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.

This one was a really interesting case but it was a bit tough to follow. It felt like it jumped around so much and was kind of all over the place !

This book is jam packed with information. If you want to know more about the “Candy Man” killer look no further. As for the flow it was a bit disjointed due to victims’ stories being sprinkled in along with Sharron Derricks attempts to identify all the bodies. Being pulled in and out of the story was a bit hard, but I loved learning all the different ways Sharron and others worked so hard to get the Lost Boy’s home.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Meticulously detailed and researched, while still having a compelling (if appropriately difficult to read at times) narrative, this one strikes a good balance.

The Scientist and the Serial Killer is a must read for fans of true crime. Admittedly, I had never heard of the Candy Man and the lost boys of Houston, but Lise Olsen does a masterful job of portraying the victims while telling the dark, gritty story. Are parts of this book disturbing? Absolutely, given the subject matter, but it's also meticulously researched and sent me down the Google rabbit hole more than once.

This was a chilling yet important true crime book that goes beyond just recounting the horrors of Dean Corll’s crimes—it also highlights the failures of law enforcement, the resilience of forensic science, and the fight to restore dignity to the victims.

What stands out is how deeply immersive the book was, bringing both the victims and their families to life instead of solely focusing on the killer. Too often, true crime narratives become killer-centric, but this one appears to center the victims and the forensic work that helped identify them decades later.

The fact that the Houston Police ignored the disappearances, dismissing these boys as runaways, adds another layer of frustration and tragedy. It’s infuriating how often marginalized victims are overlooked by the justice system—and this case feels like a haunting reminder of that.

Sharon Derrick’s forensic work sounds fascinating and crucial—it’s incredible that a simple box labeled “1973 Murders” led to such groundbreaking identification efforts years later. Science, persistence, and investigative journalism collide in a way that seems both gripping and heartbreaking.

Forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick discovered a box of remains marked “1973 Murders” in the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office. She remembered the horrifying crimes of Dean Corll (AKA “The Candy Man”) from her childhood. She knew she had to try to identify the remains, and this became an obsession that lasted her entire career.

If you are someone who listens, watches, and reads about true crime you need to read this book. For me it was the forensic anthropology aspect of the story that caught my interest, well and a Texas case. I took a forensic anthropology class in college (with Dr. Gill-King at UNT!), and it was the hardest class I ever took, and probably the class I learned the most in.

Thank you, Random House, and NetGalley for this very interesting ARC. #TheScientistandtheSerialKiller #NetGalley

This is a true crime story of The Lost Boys case in Houston Texas in the mid 1970s. This starts off with a band, great story. The scientist is Dr Sharon Derrick, the serial killer is Dean Corll. Some parts are very disturbing as they should be in dealing with the subject matter. There is some repetition but the overall impact is strong. If you enjoy true crime, don't skip this one.

The Scientist and the Serial Killer tells the story of serial killer Dean Corll's victims, and the dedicated forensic anthropologist who committed herself to identifying the unidentified remains of some of his victims. For years, the victims of this killer have been largely ignored, but the author did an amazing job of bringing them to life, and telling the stories of these boys, and the people who loved them. She also did a great job showing how Sharron Derrick worked tirelessly to identify some of these boys, who had gone unidentified since the 70's. This book was a perfect balance of compassionate, victim focused story telling, and scientific information. This book is also a very thorough exploration of the crimes of Dean Corll, and the loose ends that were never investigated in this case, while never focusing the book on the killer. Highly recommend.

Thank you @randomhouse for the free copy of this eARC.

I do like reading about true crime and especially ones like this where it’s long past due for being solved. This book I learned about a absolutely atrocious human being Dean Corll, nicknamed “Candy Man” who literally worked at a candy store (terrifying) and ended up murdering 27+ young boys in the Houston area in the early 70s. This book was written in a very informational heavy way with the timelines jumping around a bit. The details to how Candy Man lured these poor kids in and killed them is absolutely disgusting and disturbing. He ultimately met his untimely death by the hands of a teen he was hanging out with and then the hunt was on to find all of the missing identities from the body parts that were discovered later. I am thankful for people that don’t give up and dig for answers like the scientist in this book. These poor kids deserve to be named and returned to their families. Thank you Lise for bringing this story of redemption to light!

4.5 STARS. Engrossing, evocative, and weighty, THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER is a book that needed writing, and Lise Olsen pulls no punches and delivers.

