-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling
by Rachel Corbett
A taut, riveting work of true crime that tells the strange story of criminal profiling from Victorian times to our own.
Criminal profiling―the delicate art of collecting and deciphering the psychological "fingerprints" of the monsters among us―holds an almost mythological status in pop culture. But what exactly is it, does it work, and why is the American public so entranced by it? In The Monsters We Make, prize-winning author Rachel Corbett explores how criminal profiling became one of society's most seductive and quixotic undertakings through six significant moments in its history. She delves into Arthur Conan Doyle's work on the Jack the Ripper case, Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray's pioneering profile of Adolf Hitler and his later experiments on his student Ted Kaczynski, and the FBI's famed Behavioral Science Unit's investigations of such killers as Ted Bundy. Taking the story into our own time and the use of "predictive policing," Corbett examines how thin the line separating those who do harm and those who aim to stop it can be.
"Corbett [is] a gifted storyteller…A highly readable, endlessly revealing primer on the homicidal mind." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[The Monsters We Make] combines riveting accounts of such infamous murderers as Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy with sharp insights about the rise of the public's fascination with criminal psychology…Such evenhandedness permeates the account, elevating it above pulpy indulgence. Readers of true crime will be fascinated." —Publishers Weekly
"Corbett succeeds in questioning the reliance on profiling in policing and ultimately, the stories we tell ourselves about who is a monster and why. A thought-provoking read for a culture obsessed with true crime." —Booklist
"A cornerstone of true crime, profiling, is the heart of The Monsters We Make by Rachel Corbett, who travels from Sherlock Holmes to the Chicago roots of the Unabomber." ―Chicago Tribune
"Serial killers have spawned hundreds of books, but none like this. With a daughter's heart and a reporter's keen gaze, Rachel Corbett turns the stories inside out. She profiles the profilers―their methods, their hubris, and the evils they unwittingly commit. An expertly titrated mix of history, true crime, and memoir, The Monsters We Make is the most intriguing crime book I've read in quite some time." ―Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Fuzz, Gulp, and Stiff
"In her gripping and illuminating The Monsters We Make, Rachel Corbett takes us on an effortless journey through the allure and perils of trying to grasp the criminal mind." ―Benjamin Wallace, New York Times bestselling author of The Billionaire's Vinegar and The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto
This information about The Monsters We Make was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Rachel Corbett is the author of You Must Change Your Life, which won the Marfield Prize, the National Award for Arts Writing. A features writer at New York magazine, her writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
If you liked The Monsters We Make, try these:
by Caroline Fraser
Published 2026
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Prairie Fires comes a terrifying true-crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond—a gripping investigation of how a new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence.
by Paraic O'Donnell
Published 2022
With all the wit of a Jane Austen novel, and a case as beguiling as any in Sherlock Holmes' casebook, Paraic O'Donnell introduces a detective duo for the ages, and slowly unlocks the secrets of a startling Victorian mystery.
by Peter Swanson
Published 2021
From the hugely talented author of Before She Knew Him comes a chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction's most ingenious murders.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
