American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century in Obsessed with True Crime

May 13, 2019 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

True crime has been a guilty pleasure of mine for at least 30 years…I remember working in a public library and happily discovering the 364.1523 shelves (where even today I still browse, although TBH public library budgets often prevent a lot of trashy ephemeral reading material from making it to the shelves). These days, true crime has become a pop culture THING, and there’s no shortage of readily available books, movies, and podcasts dedicated to what used to be very much a niche market. I was True crime has been a guilty pleasure of mine for at least 30 years…I remember working in a public library and happily discovering the 364.1523 shelves (where even today I still browse, although TBH public library budgets often prevent a lot of trashy ephemeral reading material from making it to the shelves). These days, true crime has become a pop culture THING, and there’s no shortage of readily available books, movies, and podcasts dedicated to what used to be very much a niche market. I was very happy to receive an ARC of American Predator by Maureen Callahan from Penguin Group/Viking and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

The blurb for this book says most of us “…have never heard of Israel Keyes. But he is one of the most ambitious, meticulous serial killers of modern time.” Possibly coincidence, but I felt like I was WAY more familiar with the crimes this unspeakably evil man committed than I might like, because very recently I had listened to two podcasts covering Keyes and his exploits: Generation Why and Crime Junkie. (I totally recommend Crime Junkie. Host Ashley Flowers does actual research, has an excellent presentation style, and adds relevant material including photos on her website). – and, knowing this book was likely to invade my dreams (which it did), I dove right in. (BTW, I don’t reveal spoilers for fiction – but true crime info is already out there, so there may be some facts revealed here. )

Keyes lived (and died) in Alaska, where the book’s opening disappearance of teenage barista Samantha Koenig from her night shift work at a coffee kiosk sets off a hunt for her abductor that results in Keyes’ capture in Texas. Callahan writes well, and I loved her description of the Alaskan setting: “Never does this place feel so literally on the edge of the Earth, seesawing between the temporal world and some black chasm of the unknown phenomena, as the six months it sinks into near-total darkness. The isolation alone means anything goes. It is a rough place to be a woman.”

The book has extensive detail about the investigation and interrogation of Keyes, and reveals the incredibly serendipitous nature of his arrest. What set him apart from many criminals was his incredible planning, including scouting out locations for future crimes and burying a “kit” including things like weapons, duct tape, cable ties, gloves, etc. which he could return (sometimes years later) and dig up to have ready to go. This allowed him to fly in to a town previously scouted, commit his crimes and vanish without a trace.

Although there were a few awkward sentences (“Keyes was wrong to think a burner phone can’t be tracked but right about that.” – About WHAT?), the writing is good. This isn’t some quickie exploitative TC book, dashed off to cash in on a currently popular topic. Ms. Callahan’s years of experience as a writer and editor for the New York Post with a focus on popular culture is perhaps part of why she can cover a grisly topic and present it in a way that will likely appeal to a general audience.

The story is unsettling, partly because there were so many ways the agencies fighting over who got credit and who got to take the lead on investigating/prosecuting totally screwed things up. It’s kind of a miracle he was in jail, and that he confessed to several crimes…but it seems there were countless other incidents he was involved in, and we will never know the extent of his crimes. It’s also unsettling to think he lived with his daughter and girlfriend, committed grisly murder literally in his own backyard, and his friends, family and neighbors had NO CLUE that he was basically two people. His MO included the burial of his “kill kits” noted above (cash, weapons, and body-disposal tools) in remote locations across the country. Seriously, how creepy is it that over the span of fourteen years, he would repeatedly fly to a random city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to use those kits? He would break into the house of a complete stranger, sometimes abducting victims in broad daylight, kill and dispose of them in a few hours, then calmly return home and resume his “other persona” as a reliable construction worker who was lovingly devoted to his young daughter. (As Ashley Flowers’ co-host Brit would say, “Full. Body. Chills.”

To this day, so much of his activity remains a total mystery. Pretty much all we know of his exploits is what he chose to reveal during his interrogation, and that only happened due to a fluke traffic stop in Texas. It’s also odd that “…forty-five thousand pages of case files remain unreleased by the Department of Justice,” and that the circumstances of his death are so clouded in mystery (where did he get razor blades, and why did the guards not notice the blood flowing out of his cell the night he died?). For true crime fans in general and anyone interested in Israel Keyes in particular, five stars. ...more

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Aug 24, 2019 ♥ Marlene♥ added it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, true-crime, non-fiction

This was the second book I've read about this killer. I enjoyed it but there are so many questions still left which frustrated me. Some people believe he was not as bad, did not kill as many as they think.Others are angry at the way he was being treated. In this book it does show how he had all the control and in a way it blames the prosecutor because he interfered and wanted to be the one who questioned him.
To me that is so disgusting and selfish if true. Thinking of your career instead of try ...more

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Jul 13, 2021 Jenn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-books-2021, 2021, true-crime-i-ve-read

Well this was horrifying. So we’ll written it was a book I didn’t want to put down, even as it was nightmare inducing.

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Jul 30, 2023 Natalie rated it liked it

Shelves: female-pen, true-crime, very-bad-people, read-in-2023, america-fuck-yeah, biography, thanatos

everyone in law enforcement is a bungling idiot.

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May 15, 2021 Esme rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-read-in-2021

This was an enjoyable and suspenseful read. I always enjoy a true crime story more when I don’t know how it is going to end, so I did my best not to google it and ruin the ending. I thought I knew how it ended and it turned out I was right. I am steeped in the serial killers of the 70s so it is interesting to see how their methods have evolved. It seems like there are a lot of blank spots in this guy’s background, and they got very lucky that he was willing to talk at all. I found it to be an ea ...more

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Feb 09, 2020 FlowerFairy rated it really liked it

This book! What a wild a terrifying ride! The sheer magnitude of this man’s depravity is beyond comprehension. His intelligence, his ability to plan for killings years in advance by planting kill kits across the country without even having a specific victim in mind & his ability to commit atrocities then disappear without a trace are all horrifying. No doubt he took numerous secrets to his grave and we’ll never know the total depth of his evil.

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Jan 23, 2020 Stacey Grey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favs, true-crime, audible, 2020

Deep dive on Israel Keyes. If you’re not really into true crime this probably isn’t for you. I am and I loved it. I’ve read about and listened to several podcasts about Keyes throughout the last few years but I still learned new information. I also appreciated that they researched his childhood and past to try and figure out why he committed these horrible murders.

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Oct 16, 2019 Linda Garcia rated it really liked it

Quick easy read on one of the most vile serial killers. I remember hearing about Samantha Koenig when she went missing and then following all the developments in the case and how it linked to an unsolved murder in Vermont that I was also following (can you tell I follow a lot of True Crime?). So glad this monster is no longer walking this earth.

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