Zodiac

The Shocking True Story of the Nation's Most Bizarre Mass Murderer

By: Robert Graysmith

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

After Jack the Ripper and before Son of Sam there was only one name their equal in terror: the deadly, elusive, and mysterious Zodiac. Beginning in 1968 the hooded mass murderer terrified the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area with a string of brutal killings. A sexual sadist, his pleasure was torture and murder. His first victims were a teenage couple, stalked and shot dead in a lover's lane. After another slaying, he sent his first mocking note to authorities, promising he would kill again. The official tally of his victims was six. The real toll may have reached 50. He was never caught. Graysmith, who was on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of the murders, gives this gripping account of Zodiac's reign of terror.

©1976 Robert Graysmith (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Provocative....Bizarre....Graysmith's taut narrative brings the horror back with jolt upon jolt." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Will fascinate true-crime readers." (Library Journal)

Very interesting book.

I really liked this book. It was informative and interesting. I am a little bit too young to remember the actual events going on but the book lays out the events in enough detail to make them interesting without being boring with too much information. Listening to this book made me want to watch the movie. I realized from the book that there are several movies based on these events, including "Dirty Harry." Overall, a great listen and I would recommend it to anyone interested in true crime stories.

Keeps you interested.

This is a book with a lot of details about true events but it does not bore you to death. It reads more as a story and keeps the reader involved. Good narration and we'll written accounts about a truly disturbing killer.

Very good book on Zodiak

Where does Zodiac rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Maybe 7/8on a scale of 1-10.

What other book might you compare Zodiac to and why?

None. This is a different book because of the code cracking.

Which character – as performed by Stefan Rudnicki – was your favorite?

Sam for sure.

If you could give Zodiac a new subtitle, what would it be?

Wouldn't.

Any additional comments?

This book maybe better in print because it's a little hard to follow all the coding the detectives unravelled. Have the print would be easier to follow. Still a very good listen and I highly recommend it! The narrator did a great job!

I can't believe I listened to the whole thing!

What a let-down. After listening to hours and hours of details on a possible suspect, the author would just say, "I knew it wasn't him," and move on. Then the case he made for who he thinks was the Zodiac is so thin that I wasn't convinced. I was really disappointed. I'm not a detail person in the first place, and to go through all those details and then not have a satisfying conclusion was a real bummer! The narrator was great with his matter of fact low bass voice. He was a perfect match to the material, but even he couldn't make something out of nothing. I don't recommend the book.

Zodiac

great read and very good details. I would highly recommend it and audible. Gray Smith does an outstanding job

Interesting........

I remember the Zodiac killings but was a bit young to remember exactly the details. This book was very informative and chilled my spine. The reader was GREAT for this type of book, some nights I found I could not sleep thinking someone might be still out there, the Zodiac or someone just like him.

Fascinating!

Fact is way more fascinating than fiction! This book was a great listen. It was a well written narrative, and very well read. After listening, I rented the movie, but was sorely disappointed. The book is so much better...so much more opportunity to get to know the victims, detectives, and suspects. Just great!

Dare I say it, overly factual?

Never made it to the end of this one. I think I went in expecting something akin to "In Cold Blood". It's not. As some of the other reviews state, the book is CHOCK FULL of details, but they're not details I am interested in: victim was found 10' 6" from the passenger side door; victim was wearing a yellow metal class ring. It's like a dreary recitation of a police report. If you're a Zodiac enthusiast, this may be the book for you, but I guess I am not. Any attempts to ratchet up the suspense or create drama seem sort of clumsy, and are completely ineffectual. In the end, the book did not hold my attention. Three stars because the book is what it says it is... but nothing more.

Perfect

Great story plus great narration = perfect all the way around. Word word word word

Dark and addictive.

Pulled me right in and kept my head spinning, not just about who zodiac was, but the dark places we humans are capable of going.