The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths

I loved the book on many different levels. It was interesting to find someone who followed their dream and opened up a completely new career for themselves. I don't know much about Pat Brown, but her story made me think of all those times that someone tries to correct a wrong or thinks about correcting a wrong, but she did it. She stood on her soap box and eventually made someone notice. I would like to get her other books. The only minor point about the book is that a professional reader might have been able to add more dimensionality with a professional reading.

But I loved the book

Pat Brown learned to be a profiler "sorta" by acident. She had a boarder in her home who she linked to a murder and the police just didn't take her as seriously as she thought they should. In the opening of this book she tells that story. She takes the middle part of the book to tell how she became a profilier as a result. In concluding sections she reflects on different persons and personalitites she has profiled. concludes by reflecting on different persons she has profiled. I was particularly interested in her discussion of suiside.


This is an interesting enough book though I wish it had more depth. It is just a rather shallow approach to profiling and the reader doesn't get as much insight into the process or the clients or the patterns. I suppose that is my own opinion only, but I hoped for more learning from the book. We don't even really understand what drove her to get into the profiling field - other than frustration with the police.


The major problem with this book is the reading. The author does her own reading which is fine. However, there multiple places in the text where she stops, repeats herself correcting a reading error, and then proceeds. I have dozens and dozens of Audible books and I have never gotten a book with this many errors. If you can tolerate the reading (which isn't bad otherwise) and if you just are lookinjg for an interesting easy read - this book may be for you.

Where to start?! Oh I know...I LOATHE THIS WOMAN! More of a know-it-all, conceded, snobby bitch I have never seen, despite having very little reason for being so. The sad part is that she took an interesting topic, a great story from her personal life & an opportunity to simply sit and simply tell tales of what she has seen during her "career" as a profiler and turned it into a platform to spew criticisms of every person, place or thing she has ever come in contact with. ALL schools are bad so she home schooled her kids and now they are the most amazing human beings on planet earth. Police have to pursue justice in a formal manner so she sees all cops as useless a-holes and, therefore, decides to save the world for us by amazingly teaching herself criminal profiling and striking out on her own like a superhero. A karate instructor puts on a class to help women defend themselves so, being a self-proclaimed karate master, she actually goes to the class just to belittle him in front of everyone by stating the OBVIOUS fact (to her anyway) that you CANNOT defend yourself against a sneak attack (then she proceeds to actually take over the class and shows everyone how to successfully defend against a sneak attack). She even criticizes other private investigators for treating their careers as a business and actually expecting to be paid for working their cases when they cannot guarantee that they can solve it! How she can question anyone's skills or intelligence when she allowed what I officially consider to be THE CRAZIEST PERSON EVER to move into her home and rent a room in order to keep her from having to go to work in order to home school her kids and (unfortunately I know this next part because she made it quite clear that she is brilliant for doing so) breast feed her children until 2 years old. You may wonder what that has to do with criminal profiling, but that is actually in the section in which she tells you why you are an a-hole for having your children sleep in separate beds from you and, even worse, have a life outside of their mommy and daddy. She even implies that because she did these things for her kids they are officially guaranteed a life free of rape, murder and horror (and, believe me, just as free of fun).

Here is my own twist ending: LISTEN TO THIS BOOK because the guy in the beginning is so crazy that it would be just plain funny if he weren't a murderer. Instead, hearing the stories about his antics makes you laugh to yourself while shaking your head but, trust me, they are still amazing stories to hear. The true laugh out loud part is that there is no way that someone naive enough to allow a guy like that to move in to their home as a tenant in the first place could EVER learn the common sense needed to do this job with any success. Either that or the whole field of profiling is B.S. Oh wait, she actually implies that it IS B.S. at several parts when she talks about other, REAL crimonologists like John Douglas and complains that there is NO WAY they could ever REALLY know what they say they know about individuals in their cases unless they are cheating and hiding the fact that they already knew the whole story BEFORE profiling the killers! That pretty much sums up my feelings about profiling after reading this one book on the subject so far, though I am sure this is only because SHE is an idiot. Therefore, I am on to John Douglas's Mind Hunter next to set things straight!

While I enjoyed her stories and the fact that she's a smart lady, she should never have narrated the book herself. She has no dramatic flare in her voice and it's flat and dull. They also did not edit out her mistakes. Meaning: there were a number of times she botched a line, stopped, and began reading from the top. I thought my ipod was screwy the first few times it happened. Besides that it may be a better book to read than listen to.

This woman is not an FBI Profiler. She is a housewife with questionable judgment who decided to call herself a profiler after letting a murderer live with her and her children. Why would I want to hear the musings of someone who not only lacks common sense, but does not have the wisdom to hide her lack of common sense from her readers? I wish I would have not bought this audiobook so hastily.

Tell me about cases in which Pat Brown actually solved a case and was instrumental in putting someone in prison.

She took long pauses after each sentence. I don't know if she was given advice to do that, but it sounds like she thinks every sentence is profound.

Pat Brown

Ms Brown has done it again with knowledge of the subject and takes you inside the mind of these monsters. I would highly recommend you get this to learn more about the serial killers and psychopaths. I look forward to reading more work by Pat Brown

Self-taught profiler with no police agency affiliation, who is generally engaged on a "pro bono" basis by the victims families years after the fact and is rarely allowed access to the case files, and then she "profiles" the case and tells the local cops how they should have done it.
Classic case of " but she was on TV, she must be an expert."
How do I get a refund?

Ms. Brown goes on, and on, and on about different crimes committed in various parts of the country, ie, 'a southern state, a midwest state, etc. Why she just doesn't name the state the crime occurred in bewildered me. She spends a great deal of time denigrating the local police and prosecuters but guess what? She doesn't solve one crime using her "profiling" expertise. Not a single perpetrator is prosecuted, let alone convicted. I began to wonder if Time-Life offered a book series on criminal profiling and Ms. Brown took it! Whatever you paid for this book, It is worth more to give it back.

No idea.

No other narrator could have saved this mess!

Disappointment