more ways than one.

If true crime is your thing, I can not recommend this book enough. I found myself so invested. These lost boys felt like they were mine, now, too. Each correct identification after so long, too long, actually felt bittersweet. These young souls cut off so brutally and so young, but finally given back their names, their families given some closure at last.

Im not interested in reading the content of this book. That's my fault for not fully looking at what this book is about.

First of all thank you to Penguin Random House for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I will admit I am not typically a non-fiction reader, but I do have a love of true crime. Lise Olsen knocked this out of the park!

I didn't know anything at all about the Candy Man murders or the Lost Boys prior to reading this. Sharon Derrick's journey to recover these victims and give them back their identities so their families could have peace was so inspiring. I love how the author gave more energy to the victims and their stories rather than glorifying the monsters who committed the crimes.

I enjoyed the timeline changes that showed the events immediately after Corll's death leading up to present day with almost all Lost Boys getting back their identities. I will say that the timeline could be a bit confusing at times with the jumping back and forth between the 70s and 2000s. However, I felt that the mixed media aspects brought so much to the story. Pictures, handwritten memos, maps, etc really helped bring the whole story together.

The science-heavy chapters (regarding DNA, bone reconstruction, etc) did not seem too dense and were easy to understand from someone who does not have a background in forensic science.

Overall, this was a wonderfully written story and from my understanding all elements of the case were brought together in a way that honored the victims and provided education to the reader about forensic science practices that made victim identification possible.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in true crime or the forensic science fields.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC of The Scientist and the Serial Killer in exchange for an honest review.
While I was very interested in the story of the “Candy Man” serial killer, I unfortunately had to DNF this true crime novel. You can tell that it was incredibly well researched by the author, but I found the timeline hard to follow, and the chapters difficult for me to get in to. I think most of it was personal preference, so if you enjoy non-fiction and true crime, it would still be work checking out.

I normally don't read true crime novels, but this book intrigued me because it is set in Texas, Houston, to be exact. Thirty years later, one woman sets out to help identify the victims of serial killer (mass murderer as he was called back then) Dean Corll. 

This book details the event, the man, the victims, and the neighborhood. The author did an overwhelming amount of research for this book. Presenting two different timelines and surmising some of the details took many conversations, research, and time. 

The book does jump back and forth in the timeline, and it might have been easier to read had it started in the 1970s and concluded in the present. However, alternating timelines help reflect the people and methods needed to identify the victims. I find forensic pathology interesting, and it is incredible to see how advanced technology and techniques have developed over the decades. There was little to help identify bones in the 1970s, but DNA and other advances have helped families get closure about what happened to their children.

I came to admire Sharon Derrick and her determination to identify the unknown victims of "The Candyman." She cared about the victims and their families, and did so in a male-dominated field with little support from her peers. 

This book is complete with photos and information to process. It is not a book to take lightly, nor will you read it in one sitting. It took me a few days to process everything I read and tried to imagine how I would have felt if I had been in their place either when the murders took place, or in the early 2000s when Dr. Derrick took on the task of identifying everyone.

This novel is perfect for true crime lovers. We give it 4 paws up.

A respectful, fascinating look at science, justice, and forgotten victims

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Scientist and the Serial Killer. This book is a thoughtful, compassionate exploration of one of the most horrifying true crime cases in American history—and the brilliant forensic scientist who refused to let its victims remain anonymous.

Lise Olsen shines a well-deserved spotlight on Sharon Derrick, whose tenacity, empathy, and scientific expertise led to the identification of young men who had been lost to history. Her work is nothing short of heroic, and I was deeply moved by her commitment to restoring dignity to the lives that had been so tragically erased.

Olsen’s research is meticulous, and the book’s strongest moments come when it centers on Derrick’s journey—how a box of bones labeled “1973 Murders” set her on a path to justice, and how science became a tool for healing. The account of Dean Corll’s crimes and the failures of law enforcement are sobering and respectfully handled. The book never veers into sensationalism, and I appreciated its restraint.

