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

It's a mystery

How a book without surprises can be so utterly fascinating is a mystery. Well-researched, well-written, told from innovative and interesting perspectives, and full of details that paint the most vivid pictures, Zodiac ranks up there with the best reportage in the American language. Stefan Rudnicki's beautiful voice enhance an already devastatingly intense listening experience.

Eight Years Of Painstaking Research...

delivers a chilling account of one of the creepiest uncaught criminals in the annals of American serial killers. This is as hypnotic as Stewart's MANHUNT: THE TWELVE DAY SEARCH FOR LINCOLN'S KILLER, as captivating as Capote's IN COLD BLOOD and as creepy as Nabokov's LOLITA. Riviting detail with a nonetheless bare-bones style of narrative. Read it with the lights on.

very interesting.

very good. Mr Ridniki is one of my favorite narators. I will listen to whatever he natates. that the book was very good is a plus.

It was a cop

If you listen closely to the details, you will see that it was a cop. Whether all of the murders the zodiac took credit for are even related is questionable.

Most murderers don't choose to change their weapons or the way in which they kill. The only time you see a variation in weapons/methods is generally with contracted murders. Some of the murders appear to be crimes of passion, others appears to be done in a manner that would suggest a vendetta, and others appear to be completely random.

Psychopathic murderers have one particular type of victim that they pursue, the zodiac did not. So far, I've read through the first 5 murders, and none of them appear to contain a sexual aspect of any kind.

The "zodiac" definitely had a military background, and was probably a contracted killer. The police had close ties with witnesses and at least one victim, and at one point at least, the police told two witnesses what they saw rather than simply taking their statements.

Personally, I don't think all the murders were related. Someone created the "zodiac" personna, and that gave other people who wanted to commit murder the opportunity to make it look like it was the crazed zodiac killer. But if they were related, the style in which the victims were killed, the marksmanship with the gun that was used, the use of many different used cars (which police have access to via their impound lot), the manner in which some of the investigations were done, and the nonsensical zodiac code (which appears to be a distraction for the police more than anything else), leads me to believe the culprit was a member of the Vallejo police department.

Whether the officer actually committed all the murders himself is uncertain, but he certainly wanted to take credit for them, and most likely DID know WHO committed the murders. Too bad forensics and profiling were so undeveloped in the late 1960s and 70s, At this point in the book (about halfway), it is frustrating to listen to the details because it seems so very obvious to me. I don't claim to have "cracked the case", but they were definitely looking in the wrong directions.

Awesome book!

The story line of this book was awesome, super informative and very suspenseful. You can tell the author had a wealth of research and information. The narrator was quite good as well although sometimes his voice was a tad monotonous.

I would recommend this book for any true crime fan! It's a fascinating story and one that sure sends chills up your spine and reminds you to stay sexy and not get murdered!