Thursday, June 11, 2009

A Need To Kill by Mark Pettit

A Need To Kill by Mark Pettit
ISBN: 0-8041-0785-8
Pages: 202
Back of Book Description:

In the autumn of 1983, a thirteen-year-old boy named Danny Joe Eberle set out on his regular paper route. But he never completed it. The discovery of his bound and stabbed body profoundly shocked and panicked the normally quiet community of Bellevue, Nebraska, which had never known a crime of such monstrosity. For 116 days, parents, children and law officers lived in abject terror that the fiend would strike again, as a massive manhunt-involving both police and the FBI-turned up few clues, less hope and, eventually, a second child's corpse.

But for John Joubert, a scoutmaster and United States Airman, it had begun a long time ago. His obsessive fantasies of murder-and his eventual "need to kill"-dated back to his earliest childhood. For this slight, unassuming young man-barely older than the boys he murdered-the impulse to take life was as strong and unrelenting as sexual desire. and finally, it was ll that could satisfy him.

Here, in detail both repellent and mesmerizing, is the chilling account of the crimes of John Joubert-chronicled by the only journalist to speak with the convicted murderer face-to-face. That his story is true is what makes it utterly unforgettable.

My Rating: A

My Review:

The most exciting part of this book was that it read some where between a novel, and a non-fiction. I found that the way that the people were depicted, the author gave you just enough background to make you really and truly care about each of them, as if they were characters, not real people. It makes me sad that the are real people and had to go through this.

He also describes landscapes and weather in the impassioned and poetic way of a novelist, making this a quick and addicting read. I found that the only truly frustrating thing about this book was that there didn't seem to be much insight into the killer's mind after he was caught. But that's not at all the author's fault, as you find out at the end of the book.

I recommend this book to those who like true crime, or those that need a quick easy, engrossing read, if you can stomach it.

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