A book review of There But for the Grace of God: Survivors of the 20th Century’s Infamous Serial Killers by Fred Rosen
Stars: ****
HarperCollins Publishers (2007)
True Crime
278 pages
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Summary: They stared into the faces of pure evil . . . and survived! Ted Bundy . . . Jeffrey Dahmer . . . David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz . . . Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer . . .
These are some of the names that strike terror into even the bravest of hearts. Human monsters, they preyed upon the unsuspecting, freely feeding their terrible hungers. Their crimes were unspeakable, as they maimed, tortured, killed, and killed again, leaving so many dead in their bloody wake. But somehow, astonishingly, seven would-be victims fell into the clutches of the century’s worst serial killers—and escaped death through courage, divine providence, or just plain luck. This is the remarkable true story of those who lived.
There But for the Grace of God
I’ve had this book on my TBR shelf for a while and I finally picked it up and read half of it and then stopped reading much for a while. I picked it back up after New Year’s and quickly read the other half.
This is a small mass market paperback which feels like just the right size to read about such horrible details. I’m assuming someone picking up this book knows the basics of some serial killers but if you know very little, you will be in for a shock, especially with Jeffrey Dahmer.
It was interesting though to read about the survivors instead of focusing on the stories of the serial killers themselves. How did the victims meet them, how many were killed before the survivor. How did they survive? The most interesting one I read was Corazon Amauro who survived Richard Speck.
I like that the chapters are titled by the survivor’s name and not the name of the serial killer. I also like the insert with black and white photographs from the different cases.
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