Invisible Killer: The Monster Behind the Mask

by Diana Montané, Sean Robbins

When detectives respond to a crime scene in Orlando, Florida, during the "summer of hurricanes" in 2004, they find Charlie Brandt hanging from the rafters in the garage of his niece, Michelle Jones' home. Inside the house, they find a scene of horror that reminds them of other murders. In 1978, 13-year-old Carol Lynn Sullivan's head was found inside a rusty paint can in Osteen, Florida; her body was never found. Homeless transient Sherry Perisho was murdered in 1989, after moving to Florida from Illinois. Finally, in 1995, Miami prostitute Darlene Toler was deposited on the side of the road, wrapped up "like a package." Perisho and Toler had their hearts removed; all three had been decapitated; and all three are believed by investigators to have been the prior victims of Charlie Brandt. Invisible Killer is the true story of crimes committed by Brandt with insight from an FBI profiler and forensic psychologist, victim's friends and relatives, and the unique writings from victims themselves before their deaths.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction

284 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2013

Reviews

[Nerfzilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite honestly the worst book I have ever read. The writing is on maybe a third grade level and clearly the publisher is unfamiliar with the concept of proof reading. Many sentences are missing essential words that render many incomprehensible. No insight whatsoever is gleaned and there is a dearth of genuine evidence. Basically this is all speculation. The hyperbole is atrocious and the authors' prejudices distort almost every chapter. The book is deeply unorganised and the sources cited are pathetic. This is basically an hysteric's novelisation of a terribly sad story which had the potential to be fascinating and informative but instead this is simply a waste of time. I read on average between two to four books a week and of the 357 books I have read in the two years since I began reading electronic books this is maybe the third time I have ever given a book one star. Do not waste your money on this book. It will only annoy you.

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eerie-toned true story about Florida killer Charlie Brandt and his crimes, taking place in Florida and the Florida Keys during the "Year of the Hurricanes". It was a time when the state was hit with several bad hurricanes, when I moved from central FL to North Georgia, hoping to put that kind of storm threat behind me for good. After several different murders happen separately in South Florida, Brandt and his wife left the Keys for central Florida to stay with his wife's sister to ride out another storm. When the weekend is over, all 3 are found dead in the sister's home, a murder-suicide.

[Gena Koehler · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first few chapters were just full of pointless metaphors & one cliche phrase after another. Quite possibly one of the worst true crime books I've ever read. So much so, I finally had to give up reading 95 pages in.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in spite of the writing quality, not because of it. I found the writing pretty clumsy and purple, but the story was written from an unusual perspective and the case itself was pretty unusual. I was thrown throughout this book by the author's odd statements. For instance, she said again and again that a certain 13-year-old girl was probably his subject's "first killing" even though she'd been crystal clear that the first killing had been committed years earlier and the whole world knew about it. She also seemed to call mental retardation a "controllable condition" at one point. In spite of this kind of goofiness, I found the book intriguing because it focused on how completely normal the killer was when he wasn't disemboweling someone -- it's a point too many true-crime writers forget, that even serial killers are 99% normal and unremarkable.

[Katherine Coble · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not read this book unless you want to know what "the worst True Crime book Coble has EVER read" looks like. I've read rough drafts by seventh graders that are better than this. The writing is florid and sloppy. There can't have been a sober proofreader with all the missing words and typos and general strangeness. Dreadful.

[Bill reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie Brandt shot his mother and father at the tender age of thirteen. Mom bought the farm but dad survived and so did Chuck's sister, due to a lack of ammunition. The young'un then strangled his sibling but suddenly came to his senses and stopped.
Somehow, the head doctors decided that the killer was now cured after the stay of one year at an asylum. It was back to a normal family life. Dad was a member of Hitler Youth in Germany and his coldness made its' way to his offspring.
The Florida Keys are unique in that they draw a large number of laid back transients, and one of them, Sherry Perisho, was found mutilated near the dinghy that she lived on. Other victims turned up for several years without an arrest. Sherry worked as a prostitute and left behind a well written journal. Her autopsy is presented with the entry that "the heart is absent."
Carol Sullivan was just short of her thirteenth birthday in 1978 when she vanished from a school bus stop. Her head was found in an empty paint can and Brandt remains the number one suspect. He had a habit of removing the heads and hearts of his victims. She was most likely his first kill. Coincidentally, it was the same year of Ted Bundy's final murder, that of Kimberly Leach, also in Florida. Ted's jail mate and fellow serial killer Gerald Stano was also quite busy at the same time.
Brandt committed numerous murders and we will never know his final total.
Invisible Killer is not written in a linear manner and I was annoyed at the scattershot style and therefore it is only a passable read.

[Mich Delgado · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me so long to read this book because I feel it was all over the place, just a conjunction of information related to this guy. I t really turned boring in some parts of the book. It started out by telling his story, his life according to specific events and people close to him. Afterwards it was just like the book had to be 300 pages long and the narration of his story only covers 85. So, they filled the pages out just by adding police reports that MIGHT/COULD /POSSIBLY be related to him. I think the 30 mins documentary I watched about him covers his case (and story/life) better and without fillers. Some details where interesting but a lot of others not at all. Like a friend of a friend of a friend who was kind of a medium and supposedly could feel the evilness and bad presence of him in one of the houses he lived in. If they are going to explain that they could go to the point on it.

