Margins
The Anatomy of Motive book cover
The Anatomy of Motive
The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals
1999
First Published
4.18
Average Rating
320
Number of Pages

From legendary FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker—authors of the nonfiction international bestsellers Mindhunter, Journey into Darkness, and Obsession—comes an unprecedented, insightful look at the root of all crime. Every crime is a mystery story with a motive at its heart. With the brilliant insight he brought to his renowned work inside the FBI's elite serial-crime unit, John Douglas pieces together motives behind violent sociopathic 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 kill their families or go on a rampage in the workplace. Douglas identifies the antisocial personality, showing surprising similarities and differences among various types of deadly offenders. He also tracks the progressive escalation of those criminals' sociopathic behavior. His analysis of such diverse killers as Lee Harvey Oswald, Theodore Kaczynski, and Timothy McVeigh is gripping, but more importantly, helps us learn how to anticipate potential violent behavior before it's too late.

Avg Rating
4.18
Number of Ratings
6,616
5 STARS
41%
4 STARS
39%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved