AMERICAN PREDATOR

AMERICAN PREDATOR. Maureen Callahan. Viking; 2019. 

While you've heard of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, you may not have heard of serial killer Israel Keyes, whose career was ended after he kidnapped a young woman from a coffee kiosk in Alaska before murdering her. After Keyes was caught, it developed that he had been responsible for other deaths and disappearances in previous years, including a middle-aged couple that he raped (both of them) and slaughtered. Author Callahan looks at the investigation into Keyes activities, focusing on how a prosecutor named Feldis insisted on doing the interviewing of Keyes even though this was a serious breach of professional conduct and that he was not very adept at it.

Two portraits of Israel Keyes

Callahan looks into the bisexual (as he described himself) Keyes' background, as well as into his bizarre early family life, which might have driven anyone crazy (not that his actions were in any way justified). Keyes had a relationship and a child with a woman named Tammie, then became engaged and lived with another woman who had no idea of what he was up to. He kept "kill kits" hidden in various places that he might use when the proper circumstances and victims presented themselves and he was in a sadistic mood. Callahan suggests that Keyes might have been allowed to kill himself in prison. 

Verdict: Horrifying story of one sick individual, but somehow this is not a classic true crime book and probably not the last word on Keyes. **1/2.