[Dana ****Reads Alot**** · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am just so disgusted with the people who knew Charlie had attacked his own family and never thought to tell Terry his then girlfriend before she became his wife. Maybe her death and others could of been prevented. He tried killing his own father and sister and none of them could warn her?? they were victims themselves but could of prevented more victims. Even Terry and his close friend thought he was responsible for some of the murders on women that were occuring. they should of said something.

[Maggie King · Rating 1 out of 5]

I seriously just can't even with this book. I am a lover of true crime novels, so in spite of all the horrible reviews, i figured i would give it a go. Worst. Mistake. Ever. This book is so absurdly poorly written i don't even know where to begin. Do yourself a favor and don't read the book.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was the worst written book I have ever read. Two authors who apparently never read what the other was writing. Interesting topic. Terribly written

[Koren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story but oh, the typos! Sometimes I couldn't understand what was being said. It wasn't misspelled words as much us it was words turned around or missing so you couldn't understand the sentence. It didn't happen very often but still was maddening. But the story was interesting. This guy did terrible things to people. It is hard to imagine how someone could do the things he did. I didn't quite understand why the title is The Invisible Killer. It makes it sound like he is a ghost.

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly the most poorly written book I've read. Subject matter was gruesome, but interesting: however it was nearly impossible to follow the sequence of events and to sort out the characters.

[Sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book didn't get many good reviews but for me, it was an interesting story. Charlie Brandt was as evil as they come. His poor unsuspecting wife and her niece didn’t see it coming.

[Brooke Siekman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loaned this from my local library, based on a reference in a Crime Junkie episode on the case. I feel like the content was very unorganized & often repeated itself, sometimes within the same page. There were many misspelled/misplaced words, and often words totally missing from sentences that were necessary. If I had happened across this first, before listening to the podcast episode, I may have been more intrigued by the information. Again, with the back and forth through timelines, attempting to connect cases to Brandt (which have not been connected by law enforcement nor the victim's families), I felt scatterbrained.

I will say, that having a sample of Teri's daily journal log written out was interesting.

My opinion: if you enjoy reading, read this and then listen to the episode Crime Junkie Podcast did.

[Cee Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solidly written and researched book on the crimes of little known serial killer Charlie Brandt. The book features full autopsy reports and police records. It also goes into detail on the lives of his victims which gives them humanity and a final voice. I really like how deep this went including the look into psychology and pathology of what makes someone evil. There is a one chapter diversion into the paranormal and a seance that disrupted the flow a bit for me but all in all i recommend this.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are individuals in life whose psychopathology is so far beyond our understanding & experience that the carnage they leave behind is inexplicable. That is the case for me with Carl E. (Charlie) Brandt. His murders and methods shock me to the core. This is the only book I've ever found about his grisly history, and it's not the best writing, but it is painstakingly researched and and I couldn't put it down. If you know the case, read it. It's an unforgettable story.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that horrifying murders as such were documented and after reading this could have been avoided is disgusting. This book made me never want to pick up another true crime story again.

[Alisa Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about a little known killer

I enjoyed this book. Well written, a touch meandering, but interesting tale of the kind of killers that fly under our radar.

[Tabitha · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I have ever read. Skips topics and jumps all over the place.

[Rosalyn Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing was subpar and it jumped around all over the place.

[Butts McKenzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Strange, flowery writing mixed with convoluted, second and third-hand information.

[Cheri Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jumps around alot

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd story of murder

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story fascinated me. I saw it first on tv and ordered the book right away. While many readers complained about horrible spelling and grammar, I didn't find that many errors. It certainly didn't take away anything from this horrible crime. Charlie shot and killed his mother when he was 13, and shot his father, but he survived. He went on to kill his wife and niece in a horrible manner. Very interesting story.

[Jessica Bampton]

I really want to read this book... I would of told the lady Terry about him... The family and friends of Terry, I'm so very sorry about your loss. I sow on Dr. Phil about this story... And I want to know what they say in the book about him and what really happened to Terry and the family and friends of her

[Brauwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting topic. I didn't find much issues with the grammar or understanding the book. Some of the people I knew so the story was interesting to me but honestly, it creeped me out to know that something like this could happen so close to home. I couldn't finish reading it because it scared me so much. I would recommend it.

[Mary Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad Story

Sad Story

What a sad story. The book isn't terrible, but it isn't terribly well-written either. Many redundancies. Edited poorly. Rambling. Thanks to the authors for their efforts though.

[Tina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read 60 % of this, and there is no exaggeration that it is the worst true crime book ever.

[Vicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Discrepancies galore. Jumbled timeline. Too little information. Speculation. Too much possible information not included. Repetitive.

[Linda Drye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed

The book is confusing, repetitive, and boring. Forget about reading this and just watch the 48hrs. show about the case..