The Anatomy of Motive The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals

“A marvelous, thrilling, chilling, and riveting” (Liz Smith, New York Post) look at the root of crime from FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, the authors behind Mindhunter, the inspiration of Netflix’s original series of the same name.

Every crime is a mystery story with a motive. With the insight he brought to his revolutionary work inside the FBI’s elite serial crime unit, John Douglas pieces together motives behind violent criminal behavior. He not only takes us into the darkest recesses of the minds of arsonists, hijackers, bombers, poisoners, assassins, serial killers, and mass murderers, but also the seemingly ordinary people who suddenly go on a shocking rampage.

With in-depth analysis on real cases and killers, such as Lee Harvey Oswald, Theodore Kaczynski, and Timothy McVeigh, The Anatomy of Motive sheds light on the surprising similarities and differences among various deadly offenders. More importantly, it teaches us how to anticipate potential violent behavior before it’s too late.

John Douglas is the legendary FBI criminal profiler and former Chief of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit where he researched, investigated, and conducted interviews of some of America’s most violent criminals. Over the past half-century, he either directly worked on or had overall supervision in over 5,000 violent crime cases. He is one of the foremost experts of the criminal mind, its methods, and motivations. Douglas is a veteran of the United States Air Force and holds a doctorate degree in Education, and lives with his wife, Pamela, in the Washington, DC, area.

 

Mark Olshaker is an Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker and author of thirteen nonfiction books and five novels, including Einstein’s Brain and The Edge. His books with former FBI Special Agent and criminal profiling pioneer John Douglas, beginning with Mindhunter and most recently When a Killer Calls, have sold millions of copies and have been translated into many languages. Mindhunter was recently adapted by David Fincher into a critically acclaimed and award-winning dramatic series on Netflix. Olshaker and his wife, Carolyn, an attorney, live in the Washington, DC, area.