cover image THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS: Profiling the Predators Among Us

THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS: Profiling the Predators Among Us

Gregg O. McCrary, , with Katherine Ramsland. . Morrow, $25.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-06-050957-6

In a book that combines engrossing writing with seasoned insight, McCrary, a 25-year veteran of the FBI and a former criminal profiler in the bureau's renowned behavioral science unit, has teamed up with Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and writer, to produce a detailed account of criminal investigative analysis. Describing 10 cases that provoked frenzied storms of media attention in their time—including the kidnapping, videotaped torture and murder of 15-year-old Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy; the senseless massacre of Buddhist monks in Arizona; and the case of Jack Unterweger, a celebrated Austrian writer, who killed numerous prostitutes while vividly covering the story of the murders in the local media—the book offers plenty of shockingly grisly and strange details to fascinate and horrify. But McCrary's levelheaded professionalism and consummate expertise elevates his work above the throng. His refreshingly honest assessment of the standoff between FBI agents and David Koresh's Branch Davidians in Waco, Tex., profiles what he casts as the "groupthink" psychology and self-righteousness that propelled both sides toward calamity, exposing the many similarities shared by bureaucratic and fanatic mentalities. And while his analysis of the famous case of Dr. Sam "The Fugitive" Shepard is less action-jammed than the versions fictionalized on television and in film, it is a worthy exposition. (July)