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Title: Criminal Minds: Killer Profile
ISBN: 0451223829
Author:
Max Allan Collins
Publicate Date: 2008-05-06
Publish: 2008-05-06
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.84
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.25
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: To Catch a Copycat
I picked this up as a way to bide the time till the Season 4 episodes of the TV series start to air; I enjoyed it's predecessor Criminal Minds: Jump Cut (Criminal Minds) immensely and I'm a huge fan of Max Allan Collins, whom I personally think is one of the strongest and most readable crime and media-related fiction writers today.
The plot is a little thin and we really don't get into the motives behind the UnSub's crimes, but the writing is strongly descriptive and the pace and timing are worthy of an actual episode of the show. For that matter, the UnSub eeriely reminded me of Harlen "The Reporter" Maguire, from the movie version of Collins's The Road to Perdition, who may not have been one of Collins's direct creations, but is no less a fascinating character.
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2: As good as one of the better episodes
Max Allan Collins continues to match the feel of a series with the "book episodes" he writes. Reading "Killer Profile" felt like I was watching an episode of "Criminal Minds", and one of the better episodes at that.
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3: Mind of a Copycat
A police procedural with a slightly different twist, the plot involves the efforts of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit's efforts to profile a serial killer in Chicago who is replicating famous serial murder committed by the likes of Ted Bundy, the Son of Sam, et al. They are brought into the picture by two Chicago detectives who believe that a few cases in disparate jurisdictions are related, despite their superiors' denials. The various police departments keep the cases separate and are not sharing information, making the task of linking them extremely difficult.
The BAU group heads to Chicago and begins trying to get the various departments to form a task force, and all but one join in the effort. Slowly, details emerge and a picture of the killer begins to form--but not before 11 victims are found. The killer sends copies of the various crime scene pictures to each police department in a wide geographic area, taunting the cops and the BAU. The job of anticipating the killer becomes crucial before another murder takes place and public panic occurs.
The novel is based on the CBS television series, and is well-constructed. While some of the writing is somewhat stilted, and there is dialogue that is hackneyed in an effort to give "cop talk" flavor, generally the writing is fluid and the story moves forward at a good pace. Recommended.
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4: Killer Profile - one for the fans
Killer Profile is similar to the first Criminal Minds novel in two ways:
1. The plot is as intriguing and well-thought out as the storylines on the show,
2. The writing style is so abysmally bad that I was literally cringing as I read it. Having said that, it could be ten times worse and I'd still read it, because it's Criminal Minds.
This is worth picking up if you're a fan of the show, which most readers probably are.
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5: A Bit Shallow
This is the first M.A.Collins book I have read and it will probably be the last. It's too much a TV script assembled as a book. The story is a bit farfetched, but my primary complaint is the total lack of depth of both the characters and the plot itself. It is not a horrible books but a too quick read of just the facts dressed up with an adjective here and there. It is a two and half star book for me but I'm stuck with 2 or 3 only. If you are fans of the TV show, I think this book will be a bit of a disappointment.
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