Best Serial Killer novels.

[Midnight Son]

Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal..... of course. Thomas Harris.

Dark Eye - William Bernhardt. A wacko who kills young girls in the style of Edgar Allen Poe. Nasty.

The Bone Collector - Jeffery Deaver.

Kiss the Girls - James Patterson. And others by him.

Help me add to my Deviant reading list!

[Naked]

The Poet - Michael Connelly. Most of Connelly's work is more in the noir vein, but this is a gripping, fantastically well written serial killer novel. One of my favorite "genre' writers...has a real way with words.

[ynohtna]

Killer On The Road - Jame Ellroy.

[Warning]

I liked The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

[Jeff Green]

The Killer Inside Me -- Jim Thompson

[Jakub]

Hannibal is awful.

Red Dragon was the best of Harris' work.

[extarbags]

Hannibal is awful.

Red Dragon was the best of Harris' work.

Seriously.

[Jakub]

Actually, I read the two just a few weeks apart and it was really difficult for me to believe that it's the same author.

[Gav]

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. Very funny, told from the killer's perspective.

Gav

[Daydreamer]

American Psycho is good if you want a side of social commentary with your murders.

[madkevin]

The Killer Inside Me -- Jim Thompson

We have a winner!

[Alex Handy]

American Psycho is good if you want a side of social commentary with your murders.

Agreed. Great book. Where else can you read about a guy hooking some chick's tits to jumper cables while he walks around the house with her friend's head on his prick?

[Kevin McGuire]

The Killer Inside Me -- Jim Thompson

As madkevin points out, this is the one.

[Toddy]

Hannibal reads like Harris was intentionally trying to kill off the Lecter franchise. Which seems possible, too, because I remember reading an interview with him where he did nothing but bitch about all the pressure that was being put on him to finish Hannibal so the movie could be made. Yeah, must be tough to have publishers and movie studios paying you tens of millions of dollars for a book...

IMO, The Killer Inside Me is one of the best American novels ever written. Lou Ford is the most authentic sociopath ever featured in a work of fiction. Scary part is, Thompson writes the character so well from the first person that you can't help but root for him at times. And the way he played with people, making them uncomfortable with that insipid small talk. Man, what a great book. Been meaning to read it again for the past year or so.

[Bob Cherub]

By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens.

[shift6]

American Psycho is good if you want a side of social commentary with your murders.
Agreed. Great book. Where else can you read about a guy hooking some chick's tits to jumper cables while he walks around the house with her friend's head on his prick?
One of the great books in modern American literature. I try to read it once a year. The movie didn't do it any justice whatsoever!

[Ex-S Woo]

Ah! That would explain why Harris is currently writing a "Young Hannibal" book that is already scheduled to be turned into a movie :)


Hannibal reads like Harris was intentionally trying to kill off the Lecter franchise. Which seems possible, too, because I remember reading an interview with him where he did nothing but bitch about all the pressure that was being put on him to finish Hannibal so the movie could be made....

[gnmarsh]

David wiltse wrote some interesting ones, may be hard to find now.

[Midnight Son]

Let me add Deviant Ways by Chris Mooney. Not only is the killer sick and twisted, he likes to use cameras and bombs on the crime scenes.

[Toddy]

Ah! That would explain why Harris is currently writing a "Young Hannibal" book that is already scheduled to be turned into a movie :)


Hannibal reads like Harris was intentionally trying to kill off the Lecter franchise. Which seems possible, too, because I remember reading an interview with him where he did nothing but bitch about all the pressure that was being put on him to finish Hannibal so the movie could be made....

Hey, the checks must be clearing, so why the hell not?

But hasn't this whole Hannibal Lecter fetish played out? Both Hannibal the book and Hannibal the movie were horrible, Red Dragon was incredibly dull, and Silence is now well over a decade old.

[Ex-S Woo]

Well, I personally liked Red Dragon a lot, but a lot of that probably has to due with the fond memories that I have reading the book for a class way back in High School more than anything else :)

[mike]

I'll toss in a couple:

Messiah - Boris Starling
Every Dead Thing - John Connolly (all of his books are excellent)
The Blue Hour - T. Jefferson Parker (Where serpents lie is also good)
Mortal Fear - Greg Iles
The Narrows is a great followup to the Poet by M. Connelly

Short story - Strawberry Spring by Stephen King

Already mentioned, but I must plug:

The Alienist - Caleb Carr (Brilliant)

While not strictly a serial killer novel, I liked Odd Thomas by Koontz, who I normally don't really care for. It contains a serial killer, and a bit more.

[awdougherty]

Not sure if this truly fits the category, but one of my all time favorite novels is:

The Name Of The Rose
Umberto Eco

[Jazar]

I've been reading Red Dragon now. Good book. Shame I've got two movies to cloud my judgement on it though.

American Psycho. wow. Just wow. I thought I could take a lot but Ellis really dishes it out. Frankly the movie handled itself quite well. It made the point. I've been meaning to get the DVD.

[William Harms]

Not a novel, but nothing tops The Final Truth.