Between the Covers ~ with Sandra Dailey: Stephen B King talks about serial killers and GLIMPSE, THE ANGEL SHOT

I'm turning the blog over to friend and author extraordinaire

Stephen B King

Serial Killers, and why do they fascinate us (me)?

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone, when I say I have a deep seated, morbid fascination for serial killers. To be more specific, I want to know why. What it is that drives some people to murder another, enjoy the experience and want to do it again, and again…

When a stalking murderer is on the prowl in our city, it is a media frenzy, which always includes coming up with a catchy nickname for him, or her. Fear grips us ‘normal people’, we change our lifestyles so as not to be seen as a target, stop going out at night, double lock the doors, etc. Prostitution in the UK dropped dramatically during the reign of Peter Sutcliff, aka, The Yorkshire Ripper. Backpackers in Australia travelled in pairs while Ivan Milat, The Belango State Forrest Killer, was at large, and there are many more cases that highlight this. Yet, when these monsters are caught, often by sheer luck as much as dogged policework, and we all breathe a collective sigh of relief, what is the burning question we want answered? Why did they do it?

I think, what intrigues me when I ask that question is that there is rarely an answer we can quantify. I’ve never once thought: ‘Oh, is that why The Boston Strangler attacked all those women, righto, that makes sense,’ then continue eating my cornflakes. Sure, it can be argued some mass murderers had terrible childhoods, spare the rod and spoil the child and all that, while others had horrific upbringings and some psychologists point and say, “See? That’s why he killed all those women, his mother abused him with a wire coat hanger and a wooden spoon.” The problem with that argument, as far as I’m concerned, is what about all those children who had a childhood at the hand of a sadistic mother or father and didn’t go and slaughter thirteen people before being caught? Why not? Why one and not the other?

Clearly, what makes one person murder, and another take up flower arranging is a complex matter. In Glimpse 4, Glimpse, The Angel Shot I use three quotes from a man who was arguably the most famous American Serial Killer of all time, Ted Bundy, to head up a chapter. These are some of the most chilling words I have ever read. He said them during an interview when he was on death row - he gave a lot of interviews, reveling in his fame, and maybe, just maybe, there is a clue to why there.

"Murder is not about lust, and it's not about violence. It's about possession."

"We serial killers are your sons; we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow."

"What's one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?"

These words, sicken me, yet at the same time, I am drawn to them, like a moth to the flame. Such callousness I have never seen before, and hopefully never will again. He shows intelligence, yes, he is very verbose, but does it explain why? No, not to my mind, it doesn’t.

My Glimpse series, now comprising five books which started with Glimpse, Memoir of a Serial Killer, and the last installment is Glimpse, The Dinner Guest, charts the continuing saga of the relationship between the two protagonists. Richard, ‘Rick’ McCoy; a hardened, fallible, Detective Sargent in the Major Crime Squad of the Western Australian Police and Patricia Holmes, a beautiful Criminal Psychologist who is seconded to work with Rick to unravel the mindset of serial murderers. Each stand-alone story, also takes the reader inside the mind of the killer and, answers that burning question, why. As Patricia says at one point, “The human mind can be capable of great good, but at the other end of the scale, it can also show great evil.”

I thought I was done with The Deadly Glimpses stories after book three. It was after all only intended to be a trilogy, but there was a groundswell of reader demand, led my narrator of the audio versions, for more, and so, I began to think about finding a fourth murderer. During a night out with my wife, inspiration hit me like a slap in the face on a cold night when she told me what an Angel Shot actually was – silly me thought it was a drink, but then I’m a male. And so, Rick came out of his self-imposed, stress leave exile, and Pat, now a detective herself, needed freeing from her partner, a foul-mouthed bigot, and the journey began. I have just finished proof listening to Geoffrey Boyes’ audio version and I asked if he was happy with the story. He replied it was not only the best book he has narrated by far (he has done over thirty now) but the best story he has ever read. High praise indeed. Thank you Geoff for urging me to turn my trilogy into a series.

Glimpse, The Angel Shot, blurb:

Seven women have disappeared from bars only to be found murdered after asking for an Angel Shot. Detective Rick McCoy is handed the case after returning from leave following his wife's horrific ordeal at the hands of the serial killer, PPP. Criminal psychologist Patricia Holmes lost her husband to the same killer and when her current partner makes her life miserable she jumps at the chance to work with Rick again. When they determine a man currently jailed for the crimes could not have committed them the mystery deepens.

But that is the least of Rick's worries. An imaginary alter ego appears warning him his wife is suicidal. Will they be able to solve the riddle of the Angel Shot before another victim loses her life and save his wife from taking hers?

Here is a short excerpt:

While the two men sat, Pat used her notes to recreate what she had written on her study whiteboard the night before. When the seven lists of salient bullet points were completed, she turned to them. “My Father also studied psychology, which was one of the reasons he was so successful in business. He told me to look at events, people, and places like a set of Babushka Dolls. Are you gentlemen familiar with them?"

They both gave her a blank look, and Rick worried Pat might prattle on for too long. Colin Harris was not known for his patience, so he gave her a slight nod to get on with it. She opened her bag and took out the brightly painted and carved wooden doll. "This was what he gave me as a graduation present, and I treasure it."

She unscrewed the doll and took out the identical one from inside, then put the larger one together and sat it on the desk. Then one after the other, she repeated the process until all seven dolls lined up, side by side. “These help me remember that people are like Babushka Dolls; what you see is not necessarily what you get. Inside someone's psyche, there can be others competing for control. Life events, tragedy, and trauma create them. Sometimes, in multiple personality disorder, which fortunately is very rare, each identity doesn’t even know of the others, and that is very scary. If for one moment you accept these cases could be linked, then look at this:"

Pat took her green marker, and as she did the night before, she put neat circles around the similarities and lines linking them, and then with a red pen, put large asterisks by the inconsistencies. She turned to the two men. "It's these inconsistencies, and the time between each which stopped detectives linking cases together, and as I mentioned before, sometimes, arrests were made, so there seemed no need to look closer than the most obvious suspect. What I can't decide, for the simple reason I don't have enough facts to go on yet, is if this is one killer with MPD, or, and here is the scarier scenario, two killers working together."

Amazon buy link: https://amzn.to/3n70Fif