This is a fascinating detective story that happens to be true. It would be hard to write a dull book about Andrei Chikatilo, but the way the author drew his characters really gripped me -- as did his horrific examples of the corruption and incompetence within the Soviet criminal justice system, which among other things lead an innocent man to be convicted of one of Chikatilo's murders and executed.

A word of warning: the book is as much about Inspector Kostoev (who was in charge of the task force to find Chikatilo and who eventually wrung a confession out of him) as it is about Chikatilo and his crimes. It goes into great detail about Kostoev's background, childhood, etc. I found it all very interesting but others may just want to read about the murders. Most of the Kostoev biography can be skipped if you really don't want to read it. ( )