American Predator

It's weird to say how much you enjoyed a book about such awful, evil things. But, this book was so riveting and fascinating, I finished it in two days.

I'm not generally someone who reads true crime. Maybe it's because I'm a journalist and I'm surrounded by this kind of thing all the time. Also, very few of them break the formula and truly bring something interesting to the table. Still, I wanted to read American Predator as soon I heard about it. The subject, serial killer Israel Keyes, may very likely have killed in my own backyard.

What most people know about Israel Keyes is the murder that ultimately led to his capture. He climbed inside a coffee stand in Anchorage, then abducted and murdered the teenage girl working inside. I remember hearing about that and also hearing about "kill kits" Keyes left all over the country. It piqued my interest even more when I learned Keyes used to live in the small town of Colville, Washington not far from where I live. Up there in the mountains outside of town, I have covered a number of crimes committed by people who wanted to live "off the grid" and away from government intrusion. Keyes was raised in a home like that. Two young girls were murdered around the time he lived here and those crimes have never been solved.

But, I didn't remember hearing much more about Keyes until I heard that he committed suicide in jail before he went to trial. His secrets appeared to have died with him.

Until a journalist fought to open them up.

Callahan fought for the release of investigative records, documents, videotaped confessions, etc. She spoke to some of the investigators tasked with finding out as much as they could about Keyes and other crimes he claims to have committed. What shakes out of that endeavor is a story about a serial killer with no predictable patterns, no clear M.O. That makes discovering exactly who he killed and when even more difficult. Her work reveals a man trained by the military, raised with white supremacist beliefs and able to leave for a cruise while a young woman's body lay hidden in a shed outside of his house.

Keyes gave his investigators information they never would have learned without his confessions; he also made them look like fools at nearly every turn. The randomness of his crimes and what he may have done to his own body to pull them off makes for some seriously disturbed sleep. Fortunately, I finished it quickly or it could have been a long week...

This book is chilling in its detail. It's complete in its critical examination of a largely botched investigation. And, at the very end, it leaves the door open to so many other possible secrets that the rest of the world will likely never know.