That said, the pacing was a bit uneven for me. There were moments when the narrative momentum slowed and the timeline became a bit hard to follow. I found myself craving a tighter structure to help anchor the many important threads Olsen is weaving together.

Still, this is a valuable addition to the true crime genre—one that focuses not on the killer, but on the people whose lives were stolen, and the woman who made sure they were not forgotten. A must-read for fans of forensic science, unsolved cases, and restorative justice.

Fascinating recounting of the identification of the last of Houston’s Candy Man serial killer’s victims.

"The Scientist and the Serial Killer: The Search for Houston’s Lost Boys by Lise Olsen" is a meticulously researched and amazingly detailed accounting of one woman’s dedicated work to finally reunite some of the long-unidentified victims from the early 1970s serial killer known as “The Candy Man” with their names and families.

In a three-year period during the early 1970s, Dean Arnold Corll, with the help of two teenaged accomplices, abducted, tortured, assaulted, and murdered at least 29 boys and male teens in the Houston and Pasadena cities of Texas. Author Lise Olsen reveals the story by alternating between how the victims came to be introduced to their murderer and 30 years later as Dr. Sharon Derrick, Ph.D., an experienced bioarchaeologist pursuing a career in forensic anthropology, works to match the still unidentified victims with whom they were in life. Even with the focus on the processes Derrick went through, the story is riveting, and readers will not want to put the book down.

The story is fascinating for a number of reasons, one being that even with the advancements in science and the tools available to help identify anonymous corpses (from 1973 when the bodies were uncovered to the mid-2000s when Derrick’s journey begins), Dr. Derrick still faced an extraordinarily difficult and complex task. Thirty years and more had passed from the victims’ deaths and their rough burials in unprotected, unmarked graves, the evidence degrading even further. Possible family members of the dead had moved around, moved on, or passed on themselves, eliminating useful sources of information for identification. DNA identification was still a much sought-after and months-long process, and commercial DNA testing for the general public, such as 23 and Me or Ancestry.com, was still years away. On top of that, the original law enforcement reporting and handling of the missing person’s reports in Houston were given little attention. In addition to this, law enforcement and its tools were quite different then. The 70s were pre-community policing, pre-Amber Alerts, pre-cellphones, pre-personal computers, pre-Internet, and even pre-in-patrol-vehicle-computer monitors connected to centralized policing software. Houston PD didn’t see the connection among the reports of missing boys clustered in certain neighborhoods, indicating there was a bigger problem than runaways: no one did until after Corll had been killed by one of his teenage accomplices who confessed what he knew.

The story of Derrick’s determination despite so many obstacles, both in the evidence and in the situation, is pretty amazing. Each case has fascinating elements to it, and her work finally puts a name to tragic victim after tragic victim. The author’s presentation of how this was accomplished is compelling and heart-wrenching, as after each successful identification, she provides a photo of the victim with a summary of his short life. It really brings home that, at one time, these were real, living, breathing children who laughed and played, had hopes and dreams, families and friends, with their entire lives still ahead of them. More than fifty years later, their heartbreaking stories are finally being completed.

I recommend THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER to readers of non-fiction, especially those who enjoys stories of true crime or forensics.

4-Star Review: The Scientist and the Serial Killer

Great book! The Scientist and the Serial Killer gave me insight into a case I didn’t previously have deep knowledge of—which is saying something, considering I’m a criminologist. The author does a fantastic job weaving together science, psychology, and true crime, making it a compelling and informative read without feeling overly technical or dry.

My only critique is that the timelines can get a bit confusing at times, especially when the narrative jumps between events and perspectives. However, this didn’t take away from the overall impact or readability of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lise Olsen, and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC.
A gripping true crime read for all the true crime junkies out there! Lise Olsen delivers a meticulously researched and compelling retelling of a complex case, unraveling the truth with the sharp eye of a seasoned investigative journalist. Packed with twists, emotional depth, and jaw-dropping details, this is a fascinating and unforgettable read.

