Lest we forget Thomas Harris' "Red Dragon" which was groundbreaking. As a wee lad, I had never read anything like this - first it opened right in the middle of the enquiry, then M. Harris was the first to invent the "profiler entering a killer's head" trope. As far as "SOTL"… The best thing is the ending, with the letter from Lecter to Clarice. *SPOILER* it ends up with "I hope that for you, the lamb has stopped screaming". Then you have a purely cinematographic moment, travelling to Clarice sleeping miles away, in peace. My take : who was Hannibal Lecter ? A psychiatrist. That's when you understand that the whole story you have read was not catching a serial killer, but something else : Clarice's therapy. That's not written as such, but the hints are there. Pure, unaldurated genius. I love it when in the end, the story you've been told appears to be something else… "Hannibal" is different, it show that Lecter is actually at war with vulgarity, and the book manipulates the Hollywood tropes to make you accept what's called madness as simply a defense system - and I'll stop before I go into a rant. (Sorry, but when I start on Thomas Harris, I turn lyrical !)

As someone who’s new to the horror/thriller/crime genres, these lists are pure gold. Thank you for these great recommendations!

When I saw the top ten category I thought -- I'm not a huge fan of serial killer books -- and then realized I had read all of them. I'd throw in Cornell Woolrich's Black Alibi from the 1940s mostly because of the time and place. But don't let your cat near that one. And for a trashy great time, it would be The Third Deadly Sin by Lawrence Sanders.

I love the books by Ann Rule. Her murder/serial killer books are incredible. They are all true stories, but her dramatisation style brings out a spine-chilling realisation that these were real lives and real killers.

Perfect timing. Actually been scouring the internet for serial killer recommendations today, so this couldn't have come at a better time for me. S.A Cosby's books in particular sounds like a treat to read. Thank you Olly.

Great overview video - I will always remember the feeling of reading Psycho. Amazing book.

I would probably add Primal Fear and The Alienist to this list. Also Angel of Darkness. Loved the video.

I have invested in a new "Olly" bookshelf that is already largely full. I have added three of these since I started watching your channel and need to locate four more (already read three). Thanks for the recommendations!

I'd also recommend 'The Seven Days of Peter Crumb' by Jonny Glynn, 'Exquisite Corpse' by Poppy Brite, and 'Frisk' by Dennis Cooper.

I loved By Reason of Insanity. The Killing Lessons sounds intriguing.

Great stuff! Alll of your discussions are top notch

Awesome ❤ I've been searching the topic for days.

Great list. I’m very interested in reading Zombie. Maybe Psycho. I’m one of the few people who have never seen the movie. My friend Dahmer is on my radar too. 😊💙

Great list Olly! I loved Red Dragon, but haven’t finished the series yet. My son got me American Paycho, and I still need to read it.

Thank you for sharing. More good stuff to add to the TBR pile. My suggestion would be Laird Barron’s Black Mountain. Book #2 in the Isaiah Coleridge series, pretty sure the antagonist is a serial in that one. Series is good crime fiction that progressively sprinkles in more and more occult elements.

Thank you! Glad I found your channel! Hit a goldmine for new reads!

Oh My God! My favourite genre! Olly, you’ve made my evening! I know this isn’t a horror, nor particularly terrifying, but I do love Perfume by Patrick Suskind. I love his layers of description and the character development. I also found myself applying his social commentary to everything from the horrors of social media and disgusting politics etc

Great list Olly! I would love to read The Killer Inside Me at some stage. I would love to get my hands on Zombie, but it is not on kindle and I can't find it anywhere. I would recommend Heartsick by Chelsea Cain, a seriously chilling novel.

How Lecter the fictional character became Lecter the intellectual Godfather of all Serial-Killers is one of the most curious phenomena of the last decades...

I sat poised over the on screen keyboard, just in case you left out Every Dead Thing, John Connolly's first Charlie Parker book, before the series slipped fully into the Occult Detective subgenre - and you did! 🙂 You also left out Wire in the Blood, by Val McDermid.

