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  • Obsession

  • The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers
  • Written by: John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
  • Narrated by: Danny Campbell
  • Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (29 ratings)

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Obsession

Written by: John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
Narrated by: Danny Campbell
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Publisher's Summary

In Obsession, John Douglas once again takes us fascinatingly behind the scenes, focusing his expertise on predatory crimes, primarily against women. With a deep sense of compassion for the victims and an uncanny understanding of the perpetrators, Douglas looks at the obsessions that lead to rape, stalking, and sexual murder through such cases as Ronnie Shelton, the serial rapist who terrorized Cleveland; and New York's notorious "Preppie Murder".

But Douglas also looks at obsession on the other side of the moral spectrum: his own career-long obsession with hunting these predators. Douglas shows us how we can all fight back and protect ourselves, our families, and loved ones against the scourge of the violent predators in our midst.

The first step is insight and understanding, and no one is better qualified to penetrate Obsession than John Douglas. 

©1998 Mindhunters, Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2019 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

What listeners say about Obsession

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not obsessed with OBSESSION

This is my third book from John Douglas. While I think it is well written, it wasn't as intriguing as the previous books I've listened to. Perhaps a little more detail about the victim's family lives after the fact than I needed to know. It felt like too much detail just to fill the book, although I'm sure that is not the case.
The reader did a good job and made it felt like it was the author speaking, though his voice seemed strained throughout the book. Still enjoyable and fascinating.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Repeat Stories, Iffy Narrator, but Compassionate

This is the fourth or fifth book I’ve read by Douglas and Olshaker. They have a tendency to repeat a lot of cases throughout their books. I think this is only their third or fourth published book, so perhaps it’s the wrong one on which to make this complaint, but it’s true nonetheless. I’m still always fascinated by Douglas’ take on each case, and he clearly knows what he’s talking about. And there are plenty of new cases in each book, it’s just that same ones tend to pop up throughout many of them (i.e. Suzanne Collins).
I am not a fan of this narrator. Danny Campbell also narrated Journey Into Darkness, and perhaps another that I can’t remember, and I think he’s my least favourite of the books I’ve listened to from Douglas (aside from the gentleman who narrated Inside the Mind of BTK). His voice has this gravelly texture to it, and he doesn’t really change his tone or inflections when speaking from someone who is not John Douglas, which at first makes it difficult to tell if there is a person opinion of Douglas, or if he’s quoting someone else.
All in all, the book itself was a fascinating look into the crimes of rape and stalking. And I found Douglas to be very compassionate towards to the victims and their families, as well as surprisingly forward-thinking in terms of how the public and the government should approach these kinds of crimes. For example, he states how important it is to NEVER blame a victim of rape for the crime perpetrated against her. No matter what she was wearing, what she was doing, whether or not she was a sex worker, whether she initially wanted it then changed her mind, NOTHING excuses or mitigates the actions of the offender. He also uses the following example: “If someone had been the victim of burglary, you would never blame them for not being home all day every day to watch over their things, so why is it okay to blame victims of stalking or rape for not spending all of their time considering every action they should take to avoid a violence they should never have had to suffer in the first place?” That’s not verbatim, but it was something along those lines. He also frequently makes suggestions such as allowing more government funding for social work programs, as opposed to hiring more police. He doesn’t argue we should get rid of police completely by any means, but they are there to help when a problem occurs. They do not prevent the problem in the first place. These may seem like obvious things now, but for the late 90’s I think it’s pretty impressive.
Overall, a fascinating read, but I’m really not a fan of this narrator (forgive me Danny Campbell).

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good, but not his best

What I like about John Douglas books are his insights into the criminals and their behaviour. I like the description of motives, investigative techniques and, yes, the details of the crimes. This book lacks a lot of those elements. It is focus on victims rights advocacy - not on victimology, but on advocacy. It is interspersed with criminal behaviour profiles, but not enough to sustain the entire book.

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