Hunting the Devil

by Richard Lourie

Book Overview

This study describes how Chief Inspector Issa Kostoev, an expert in the psychology of serial killers, hunted down and convicted the cunning psychopath Andrei Chikatilo. Responsible for the murders of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061092215
• ISBN13: 9780061092213
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: HarperPrism
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Hunting the devil

This book arrived promptly and in good condition. I've not yet read it. I'm extremely pleased with both the vendor and the product. Dr. John E. Touchton Sr.

A Model in the Genre

The subject matter of this book - Andrei Chikatilo - is extremely interesting, though unbelievably dark, and the book itself lives up to the task. Chikatilo was one of the most terrible serial killers in history, with 53 official victims (and a few unofficial ones more), and certainly one of the most savage and furious. Here is a man who had orgasms while mutilating genitals and used his knife as some sort of [...]replacement, not to mention the rest. What I especially appreciated in the book is how is the narrative is shared between the killer and those looking for him, more especially Issa Kostoev, the man in charge of arresting the "Rostov Ripper". As the title of the book suggests, you will learn quite some interesting things about how the pursuit of this killer was led, and what kind of problems the hunting had to face; and that will be quite stunning. Corruption, treason, base sexual desires, etc, etc. While hunting for the Devil, there will be many demons on the way: police officers abusing their functions to beat and rape arrested people, all sorts of mentally challenged perverts thought to be potential killers, etc. The whole thing has a feeling of intense dystopia and is quite stunning. Both lives this book is concerned with, Issa Kostoev and Andrei Chikatilo, are cast against a background of falling empire, as the USSR slowly went to its demise. It's almost eerie how Chikatilo's own fall coincides with that of the Soviet Block. It's very interesting, because in a way, it all begins with it, and ends with it. Kostoev, as a child, suffered from Stalin's unjust removing and persecution of his whole people (in which he lost many a sibling) and Chikatilo as a child had to go through hard times too (though not quite comparable). Richard Lourie does a great job of not only exposing the facts of the affair (and he had a ton of document for this, as well as having been with Issa Kostoev personally, attending Chikatilo's trial, having all the documents of the case, including audio-tapes and all) but also in putting all of it in perspective and giving the reader a good insight of Russia and of a society not quite functioning, and changing. The reader is made to follow Kostoev in that long pursuit of that demonic killer which took many years, and many lives. The writing is gripping; I read the whole book in two readings, reading for 5 hours each time or so. This is truly the best kind of "true crime" I have read, because it does not lose itself into cheap novelisation while suing narrative devices to shape the whole thing into a convincing and riveting book. I haven't read any other book on Andrei Chikatilo, but this one is definitely a classic on that killer, if only for the documents available to the author, who speaks Russian and knows Russian culture, a fact that is very important and whose impact you can feel reading the book. The range covered here is impressive: the killer, the dysfunctions of the system, the life of Kostoev as he

One of the worst serial killers the world has ever seen

This is the story of Andrei Chikatilo, a sadistic sexual serial killer convicted in Rostov of 53 murders of women and children (although he undoubtedly committed more). Lourie focuses on detective Issa Kostoev, who led the years-long investigation that finally caught Chikatilo, but not before an innocent man was executed for his first murder. This book provides an interesting insight into the Russian legal system as it struggled to capture Russia's very own "Jack the Ripper."

Fascinating Story--Could Have Been Better Told

I'm not a big fan of the serial killer genreóbe it on the thriller shelves of the bookstore, or on film (Se7en and Manhunter are the only two serial killer movies I've ever really liked). However, this story about the hunt for Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo is fascinating, despite not being particularly well written. I had never heard of Chikatilo, but from the late '70s to late '80s he killed at least 53 women and children in the Rostov province of Russia. His methods and predilections were particularly gruesome, as he favored slowly stabbing or hammering his victims to death before eviscerating them, masturbating over them, and sometimes cooking and eating part of them. This is a man who left the house every day with a knapsack containing a knife, change of clothes, and small cooking pot, just in case the opportunity presented itself. Longtime Russian expert Lourie tells the story mostly through the eyes of Issa Kostoev, the special investigator who led the years-long quest to bring Chikatilo to justice. The investigators were hampered by the randomness of the killings, the relative lack of research into DNA in the Soviet Union, the lack of criminal psychology as a discipline, as well as the laziness and sloppiness of local police, who had botched previous efforts (at one point they had actually arrested Chikatilo, only to release him). Since Lourie relies on interviews with Kostoev, it's hard to know how accurate the picture of the investigation is, but the story he tells is compelling and will certainly appeal to those with an interest in the procedural aspects of criminology. The investigator's own life story is fascinating; an Ingush from the Caucuses, his family was deported to the Kazakh steppe during WWII by Stalin. There, he lost brothers and sisters to famine, and his thirst for justice was bred. By the book's end, he has been made a General and is being asked by his countrymen to come home and lead the political struggle for full restoration of the homeland. Lourie's reliance on the single source is sometimes a fault, as Kostoev's own preoccupations are given precedence. There is rather an overemphasis (and occasional repetitiveness) on the thought processes involved in the interrogation and getting a confession from Chikatilo. A writer more experienced in writing about crime would likely have cut some of the fat here. One also feels like there might have been a little more drama wrung from the hunt, not to mention a greater vividness to the details. These might be found in one of the three other books written about the case (none of which I've read): Comrade Chikatilo: The Psychopathology of Russia's Notorious Serial Killer by Mikhail Krivich, The Killer Department: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer of Our Times by Robert Cullen, or Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer by Peter Conradi. There's also a film called Citizen X that's been made about the hun

Aptly Titled, Key Word is HUNT

Andrei Chikatilo was the most infamous Russian serial killer of all time, and with good reason. His reign of terror was as long as his court antics were bizarre. He is in the first rank of cannibal killers, right up there with more familiar monsters like Jeffrey Dalmer and Ed Gein. Although within the police state of the Soviet Union he was able to operate much longer. But this book is as much about the pursuer as the pursued, indeed Inspector Issa Kostoev really takes center stage. The story is told from a cop?s perspective and even details the politics that surround the investigation. Especially interesting are the appearances of other less well-known deviants that Kostoev encounters along the way (like Anthony Slivko). Also of interest were the cat and mouse techniques that Kostoev used to break Chikatilo during interrogation, and how the killer?s party affiliation helped him early in his career. There is a lot of interesting stuff here, but those seeking understanding of the why of what Chaikatilo did must look elsewhere.