I've read two other books by S A Cosby and enjoyed them both. So, I shall have to check out All the Sinners Bleed. I really enjoyed J C Oates Zombie. As something you might want to check out in the future: I just read Bret Easton Ellis' The Shards which was published back in February of this year. It's set in 1980s Los Angeles and involves a mysterious serial killer known as The Trawler. It's written in an interesting pseudo-memoir style where the writer includes himself as the protagonist/narrator and where he sets a large part of the story within the actual private high school he attended, The Buckley School. It was a bit long, but over all, I enjoyed it and found it really suspenseful in parts. Always enjoy your book vlogs, Olly! Keep the faith!

Love these mini-reviews. Have you tried any James Ellroy for crime?

Really great list!

I see the library near me has All the Sinners Bleed and The Killing Lessons so I;ll check them . Great content.

Great list as always. A few True Crime books I love include The Family by Ed Sanders (1971 about the Manson murders) and The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule (about Ted Bundy).

Thank you for “unputdownable”, a perfect mash up!

Great list Olly! I'm really enjoying the 10 in 10s. I hope you do more of them. I wish this book was fiction - The Killer Department: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer in Russian History by Robert Cullen. It was the basis for the 1995 film Citizen X.

Great list! I would add Michael Connelly's The Poet. If you haven't read any Michael Connelly, he is right up there with the best there is (King is a huge fan)...need I say more? 😂 I'd also include Dennis Lehane (he wrote Shutter Island and Mystic River) - also a fantastic writer/crime writer :)

The shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. A time travelling serial killer is a unique take on the genre.

Really enjoyed this video, was even more chuffed when I realised you're British. I struggle to find book channels with British hosts, aha. I don't have anything against Americans, I just think sometimes their tastes don't align with my own, so I have more faith in you, good sir. I have subscribed.

I read My Friend Dahmer based on your recommendation earlier this year. Great book! I would have added The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh.

Picked up Birdman after this video

When I tell people my favorite "genre" of TV, I say, "serial killer shows"... though I've not been as focused in my reading, I love these books, too. It's not quite right to say mysteries, detective shows, or police procedurals--but specifically serial killers.

A few of my older favorites are act of Love by Joe R Lansdale and Slob by Rex Miller.

A crime writer to check out Chris carter first book is called crucifix killer second book executioner

I loved both Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris…. Although, I enjoyed reading Fed Dragon slightly more. Zombie by JCO is amazing… I was lucky enough to have her sign my hardback copy at a local book festival in 2019.

I'd love to see my annotations 😂 I hated reading that book and only finished it because I fancied my professor 😬

I like reading horror and thrillers this time of year. You got lots of good books there. Enjoy your reading ❤😊

I had not heard of Birdman. I'll have to check that one out.

I've often wondered what it must've been like for people who read Psycho before the film came out and the ending became so well known. I found it quite fascinating to read when I did finally read it a few years ago, knowing the ending while looking at how Bloch tries to conceal what's really going on; I wonder if he had any idea just how iconic his story would wind up being.

I fully agree with Stevens's "By Reason". Absolutely enthralling. Have read "American Psycho" at least five times and have the same edition. "Love" it! Two books I would suggest "Headhunter" by Michael Slade (which I see you didn't like that much) and especially his "Cutthroat". Also, Chelsea Cain "Heartsick", about a female serial killer; not that many books about them. And a true crime, "Deviant" by Harold Schechter, about Ed Gein. Very highly recommended!

A different kind of serial killer story is Joolz Denby's "Stone Baby". It's barely a thriller, actually it's a story told by someone who is best friend with the killer's girlfriend. As everything Joolz Denby, it's a story about people, about the consequences of an SK story on a whole community - and you don't feel like you're reading a story, but living it with the characters, so visceral and believable it is. I translated that mother, and believe me, it was not as easy task !

Hello Olly! Was just wondering if you had read the Jim Butcher book you said you may read for the Occult detective month? If so, did you enjoy it?

