cover image American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

Maureen Callahan. Viking, $27 (304p) ISBN 978-0-525-42864-0

Investigative journalist Callahan (Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the ’90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion) provides a chilling true-crime narrative in this detailed study of Israel Keyes, whom she describes as “a new kind of monster, likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern American history.” In 2012, a multi-jurisdictional search for Keyes, believed responsible for abducting 18-year-old Samantha Koenig from the Anchorage, Alaska, coffee kiosk where she worked, led to him being stopped for speeding in Texas. In his wallet, the police found Samantha’s driver’s license. Keyes confessed to killing Samantha, but was less forthcoming about other murders he said he’d committed, and the exact number of his victims was unresolved at the time of his suicide in custody, though he is believed to have killed at least 11 people over 14 years. The text is replete with disturbing revelations such as Keyes having carefully studied books by the FBI’s top experts on profiling and serial killers. Through Callahan’s access to many of the key players in law enforcement, she has produced the definitive account of a terrifying psychopath. [em]Agent: Nicole Tourtelot, DeFiore and Company. (July) [/em]