Rating: 
Summary: Great Crime Story - And Still Objective
Review: Lethal Intent by Sue Russell is true crime writing at its best. It should be the companion piece for the 2003 film Monster starring Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron. If you already are drawn to true crime writing, this work holds its own against many true crime books of the recent half century. Add Ms. Russell's account of Aileen Wuornos to Vincent Bugliosi's account of Charles Manson; Jess Walter's account of the siege at Ruby Ridge; Gerald Posner's books on the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King; and Stephen Singular's account of the murder of Alan Berg, to name a few.If you were drawn into the film "Monster", you owe it to yourself to read about Wuornos' background (hereditary or environment?); her inability to a hold a person's social
interest in her for more than 15 minutes; the possible catalyst that triggered her shooting spree; and the detective work that stopped the killing. The trial was virtually ignored in the film, but Ms. Russell's narrative shows how it became a three-ring circus. Finally, you can square the movie's portrayal of the circumstances of the murders with actual interrogations and testimonies which effectively remove the romanticism away from this treacherous murderer. I disagree with one of the reviewers' claims that the book is "very very biased" and that Ms. Russell "hated" her subject. I think the fact that Ms Russell provides possible sociological and genetic explanations without absolving the murderer of her crimes actually shows some sympathy for the killer without falling under the delusion that justice would have been better served if Wuornos were acquitted because her behavior, after all, was someone else's fault.
Rating:
Summary: Exhaustive Research on a Woman Serial Killer
Review: After seeing author Sue Russell on the biography channel (A&E), I decided to give the book another try. It's hard to read about the repugnant, vicious Aileen Wournos. Russell painstakingly
researched this woman's life, from childhood to execution. Wournos's saga is a blueprint for disaster; she was raised in a house of raging dysfunction. She was a boisterous child full of spunk. That energy evolved into frustration, anger, prostitution and substance abuse even before Aileen ran away from home and hit the streets. This book is intriguing, but rather lengthy - 557 pages of in depth true crime reading.
Rating:
Summary: Disconcerting account of female killer...
Review: Finally, an acknowledgement that women are equally capable of murder without the presence of rape or the imminent threat of death. America, as a society, is hard-pressed to accept the fact that women are just as capable of acting out their aggressions in the most fatal and disturbing way (killing for the sheer thrill of the kill). Men have been doing it for years, but a woman? I understand that it is an unfortunate upbringing that Aileen Wuornos endured, but as most psychologists and psychiatrists can attest, there are probably millions of people who had equally, if not immensely more, regrettable childhoods, and you don't see THOSE people committing murder. Wake up, people. She was not a victim as an adult. Yes, she could have been a fine, upstanding citizen had she been medicated and properly indoctrinated with years of intense therapy. But she wasn't. Does this give her the right to randomly kill Good Samaritan men along a highway, just because she needed to buy the affection of her lover by stealing not only these men's cars and cash, but their lives as well? No, I don't believe it does. The portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in 'Monster' was just another sugar-coated accounting of a woman in peril...because God-forbid a woman could be as evil as the "Lee" Wuornos portrayed in this book. I believe this is the truest account out there of a new predator in our midst: the female serial killer. Not just a fluke, but an ominous prediction of what we can expect from female *victims* of our society in the future. I highly recommend this book, but it is not for the faint of heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat of a let down
Review: I bought this book due to my interest in non-fiction and serial killers - I knew nothing about Aileen Wuornos. I found this book to be poorly written (and quite a boring read!). The chain of events that took place are really hard to follow due to the way the author "jumps around". Also, I felt the author seemed to glorify the victims' characters (remember, they were picking up a prostitute). I kept feeling as if she was telling this story as her opinion, not as how it really happened. I just wanted a factual account of the events that took place and I didn't think this book did that.
Rating:
Summary: Good...Not Bad
Review: I decided to read this book after watching the movie, "Monster", an account of Aileen Wuornos. I was not disappointed. I believe the book transmitted a rather unbiased story about the life of Aileen. The initial portion of the book throws out lots of names and it takes several pages until the names start to sink in with respect to who's who. The portion of the book dealing with the case was a bit boring and too long. And, I was not very interested in the author's psychoanalysis of Aileen. However, the book is a very good crime novel up until it gets bogged down in her trial.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book.