Always love to see a bit a Lecter on lists. Red dragon was one of my intros to the genre. Birdman sounds interesting, I think I'll pick that up soon.

Hi olly. Great video. Have you read notes on an execution yet? Suppose to be hyped up and could probably fit into the crime genre. 😊

I really like Slob by Rex Mille. There are more in the series but the only other one I read was Chaingang. Slob was part of the Splatter-punk thing that was going on in the late 80s. I’m surprised no one made movies about of them however there was a comic mini series called Chain-gang.

Some great shouts in the comments already (Shining Girls, Perfume), to which I'd add Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward, Twilight by William Gay (serial killer adjacent, strictly speaking) - and, while non-fiction and not strictly serial, hard to exclude In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Hey olly great choices have you read any more mo hayder? I recommend u do if not.

Ever read The Minus Man by Lew McCreary? I'd have added that one to the list. One of the best(and little known) serial killer novels out there.

I read “Psycho” and it was good, I got through 1/2 of “By Reason of Insanity” (chilling), “Silence of the Lambs” is truly great! “American Psycho” was weirdly great, I have “Zombie” by JCO, and Birdman to read. The others I’m taking notes to get.

William Trevor wrote a good one , I think its titled Felicitys story ,read it a long time ago.

'The Bad Seed'! 'The Bad Seed'! 'The Bad Seed'! (by William March) ;)

Killing Eve by Luke Jennings, and my sister the serial killer by Ovinkan Braithwaite and They Never Learn by Layne Fargo Let's not forget the ladies.

i love reading crime novels. especially true crime.

Killer On The Road by James Ellroy.

Nice to see The Killing Lessons show up, Olly; I loved it! Some of my favourites: The First Deadly Sin, by Lawrence Sanders The Sleep Police, by Jay Bonansinga The Count of Eleven, by Ramsey Campbell Counting Down, by Gerard Stembridge The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo Mr. Bowling Buys a Newspaper, by Donald Henderson The Screaming Mimi, by Fredric Brown

Early John Sandford is excellent too

Scaredy Cat by Mark Billingham, serial killers normally work alone....

Olly have you done a review of the Slough House series by Mick Herron?

If you want some serial killer cheese - “All Shall Die” by Kristopher Ruffty

Well, there's a gimmick, but The Bad Seed, by William March. 1954.

There was one called "The Traveler" by John Katzenbach about a killer kidnapping a girl and "training" her to assist him in serial murder, based on the Christopher Wilder case 👍

Have you read Chaos by Tom O’Neil? Not a novel but journalistic investigation into Manson and how the prosecution just made stuff up. Left me feeling like Manson was the scapegoat for the cia

Thank you for the recommendations. I didn't like at all Birdman by Mo Hayder. Very disapponinted with it.

Try the books by 'Chris Carter'

One of my favourites is The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup

Great list of psychopath thrillers. Thx for sharing! 📚 🎃 🇺🇸

Have you read any of the other books in the Birdman series? The Treatment is 10x more brutal.

Hasn't James Patterson done a few serial killer books ? 🤭 That thought came to me when you mentioned true crime sometimes being exploitative. I have the same feeling but in the opposite direction ie. I think crime fiction is often exploitative.

Haven't read any Jim Thompson in ages. Have to dig some out again now. Last time I binged on his work I was reading Richard Stark too. Not serial killer, but hard boiled AF.

Interesting selection of books I much prefer Red Dragon by Thomas Harris it was more terrifying with the creepy serial killer ,the Tooth Fairy. He was totally f. Up. And also George Stark in The Dark Half by Stephen King, he was very violent with all the slicing and dicing to his victims.

Does the Dahmer book have recipes?

Dexter?

No mention of John Connolly? How very dare you! Havent read SA Cosby, my fancy is tickled. .

A book about Jack the Ripper would be great to have on a serial killer list

💚🖤

raised by a serial killer……

'The Killing Lessons' is a super shitty book. Not at all good. 'By Reason of Insanity' is one of the best. Thomas Harris is a cut and paste thief.