Review: Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Next Door by Roy Wenzl

If you are like me and you have an interest in True Crime, and you already know who BTK is and you just want to learn more about the case than this book is for you.   This is written from the perspective of the people who investigated this case. Not only from the perspective of the detectives but a few of the journalists involved as BTK was sending correspondence to the Witchita Eagle.

Now I had already known a little about BTK prior to reading this book, so a good majority of this was no surprise. I have listened to many a true-crime podcast about this individual. But I figured this would be a good way to get an in-depth look at this case, and I was not wrong in thinking so. This started off with the first murders which were of the Otero family. The authors went over how the killer had done this and we get that this is his first time doing this because he fumbles his way through it and even left a piece of evidence behind which he had to go back for. Often while learning more about this killer we learn that he just didn't get caught due to dumb luck. And if not for his ego he may have literally gotten away with murder.  Each and every individual murder is mentioned in detail in a timeline fashion.

During the trial, the cops were embarrassed and shocked to learn that Dennis Rader was not this brilliant guy who eluded them at all.

"BTK IS A DORK!?!"

Yes! One of the detectives actually said that. I found that hilarious. But the one downside to this book was that the authors decided to mention personal details regarding the lives of journalists and detectives during the 30 plus years it took to catch BTK. It doesn't seem vital to the story that detective XYZ dated so and so during a period of investigation. So yeah there were some slow parts that I felt were very unnecessary to telling this story. Aside from that this is a very informative book on the case. I know that some of the details were direct from the killer and I have to say I think he "romanticized" and embellished a lot of what he told them during the interrogation.

This was a good book for those who may be interested to learn more about BTK. I do not recommend this for those used to True Crime lite, as this does contain some graphic details of rape and murder. Also, this does mention the murder of children. I rated this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com. Below I have a link for those in the US, UK, and Canada to purchase this book. Anyone living outside of those areas I have a link that offers free worldwide shipping and great deals on books.