Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) (0898796482) - Reviews and Prices
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Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) (0898796482) - Customer Reviews, Information, Ratings, and Prices
Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit) (0898796482) - Reviews and Prices
Writers will learn how to create their own unforgettable villains with the help of this guide to criminal psychology. Mactire, author of Victims of Domestic Violence, explores the fact and fiction of who these people are, why they commit their crimes, how they choose their victims and how people catch them.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 2.0 / 5.0
Unbalanced Hyperbole:
Modus Operandi: A Writer's Guide to How Criminals Work (Howdunit) was written by 2 detectives & therefore suffered from a lack of research, psychology of criminals, etc. This work is just the opposite. It's author is a writer--he could have used some help from the 2 detectives--and they could have used his help too. Together they might have published a decent book. But...This book most certainly suffers from a distinct lack of balance. It reminds me of a come-on ad on TV for a new movie--hyped,... more info
A useless collection of questionable statements:
This guy claims expertise he does not have. It is clear that this he thinks combining a mish-mash of disorganized facts and questionable opinions in an endless series of lists and bullet-points makes for writing a book. An example is his useless list of potential crime victims, including laughable characterizations like "Business people -- vulnerable anytime, anywhere," and "Police officers -- easily isolated and overwhelmed." Another bizarre, casually-made and unexplained statement: "The availability of... more info
Bleah.:
This was terrible. I don't know a lot about crime and psychology, but I do know about Wicca, and the author (even though he praises it) doesn't know what he's talking about; it's clear he got all his info from the one Craft book in his bibliography. His mention of Wicca is about as insulting and innaccurate as saying, "Christianity is about people who worship a dead guy nailed to a stick. They believe the Earth is flat, they have a Pope, and they celebrate a season called Passover."
Other than a list of abnormal personality types and one or two other items that were probably cribbed from elsewhere, this book is of no help whatever to a writer that wants to understand the criminal mind. It's so heavily opinionated without supporting data and contains so much over-written prose that everything the author states is subject to skepticism. It got to the point that I just didn't believe anything he wrote. Many examples of the problems have been mentioned by other reviewers.
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