Review: I really do recommend this book for people interested in the Wuornos case. Lethal Intent is a highly detailed book, starting from the very beginning of Aileen's tragic life. The book is great for trying to understand why Aileen done what she did, and in an unbiased way. Russell gives you the facts, and lets you come to your own conclusions. The story made me laugh, made me cry, and often made me angry because of the way Aileen was treated. The book is also complete with some excellent pictures of Aileen and her family. I couldn't put the book down once I started. All in all a wonderfully written book!
Rating:
Summary: Unbiased and Good
Review: Prior to reading this book my only exposure to Aileen Wuernos was Biography and American Justice on A&E. I found the book both informative and heartbreaking. One wonders how Aileen could have become anything other than what she turned out to be. It seems that from them moment of her birth to her execution she was on a collision course with disaster. After reading this book I have no desire to see "Monster". I don't feel that anymore can be said, or that it could be said better than it was done in this book. If you are interested in Aileen Wuernos' life rather than the sensationalism her crimes became, then I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Lethal Intent by Sue Russell - GREAT BOOK !!!
Review: Sue does a great job in this book about Aileen Wuornos - the subject of the film 'Monster'. Sue did extensive research to write this biography of Aileen and it really shows. The book has loads of details about Aileen's childhood from the people that grew up around her. It also includes details from those that knew her when she was older and moving around from motel to trailer park, etc - the times leading up to the killings. This book will explain many of your questions about Aileen and what happened to her to turn her into a killer. Sue's book is easy to read (non-technical) and is hard to put down once you start reading it. If you want to learn more about Aileen,
put Sue Russell's Lethal Intent book on your MUST READ list.
Thanks for reading my review. RKC, St. Louis, MO USA
Rating: 
Summary: I really would have liked to give this a better review.
Review: Sue Russell is on a discussion list that I am a part of. Russell's insights into Lee Wournos have always been very enlightening and she writes beautifully in post form. I was very disappointed when I opened the book and started to read. The narrative was jumbled and jumped about. The intermingling of british and american english was annoying. And her lack of knowledge when it comes to american slang...what can I say? She would make Yogi Beara cringe - (e.g. "his Irish Brogue was so thick you could cut it with a dull butter knife" - a mix of "It was so thick you could cut it with a knife", and "such-and-such was so soft you could cut it with a dull/butter knife") - and never should have been used. I also found the book to be long and drawn out. This book could have, and should have, been cut in half at the least, and not written at best. I'm not sure who her editors were, but they really dropped the ball on this one, then again, so did Sue Russell. A side note to one reviewer who didn't like that the victims had been portrayed as upstanding citizens in the book -- that we should not forget why they were there "to engaged in sexual activity". That is totally not true. There is no evidence at all to suggest that ALL of the men had been sexually active with Lee Wournos. Many of them were found fully clothed -- this is covered in the book. The victims were tragically killed and it does not matter one way or another if some of them were killed after having sex with Lee. It only matters that Lee killed them.
Rating:
Summary: So Much More Than I Bargained For
Review: Women serial killers are not quite my favorite true crime book subject, however, Sue Russell takes me into this world I had never seen--a world of sex, money, and manipulation. Aileen Wournos knew prostitution before she knew much about her own puberty. And this story reeled me in from the very first sentence: "Snarling with rage, she rammed the barrel of her .22 revolver into Dick Humphrey's ribs with such violent, malevolent force, that it broke the skin right through his shirt..." Wournos would meet with the young boys of the neighborhood and trade sex for money, using the proceeds to finance her lifestyle of cigarettes, alcohol, and freedom. Ms. Russell does not in any way condone Wournos's lifetime achievement of murdering men during her hitchhiking excursions searching for easy money, but she shows us in great detail how a life can go so wrong. To learn about preventing future crime sprees from someone like Aileen Wournos, we have to know about the past. We have to know what made her tick, why she killed whom she killed, and warning signs along the way. Worse still is the passive Tyria Moore, who--though she ultimately helped convict Wournos, did nothing to stop the murders. Again, without the knowledge of why this abused and possibly lesbian lover of Wournos, stayed and allowed bad things to continue... how can we change things in the future? Russell managed to interview grown men who openly discussed their involvement of sexual gratification when they were as young as she was in the beginning: only 12. They show remorse and will always wonder if they are partly to blame for the killing spree no one expected. Well, if I tell much more, I give the book away. This book is written professionally and with great imagry. Sue Russell is sure to become a true crime author to remember. Teraisa J. Rogers
Fanatic, Inc.
TrueCrimeFanatic.com
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