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  • American Predator

  • The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century
  • By: Maureen Callahan
  • Narrated by: Amy Landon
  • Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (267 ratings)
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American Predator cover art

American Predator

By: Maureen Callahan
Narrated by: Amy Landon
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Summary

Instant New York Times Best Seller
An Amazon “Best Book of 2019”

Washington Post "10 Books to Read in July"
A Los Angeles Times “Seven Highly Anticipated Books for Summer Reading”
A USA Today “20 of the Season’s Hottest New Books”
A New York Post “25 Best Beach Reads of 2019 You Need to Pre-Order Now”  

"Maureen Callahan's deft reporting and stylish writing have created one of the all-time-great serial-killer books: sensitive, chilling, and completely impossible to put down." (Ada Calhoun, author of St. Marks Is Dead)

Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Jeffrey Dahmer. The names of notorious serial killers are usually well-known; they echo in the news and in public consciousness. But most people have never heard of Israel Keyes, one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Described by a prosecutor as "a force of pure evil", Keyes was a predator who struck all over the United States. He buried "kill kits" - cash, weapons, and body-disposal tools - in remote locations across the country. Over the course of 14 years, Keyes would fly to a city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to use his kits. He would break into a stranger's house, abduct his victims in broad daylight, and kill and dispose of them in mere hours. And then he would return home to Alaska, resuming life as a quiet, reliable construction worker devoted to his only daughter. 

When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes in 2012, she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected by law enforcement for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her for the next several years - uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist. A killer who left a path of monstrous, randomly committed crimes in his wake - many of which remain unsolved to this day. 

American Predator is the ambitious culmination of years of interviews with key figures in law enforcement and in Keyes's life, and research uncovered from classified FBI files. Callahan takes us on a journey into the chilling, nightmarish mind of a relentless killer, and to the limitations of traditional law enforcement.

©2019 Maureen Callahan (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A deep dive into the twisted life of Israel Keyes, ‘a new kind of monster’.... Serial killers often commit their crimes close to home, inside a comfort zone, but as the author documents throughout this compelling narrative, little about Keyes fit the conventional serial-killer mold...[Callahan] offers fascinating context about law enforcement investigative techniques and revelations about how a murderer can strike again and again without being detected for more than a decade.” (Kirkus Reviews)

American Predator is the scariest book I’ve ever read. No exaggeration - the book you hold is bone-chilling. Maureen Callahan explores the black heart of a new kind of American monster - a serial killer that confounded our most elite criminal profilers - and the race-against-time investigation to follow. This is the work of a journalist in her prime, telling you the story the FBI doesn’t want you to hear and delivering an unforgettable tale of evil that will haunt you. Mark my words: This modern true crime classic will stand with the likes of Jeff Guinn’s Manson, Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me, and Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.” (Susannah Cahalan, New York Times best-selling author of Brain on Fire)

“Investigative journalist Callahan provides a chilling true-crime narrative in this detailed study of Israel Keyes, whom she describes as ‘a new kind of monster, likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern American history.’... Through Callahan’s access to many of the key players in law enforcement, she has produced the definitive account of a terrifying psychopath.” (Publishers Weekly

What listeners say about American Predator

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not enough murders!

The book was ok, but nowhere near as gory as the blurb would have you think. Don‘t want to do any spoilers, but only TWO murders are described within the book, and they only found the body on one of them, so who knows if the other one took place?

It is full of extremely detailed dialogue from interviews with the supposed serial killer, where he constantly promises to reveal lots of detail, but the book ends without revealing any details!

There is enough to keep the listener interested, if you like your True Crime Pulp (as I do). But considering I thought twice before ordering as it sounded so gruesome, it was actually pretty tame as far as serial killer stuff goes.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unnerving

I bought this having studied criminology and in particular, serial killers.

The fact I’d never heard of Israel Keyes almost terrifies me and the light this book shines on institutional cover ups is equally disturbing.

Fantastically put together, the only downside for me was the narration, which sounds a bit robotic, but I’m likely just nitpicking.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

interesting insight

Pretty good book, the narrator is ok but her male voice impressions become hard to listen to after a few hours

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

really interesting book

despite many reviews says the opposite I believe the narrator did a good job.
if you are interested in true crime or serial killers this is a must read

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

American Predator

Not a lot of content so padded out and choice of narrator poor. The female narrator putting on a gruff voice to simulate men is nuts IMHO.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent but Scary

Can't believe how this killer is not more well known. Obviously a cover up by the powers that be. Absolutely tragic the number of errors that were made by the local police and the FBI, a girls life could have been saved, truly heartbreaking-I couldn't bear to read it. Great credit to Maureen Callaghan for writing this book but extremely scary.

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Narrator bored me

Cant even return it for some reason...
Perhaps I would have got into the story if it was another narrator, I couldn't concentrate on what was being said even when I tried, just ended up daydreaming and thinking about other things.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not good

Its a boring stiry im sorry i could not gdt into it,which ix unusual for me ..

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

very much less interesting than the blurb

whilst the reader was fine... in essence this is one interview with a man whom we really know little of. There is no pursuit... he is found immediately and we spend nine hours listening to a chopped version of an interview.

You will probably becdisappointed...

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good but not great

This is the story of (mostly the interrogation) of a recent serial killer Israel Keyes. I found it relied too heavily on interview transcripts - I don't think the writer every actually interviewed family members of the killer or victims, or, obviously, the killer himself. She has a repeated and (to me) unwarranted prejudice against the prosecutor after he apparently refused her request to be interviewed for the books, and this makes me question the objectivity of the account in general.

The narrator does a good job for the most part but occasionally mispronounces words (like pruh-PANE for PRO-pane, and pros-tetics for pros-THetics) and she needs to learn how to change her pitch or tone for subordinate clauses so as not to render sentences meaningless.

Overall, the book was competent but not particularly entertaining or fresh in terms of either writing or insights.

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