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The Criminalist
A police investigator is forced to turn to a civilian to help stop a gruesome serial killer.
- GenresMystery
368 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2003
26 people want to read
About the author
William Relling Jr.
26 books1 followerWilliam Edward Relling Jr. (March 15, 1954 – January 22, 2004) was a St. Louis-born horror/mystery writer. He graduated from Lutheran High School North in 1971. He was a member of the Colin Sphinctor Band and in 1978 moved to Los Angeles with the band. When the band broke up, Relling chose to stay in Los Angeles, where he continued writing. Fellow writer Gary A. Braunbeck wrote of Relling's death by suicide in his 2010 book To Each Their Darkness.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 11, 2017
The Criminalist by William Relling, Jr. was okay up until the point that the criminalist became a psychic and used his spidey senses to magically deduce who the killer was with zero evidence. I wouldn't recommend this one at all.
February 2, 2026
This was not the book I thought it would be. Not because I made an erroneous assumption, but because it was blatantly missold.
Criminalist = "relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of crime"
The back cover talks about Rachel Siegel, cop investigating a serial killer called the Pied Piper, and Kenneth Bennet, working for the Department of Neuropsychiatry at a university who helps investigators.
All of this implies this book will be a thriller with psychological elements to it. That is NOT what this book was at all.
No, Bennett is a damn psychic, something which Relling spends a lot of time trying to convince the reader is an actual, scientifically verified ability. To the point of other characters saying he is "one hundred percent legit". If you were to only read this book you'd think the case is settled, not realizing it's anything but with no actual studies proving anything.
In addition, Relling spend time being quite clear about what Bennett's powers are and aren't - and then he goes against it all by having Bennett just 'know' things at various points. Like not needing to check certain people will be home before going. And all despite having spent time telling us Bennett ISN'T a precog.
But then, a lack of internal consistency is only one of the many flaws of this book.
To me the biggest one is the consistent and deep sexism and misogyny running throughout this books. Girls are described as 'fragile' and women are 'delicate', they 'squeal', they cry, they are always described in terms of their attractiveness - even when it's a straight woman looking at another woman Relling can't help but go into her attractiveness. Men are almost never described this way. Oh, and the experienced female cop keeps her gun in her handbag and is described as a 'lady' detective. What is this, the 70s? The book was written after 2000!
The worst case of this sexism came near the end when there was a confrontation. Instead of the woman with the training and experience handling it, she had to be 'saved' by the untrained and inexperienced man. It was disgusting.
In addition, there are threads of racism, homophobia, and antisemitism in this book as well. Since those weren't consistent and seemed more tied to a few characters, I think they were just meant to show those characters had this trait, but I might have missed elements of them which indicate it's more pervasive, like the sexism.
Additionally, for a book that marketed itself as a thriller about a serial killer, I think only about half the book deals with this. We get 33 pages at the start that give us the promised story: scenes and action around the serial killer case. Then, for the next 60 pages were get irrelevant psychic related drivel that wasn't advertized nor why I chose this book.
At that point the case came up again, briefly, before we left it behind again to focus on Bennett and his woes and annoyances. It wasn't badly written, but it WASN'T what the book said it would be. If that's what an author wants to write, fine, but TELL prospective readers that, don't trick them into buying your book so you can try and foist your ideas and opinions on them.
For the rest of the book we yo-yo between relevant Pied Piper stuff and irrelevant Bennett psychodrama, some of which undermines what Relling tried to make us believe before. Like his supposed true love romance that he forgets quickly to have an affair with the mother of a recently murdered child. Ugh!
And, finally, my last bugbear with this book is that, like in all stories that have psychics, the police forces (local, state, and federal) were completely and utterly incompetent. I mean, the killer isn't even trying to go undetected being insane (which we're shown and and then told as Relling clearly thinks his readers are idiots), so how are we supposed to believe he claimed that many victims without leaving a single clue?
Pathetic, and Relling never gives any supposed cover for why someone so insane wasn't noticed in their job interacting with a lot of people. The final insult was Rachel hardly being involved in anything close to useful, instead the psychic had to swoop in to save the day.
Entirely unbelievable, badly plotted and paced, 100% do no recommend. To anyone.
