By Reason of Insanity (Tr, Reissue)
by Shane Stevens

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Book Reviews of By Reason of Insanity (Tr, Reissue)

Book Review: Insanely good!
Summary: 5 Stars

At over 500 pages, this book is a saga of far more than murder. It's fiction, but it's written like investigative journalism, and feels very real indeed. Starting with the gas chamber execution of a convicted rapist in 1960 the story swoops back to the post-war years and forward to the 70's as the execution resonates horribly into the next generation. It takes a lot to fill a book this size, and woven in with the evolution of a tragically tortured child into a terrifying and elusive killing machine are incredibly detailed stories of journalism, politics and policing, woven together by issues of mental health and capital punishment.

Thomas Bishop is criminally insane - at least he is assumed to be, after an incident horrific enough to get him consigned to a institution at an early age. But Bishop is no raving 'nut case', as the mentally ill were popularly described at the time - his coolly planned escape and ability to use society's tools to escape detection indicate an extreme intelligence, while at the same time the shocking nature of his crimes lead some police to speculate they are up against something not even human. If they only knew, that there are even more terrifying demons inside his head...

This is not a perfect book - there are a few quite major and very annoying implausabilities, which would give away too much of the story to describe. It's not for everyone - the sexual violence is relentless and extreme, and if you're a gentle mystery reader you'll have a heart attack. So bloody, graphic and unemotional are the author's descriptions of some of the victims - there are plenty - that when he restrains from describing others, it's even scarier.

By Reason of Insanity was first published in 1979, well before the current 'popularity' of serial murder in fiction, and it probably wouldn't be written today, most crime authors seemingly being more concerned with producing endless airport bestsellers. It's bad that this book appears unavailable, it deserves a resurgence, and heaps of new readers, Shane Stevens really puts today's authors in the shade. This isn't light reading - there's no stock romance, no light relief, no predictable ending. But if gruesome doesn't bother you and you're bored with lookalike murder books, find this one and read it, I guarantee it'll shake you up.

Summary of By Reason of Insanity (Tr, Reissue)

Literary Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Literary
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery
• Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers
• Suspense