Summary

'Serial killers experience the power over life and death as omnipotence.

Since they have little control over their own lives and feelings, they become addicted to the omnipotence that control over someone else's life gives them. Therefore, they will kill repetitively. It restores the mental imbalance they experience whenever their self-worth is challenged . . . when I interrogate a serial killer I dive into the blackness of his soul. I am familiar with his feelings of emptiness, loneliness, depression, death, omnipotence and fear. I dive deeply to get a grip of his torment . . .'

A profiler who wants to understand the mind of the serial killer must have been prepared by life experiences before he or she can dare to venture into the abyss. A person who has led a protected life will not survive . . .

Micki Pistorius is an investigative psychologist who worker as a profiler for the South African Police Service for six years. Her books include this autobiographical best-seller, Strangers on the Street, Fatal Females, and Profiling Serial Killers, which are also published by Penguin.