“When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small.” – from Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by J.M. Barrie

At one point, the author compares the world of serial killer Dean Corll to J.M. Barrie’s 1911 Neverland (not the Disneyfied version), and it feels disturbingly apropos. As the author says in her opening Author’s Note, her account in THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER is “a deeply troubling tale that remains relevant and resonates through time.”

Olsen does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere for the scenes, whether it’s one set in Corll’s world or one set decades later in Dr. Derrick’s. In both worlds, there is a battle between the cooperative and the uncooperative. Readers will be angered by the inaction of the Houston Police Department despite a clear pattern of boys from the Heights neighborhood disappearing and their families begging for help. In their time, the missing boys are considered by the police to be hippies or homosexuals or poor or dysfunctional, labeled as runaways, and forgotten. In her time, Dr. Derrick faces sexism and as a women, is discounted. It is disheartening that these same prejudices persist, and families desperate for answers get only despair.

On the other hand, the advances in forensic technology over the years are amazing – triumphant, really -- and Olsen's explanations make for fascinating reading. Just the changes in FACES (Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services) in the fifteen years after its launch are mind-blowing and now allow for highly accurate facial reconstructions that ultimately helped Dr. Derrick identify some of the unknown victims. Her commitment to The Lost Boys and to science gives the dead some measure of justice and their families some measure of peace.

THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER is organized into six parts, and readers are given a lot of information to process. At times, Olsen writes long sentences and repetitive passages, and we can feel the urgency with which she wants to share this story; she’s deeply invested, and by book’s end, so are we. Though the book understandably jumps back and forth through time, Olsen provides a number of tools to help see the big picture.

One of these tools is "Sharon Derrick’s 2023 Case List," which lists the victims by year, in the order their deaths occurred. The inclusion of a maps and diagrams helps readers visualize events. A particularly powerful element of THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER is that as each Lost Boy is identified, there’s a portrait of the victim and a summary of his case. I choked up with emotion every time by not only the thought of a life lost in such a violent way, but also because at last, he was identified. Photographs are also sprinkled throughout the book and though some are macabre, the photos are never gratuitous. Even a photograph of a message written on a notepad in 1972 is included, all pointing to Olsen’s meticulous research and reliance on primary sources. The extensive "Notes" and "Selected Bibliography" give readers even further insight into the murder cases and the scientists who solved them.

I read an early ARC from NetGalley last year and was able to compare it to a more recent version. Though some typos were still present, additional editing has clearly taken place and eliminated many of the errors and repetitive paragraphs that I initially noticed. I trust the final version, available for purchase on April 1, 2025, will be clean -- and I highly recommend getting a copy. I may get the audiobook since I’m already familiar with the story.

By the conclusion of THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER, the bodies of thirty young men are found and nearly all of them identified, thanks to the commitment of one scientist, who felt compelled to seek justice for Houston's Lost Boys. And thanks to the commitment of investigative journalist Lise Olsen, their stories are no longer buried in the past.

I hate having to rate this only because it's a nonfiction true crime based on actual events.
You can tell this is so well researched and studied by the author. They really know their shit when it comes to this horrible serial killer and his victims.
I just wish it were rearranged differently because we skip around a bit chronologically so I got a bit confused at times when we skipped back to a past timeline and then back forward to after certain things happened.
Obviously one can search up and read about this case but it's cool to see it sorta brought forward in this authors writing.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy.

This is a great read for any true crime fan. While difficult at times because this is non-fiction, this is an interesting read about the Houston Lost Boys. The author does a great job of grabbing your attention right away but with so many perspectives and time jumps, it became a little confusing and hard to follow. I would recommend it to anyone who likes true crime and thrillers, but the writing and organization were not my favorite overall. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

When I Disappear by Amanda McKinney is a gripping psychological thriller that kept me hooked from start to finish. The story follows Sylvia Stone, who starts receiving mysterious letters that cast doubt on the murder conviction she helped secure decades ago. As she digs deeper, long-buried secrets unravel, making her question everything she thought she knew.

I loved the suspense and the twists—McKinney does a great job building tension and keeping the reader guessing. The small-town setting adds to the eerie atmosphere, and Sylvia’s journey was both emotional and intriguing. That being said, some plot points felt predictable, and I wished for a bit more depth in certain character interactions. But overall, it was a fast-paced and enjoyable read that I’d recommend to fans of psychological thrillers!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC.

Serial killer stories are always harrowing. The "Candyman" is no different. Learning about his victims through this lens was difficult to get through, this book is also lengthy, but it was worth the read. I think Lise Olsen handles the victims with care.