- Hardcover: 258 pages
- Publisher: Pantheon Books; First Edition First Printing edition (May 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679422765
- ISBN-13: 978-0679422761
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 17.8 x 2.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 751,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
 Trade In this Item for up to 0.75
Get an extra 5 when you trade in books worth 10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Killer Department: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer in Russian History for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to 0.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Komerad Psycho
5 Oct 2006
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Led by the brilliant movie "Citizen X" I was compelled to read the book, and the only solution to a ten-year hunt of secondhand bookstores was of course Amazon. The real Viktor Burakov is more hard-boiled than Stephen Rea's portrayal in the movie, Burakov's portrait on the back cover is wreathed in smoke amidst piles of decadent Soviet paperwork. Chikatilo is one of the most savage psychopaths to have roamed the twentieth century, and thrived amidst a strange miasma of the non-existence of the serial killer in the perfect Soviet society, and the armies of incompetents drenched in vodka that served for Russian law. The book is brutally frank in an almost professionally-detached coroner's way, but by getting into the minds of the participants, author Robert Cullen still manages to imbue the book with emotion and feeling. It is a rare occasion when the movie may be even better than the book, but "The Killer Department" is certainly one of the most unique insights into Soviet Russia's underbelly. The book is also a snapshot of the USSR as it transitioned into Glasnost and Perestroika, but ultimately it is about an eight-year duel between two minds, one a classic hard cop, and the other the deranged product of the cannibalistic Ukrainian famine who suffered from bed-wetting and brain short-outs.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great book, lots of depth
12 Nov 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is amazing; not only does it detail the eight year investigation/hunt for a serial killer, but it gives the reader a picture of the political climate in Russia and how the soviets actually made it easier for a killer to evade capture for so long. I didn't like all of the investigators, but most of them were hard working, intelligent men who had to worry about working the system as much as they had to worry about working the case. Even after the killer is caught, the book continues to interest the reader by outlining the various events that shaped the killer's mind; events that were significant to the politics of the country.
I'm an avid reader and I have a personal top 100 list for books I've enjoyed and read many times. This one is one it.
I'm an avid reader and I have a personal top 100 list for books I've enjoyed and read many times. This one is one it.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
terrifyingly too easy to feel it happening
21 Oct 2003
Format:Hardcover
The gut-wrenching angle = "Its been 2 weeks.He's due another.He may even have a live child with him right now, who's moments away from being left like this one."(mutilated+killed 53+)NON-FICTION/TRUE-CRIME.
Of course there are gory visuals thru-out.But the psychological context given to the deeds, is terrifying.
The police are followed (via fieldwork and paperwork)thru their horror of what they keep coming across, and their desperation of having no clue how to make use of it.
Their are endless mess-ups and frame-ups leading to unforgivable injustices to innocents, and close-calls with the killer.One incident will make you violently livid toward those who let him to the streets again, inspite of the most blatantly damning behaviour imaginable.
The 'confession'(at end of book)in the killer's own words, is amazing in that it gives his angle of scenes dealt with from the 'unknower's' angle thru-out the rest of the book.He himself knew that at least 30 of his kills should never have seen possibility.
Of course there are gory visuals thru-out.But the psychological context given to the deeds, is terrifying.
The police are followed (via fieldwork and paperwork)thru their horror of what they keep coming across, and their desperation of having no clue how to make use of it.
Their are endless mess-ups and frame-ups leading to unforgivable injustices to innocents, and close-calls with the killer.One incident will make you violently livid toward those who let him to the streets again, inspite of the most blatantly damning behaviour imaginable.
The 'confession'(at end of book)in the killer's own words, is amazing in that it gives his angle of scenes dealt with from the 'unknower's' angle thru-out the rest of the book.He himself knew that at least 30 of his kills should never have seen possibility.
Some chapters are far too incidental.(some would rightfully drop it a star for that)But, most of it just makes your heart drop - at the deep suffering of an unknown man, being such that he is always losing against his froes of deep rage, so ruining children beyond recognition.
(bonus in this book=u get great feel for the harsh everyday life in Russian society)
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
