If you're sick of the glamorisation of crime in Australia (Channel 9's Underbelly series) and want to get inside the real facts and psychology of some of Australia's deranged and murderous individuals, than Paul B. Kidd's latest fiction novel, The Mutilator and Australia's Other Signature Serial Killers is the perfect book to give you the real evidence. 

Paul B. Kidd is an Australian author, Radio 2UE talk back broadcaster, photojournalist and freelance researcher who has painstakingly collected the stories of a five infamous serial killers in Australia that include Arnold Karl Sodeman (The Schoolgirl Strangler), Eric Edgar Cooke (The Night Caller), John Wayne Glover (The Granny Killer), Peter Norris Dupas (The Ordinary Monster) and William MacDonald (The Mutilator). As you may have noticed by the individuals included in this book, each of these killers had a particular way of killing their victims or a particular target group.

Needless to say, all these individuals are quite disturbed but what puts this novel apart from many other crime novels is that Kidd was actually given access to William MacDonald (The Mutilator) in the corrective services as he spent a year on and off interviewing this man. Gruesome best sums up this tale.

It was also quite fascinating how Kidd introduced these Australian serial killers by spending portion of the book introducing you to the world of serial killers across the globe from Jack the Ripper to the Zodiac Killer and finally the Yorkshire Ripper. At times, these stories sickened me to the core and actually raised the question of how these individuals could commit such heinous crime with no remorse. It is definitely more than a sickness and the word evil comes to mind.

As Kidd introduces each Australian serial killer, he goes into detail of how they committed the crime which is quite graphic as are some of the photos included in this book plus comments from these individuals. Through his research, Kidd does hover on the theories of why they may have committed these crimes which generally stem back to their upbringing or other key events in their lives.

However for me, the most disturbing facet of this book was the Mutilator which is the final half the book and his unique, more specifically evil way of killing his victims through his "signature" is quite frightening. Even more chilling is MacDonald's social commentary on the world near the end of the book.

Final Thoughts?

If you are interested in this genre, than I would highly recommend Paul B. Kidd's insightful book about serial killers in Australia but be warned, this is a graphic novel about true events. Kidd should be commended on exploring such a taboo topic as he remains a neutral and professional observer.