Having grown up outside of Houston, Texas, the setting for this book, I was really interested in reading about Dean Corll and his teenage accomplices. What a chilling tale of evil and incompetent, uncaring police force. The book is good, if maybe a little repetitive but the author did a great job of laying out the facts of the case. I found the genetic hunt for the identities of the last of the unknown boys to be very interesting!

Great book for true crime enthusiasts

Between 1971-73, nobody seemed to notice that a large number of teen boys went missing in a suburb of Houston. It wasn’t until a particularly violent night, ending in a murder, that the police realized how boys from a particular neighborhood had been disappearing. When they found the bodies, identification was difficult, if not impossible, in the age before DNA testing. While the police identified some of the victims, the bodies that were left unidentified were known as The Lost Boys.

In 2006, Houston-based forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick took a job with the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office. She had grown up in Houston, and remembered hearing about the Lost Boys growing up. It has always bothered her that these young men had never been identified, preventing closure for their grieving families. In her new role, she found herself in a position to identify them, and she set out to identify as many of them as she possibly could.

This book is meticulously researched; the author is just as dedicated to telling the story as Sharon Derrick is to finding the boys’ identities. The story is told in a dual timeline—the early 1970s and the mid-2000s—to capture both a sense of what was happening at the time, and a sense of how challenging it was to go back three decades later to try to reconstruct what happened. There are loads of photos and illustrations to really give the reader a feel for what was happening.

It was clear that the social values of the early 1970s played a role in the tragedy, and equally clear that the technology and social values that developed in the interim were what made Derrick’s work in the 2000s possible. There’s a lot of people mentioned; a couple of times I wished there was a summary list of all the major players, but Olsen did a decent job of reintroducing people who had not been mentioned in a while.
I would definitely recommend this book to true crime enthusiasts.

This is an honest review based on the book provided by NetGalley and Random House.

lots of interesting information that i had never heard before! definitely not a quick or fun read, but worth it to learn more!

I was hooked from the beginning!!
It was truly engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

The Scientist and the Serial Killer by Lise Olsen

It was abundantly clear that the author had done the research and knew the ins and outs of this case. It was also absolutely clear that the author wanted to bring dignity and show respect to the victims. This wasn’t a true crime read just meant to regurgitate horrors.

However, this nonfiction was plagued by too many details and hard to follow organization. I found it immediately engaging but quickly felt overwhelmed with the amount of details provided. Also, jumping around on the timelines and focuses was hard to manage. I would’ve rather had a linear timeline to follow.

Fans of true crime, forensic sciences, and all-encompassing nonfiction reads will enjoy this one.

This book had me hooked from the jump and I couldn't put it down. As someone who went to school for criminology and loves true crime Lise Olsen does a great job of telling the forgotten story while honoring the victims.
This story tells the work of one forensic anthropologist working to reevaluate a case of one of the most unknown notorious serial killers Dean Coral.
Lise tells the story of this anthropologists hard work to uncover the identity of the remaining victims of a horrific killer.
I can not recommend this book enough to my true crime fans.

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

Review: I will keep this one short. Unfortunately, I hope this book would bring suspense and interesting information about both the scientist and the serial killer. At times it did. However, it got very repetitive which in some ways I understand why due to the nature of the story. I have never lost interest in a book like this and I just could not bring myself to finish it after 60 percent. Something.I did appreciate, Lisa Olsen discussing a lot about LGBTQ rights and unfair treatment in Texas from the 70's to the present. At first I did enjoy the scientist and getting to know her and what brought her to trying to identify the bodies of the lost boys. However, by about 50 percent in, I just felt bored and uninterested which is very unlike me with books/ documentaries of this nature.

If you're a true crime fan and also enjoy a lot of history and historical context, this book is for you.