Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present
Written by Peter Vronsky
Narrated by Mikael Naramore
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
From the author of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters comes an in-depth examination of sexual serial killers throughout human history, how they evolved, and why we are drawn to their horrifying crimes.
Before the term was coined in 1981, there were no "serial killers." There were only "monsters"--killers society first understood as werewolves, vampires, ghouls and witches or, later, Hitchcockian psychos.
In Sons of Cain--a book that fills the gap between dry academic studies and sensationalized true crime--investigative historian Peter Vronsky examines our understanding of serial killing from its prehistoric anthropological evolutionary dimensions in the pre-civilization era (c. 15,000 BC) to today. Delving further back into human history and deeper into the human psyche than Serial Killers--Vronsky's 2004 book, which has been called "the definitive history of the phenomenon of serial murder"--he focuses strictly on sexual serial killers: thrill killers who engage in murder, rape, torture, cannibalism and necrophilia, as opposed to for-profit serial killers, including hit men, or "political" serial killers, like terrorists or genocidal murderers.
These sexual serial killers differ from all other serial killers in their motives and their foundations. They are uniquely human and--as popular culture has demonstrated--uniquely fascinating.
Peter Vronsky
Peter Vronsky is the author of a true-crime history bestseller, Serial Killers: The Method and Mandness of Monsters (Berkley Books - Penguin Group, 2004.) The sequel Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters was published by Berkley Penguin in 2007. His current book based on his doctoral dissertation is Ridgeway: The American Fenian Invasion and the 1866 Battle That Made Canada (Allen Lane - Penguin Random House Canada, 2011) a controversial study of the hidden history of Canada's first modern battle.
More audiobooks from Peter Vronsky
Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Sons of Cain
132 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brilliant book. Worth listening too. Ready very well. The monsters are us we need to stop.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very interesting book. Loved the narrator's voice and well... Narration. Gives an excellent approach to understand serial killers
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very informative, well researched and well written! One of the best I’ve read on the subject of serial killers.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An amazing historical account of the development of serial killers in the old and new world. Even though the author always compare serial killers of the old Word with the American serial killers it is quite interesting to see differences and similarities between serial killers of a certain kind especially those that kill sexual satisfaction. I would have liked different accounts from European countries especially Germany and other eastern European serial killers and their development in communist countries in the 20th century but I understand that it would have been quite complicated to includes this also in this book seeing as it is already 15 hours long I guess there can only be selected serial killers should be included if you also decides to write another book I would like to see these crimes investigated and put into context the last chapters of this book show a quiet American centric development of serial killers especially between the 1970s and 2000s I would like a comparison between geese American serial killers and eastern European and serial killers from other continents like Australia or Asia or Africa maybe one day there will be a concise history of specially motivated serial killings around the world.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The following is a direct quote from the text which perfectly sums up the authors attitude to research and the subject matter:
“My war trauma hypothesis invites an ambitious undergraduate or graduate student to collect and analyze the military histories of the fathers and grandfathers of the 'golden age' of serial killers.”
Don't pick this up. Listen 'The Killer Across the Table' instead.
Listen to literally anything else. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Such a dark and well written book. I absolutely loved it. If you like lascivious creepy stories this book is for you!