Eighteen-year-old Samantha Koenig went missing from her job working as a barista at a coffee kiosk in Anchorage, Alaska on February 1, 2012. Was she kidnapped? Or did she just run away? The Anchorage Police Department and the local FBI agents had differing opinions, but their joint investigation eventually led to a man named Israel Keyes...and the chilling realization that Samantha was not his first victim.
Maureen Callahan has written a fascinating and unputdownable book about the investigation that uncovered a serial killer "likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern American history." So why have we never heard of Israel Keyes? Probably because most of his crimes have never been connected or proven, his victims never found. But what he does so matter-of-factly confess to the FBI after he's caught is downright disturbing.
"The Bureau's top criminal profilers were at a loss. The only thing they could tell the team was that Keyes was one of the most terrifying subjects they had ever encountered. There was no precedent for a serial killer with this MO: no victim type, no fixed location for hunting, killing, and burying, putting thousands of miles between himself and his victims; caches (of killing kits) buried all over the United States. He avoided detection through travel. Travel!"
Are you supposed to rave about a book written about a serial killer? Because this true crime narrative is amazing. It's so well-written, and so compelling; I could not put it down. Keyes is one scary psychopath. It's too bad so much of his life and heinous acts remain unknown and untold. I feel bad for the families of all his victims who may never know the truth about what happened to their loved ones. That's the heartbreaking part of this book. His victims. But what a story Callahan has written! American Predator is definitely one of the best nonfiction books I've read this year.
Happy Reading!