Criminalist = "relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of crime"
The back cover talks about Rachel Siegel, cop investigating a serial killer called the Pied Piper, and Kenneth Bennet, working for the Department of Neuropsychiatry at a university who helps investigators.
All of this implies this book will be a thriller with psychological elements to it. That is NOT what this book was at all.
No, Bennett is a damn psychic, something which Relling spends a lot of time trying to convince the reader is an actual, scientifically verified ability. To the point of other characters saying he is "one hundred percent legit". If you were to only read this book you'd think the case is settled, not realizing it's anything but with no actual studies proving anything.
In addition, Relling spend time being quite clear about what Bennett's powers are and aren't - and then he goes against it all by having Bennett just 'know' things at various points. Like not needing to check certain people will be home before going. And all despite having spent time telling us Bennett ISN'T a precog.
But then, a lack of internal consistency is only one of the many flaws of this book.
To me the biggest one is the consistent and deep sexism and misogyny running throughout this books. Girls are described as 'fragile' and women are 'delicate', they 'squeal', they cry, they are always described in terms of their attractiveness - even when it's a straight woman looking at another woman Relling can't help but go into her attractiveness. Men are almost never described this way. Oh, and the experienced female cop keeps her gun in her handbag and is described as a 'lady' detective. What is this, the 70s? The book was written after 2000!
The worst case of this sexism came near the end when there was a confrontation. Instead of the woman with the training and experience handling it, she had to be 'saved' by the untrained and inexperienced man. It was disgusting.
In addition, there are threads of racism, homophobia, and antisemitism in this book as well. Since those weren't consistent and seemed more tied to a few characters, I think they were just meant to show those characters had this trait, but I might have missed elements of them which indicate it's more pervasive, like the sexism.
Additionally, for a book that marketed itself as a thriller about a serial killer, I think only about half the book deals with this. We get 33 pages at the start that give us the promised story: scenes and action around the serial killer case. Then, for the next 60 pages were get irrelevant psychic related drivel that wasn't advertized nor why I chose this book.
At that point the case came up again, briefly, before we left it behind again to focus on Bennett and his woes and annoyances. It wasn't badly written, but it WASN'T what the book said it would be. If that's what an author wants to write, fine, but TELL prospective readers that, don't trick them into buying your book so you can try and foist your ideas and opinions on them.
For the rest of the book we yo-yo between relevant Pied Piper stuff and irrelevant Bennett psychodrama, some of which undermines what Relling tried to make us believe before. Like his supposed true love romance that he forgets quickly to have an affair with the mother of a recently murdered child. Ugh!
And, finally, my last bugbear with this book is that, like in all stories that have psychics, the police forces (local, state, and federal) were completely and utterly incompetent. I mean, the killer isn't even trying to go undetected being insane (which we're shown and and then told as Relling clearly thinks his readers are idiots), so how are we supposed to believe he claimed that many victims without leaving a single clue?
Pathetic, and Relling never gives any supposed cover for why someone so insane wasn't noticed in their job interacting with a lot of people. The final insult was Rachel hardly being involved in anything close to useful, instead the psychic had to swoop in to save the day.
Entirely unbelievable, badly plotted and paced, 100% do no recommend. To anyone.
June 20, 2024
This was my first William Relling Jr book.
This book was so good and kept me engaged.
Detective Rachel Siegel lives in California and has been tasked with finding The Pied Piper, a serial killer of children.
Kenneth Bennett lives halfway across the country and helps police departments solve baffling cases.
They help each other solve the case
This book was so good and kept me engaged.
Detective Rachel Siegel lives in California and has been tasked with finding The Pied Piper, a serial killer of children.
Kenneth Bennett lives halfway across the country and helps police departments solve baffling cases.
They help each other solve the case
May 28, 2021
The first book I've read from this author, but certainly not the last. Good story, good writing, and a good book all around.
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April 14, 2008Mystery
August 14, 2008
Eh. okay. Read it to just finish it. Didn't keep me wanting to read. I didn't really care about the characters or feel I knew them.
March 31, 2013
Good read - I was really hoping this was a series.
July 14, 2012
This was one I just pulled off the shelf from a local used bookstore but enjoyed it. No great literature just a summer read. New author for me as well.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews