Rating: 
Summary: Good but could have been better
Review: Roy Hazelwood knows a lot about homicide and rape, but this book is tough to sit through. Mr. Michaud as his co-author did not do a whole lot. The chapters ramble and the flow is choppy. Just when you are getting into a topic it changes to something different. And often unrelated. If not for the interesting subject matter I would rate this book with two stars. So if you like reading about the FBI and their cases you will like this book. But for everyone else maybe get it at the library instead.
Rating:
Summary: An Awesome Account of Macabre Crimes with Solecism
Review: Stephen Michaud give capacious coverage of "The Evil That Men Do" by depicting authentic sexual crimes ranging from serial killings to autoerotic death in details as seen through the disciplined ingenuous mind of co-author Roy Hazelwood, veteran FBI agent who specialized in the behavioral study of sexual deviants. Hazelwood, former member of the elite Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, VA, is an acknowledged authority on the fantasies and modus operandi of sexual criminals. The chapters on autoerotic death and pseudovictimization are especially informative. This book is a useful complement to any criminal behavioral profiling library. Unfortunately, proof reading by the publishers should have been taken much more seriously, and this failure detracts from its use as a scholarly reference source. Solecism is overly conspicuous and disturbing throughout the text and magnifies many passages suffering from sundry abuses of language. The authors' occasional attempts to infuse some humorous remarks, most of which fell short of their mark, would be better omitted. Hopefully, reprinting of this book will mandate a close scrutiny of grammer. Substitution of such words as "the" and "to", etc. indicates spell checkers are not a substitute for tedious textual proofing: - On rereading this book I downgraded it from a 4 to a 3 based on grammatical error, not lack of useful material.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The book is well-written and enjoyable, as far as that goes. However, I was disappointed that it seemed to be more a biography of Roy Hazelwood than a "procedural" on profiling.
Rating:
Summary: A disturbing look at the career of an FBI profiler
Review: This book uses Roy Hazelwood's experiences to show the evolution of the current investigative tools and techniques used for violent sex crimes. Given the success of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, much of the material here is now pretty well known and commonly accepted. It was quite enlightening to be reminded that the investigation of these crimes was once treated very differently. Hazelwood's focus on research helped him develop new tools and techniques that have terrifically improved both the ability to capture these deviant criminals, as well as the reputations of the dedicated investigators who persue them.
Unfortunately, the author's tendancy to jump around significantly weakens the book. He repeatedly interrupts his descriptions of various investigations to insert details from other investigations. While it looks like he's attempting to show the parallels that enabled Hazelwood to develop his theories, it makes it difficult to keep the details straight and is sometimes quite confusing. Several times I found myself backing up and re-reading sections to clarify the point the author was trying to make.
This book, by its very nature, includes a great deal of disturbing material. Readers that do not care for violence or graphic content should be aware that they are likely to find this book highly uncomfortable. I would also suggest that this book is appropriate only for the most mature young readers.
| 
