Unholy Messenger, Stephen Singular
Unholy Messenger, Stephen Singular
5 Rating(s)
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Unholy Messenger
The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer

Author: Stephen Singular

Narrator: Alan Sklar

Unabridged: 10 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/05/2006


Synopsis

To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas, where he had lived with his family almost his entire life. He was a town compliance officer, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation, and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader's average life belied the existence of his dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer.

The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders—torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family—and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern—stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes—that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest.

Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly detailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully—for the first time—the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality.

The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. More than just true crime, Unholy Messenger is a powerful, thoroughly engrossing examination of the intersection between good and evil, and of the psychology and spirituality of a killer in whom faith and bloodshed converged.

About Stephen Singular

Stephen Singular has authored or coauthored seventeen books, including two New York Times bestsellers. Formerly a staff writer for The Denver Post, he has also written for major publications including The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, New York and Psychology Today. He lives in Denver, Colorado.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Dee on 2009-06-22 10:35:05

I think I would have liked this a lot more of reader Alan Sklar hadn't sounded so much like he was enjoying what he was reading. I'm not sure if he was trying to make the serial killer sound worse than he was or just trying to read with emotion and overdoing it, but the drama made it seem like Sklar himself was vaguely icky, and I'm absolutely sure that's not the case. The book itself was fine, if repetitive in places, but Sklar's performance did it a disservice.

Goodreads review by Shaun on November 20, 2015

Competently written account of the BTK serial killer. Definitely better written than your average true crime novel, and I'm surprised that many readers seemed relatively unimpressed with Singular's recounting. I think for me, the inclusion of the BTK's pastor earned this an extra star, but mainly bec......more

Goodreads review by The Romance Book Disciple (Samantha) on February 06, 2017

Overall, pretty good. story takes a linear timeline which I like and there is a lot of information from the pastor to bolster the story so it isn't all gory and totally focused on the crimes themselves but more on Rader and why.......more

Goodreads review by F.R. on June 04, 2023

They cancelled MINDHUNTER before they really got into the BTK stuff, so I had to read the book instead. He was a serial killer who terrorised Wichita in the seventies and eighties, while bring a pillar of his church and community. Like all serial killer books, it was fascinating and sad at the same t......more

Goodreads review by Kyle on December 28, 2017

Book was pretty good however didn’t care for the drawn out parts about his pastor. I understand he was very religious but don’t need the entire life story of his pastor.......more

Goodreads review by Brenna on January 02, 2009

This is perhaps the book based on the crimes of Dennis Lynn Rader (a.k.a. "The BTK Strangler") with the least usage of the word "monster." Instead of trying to shock or startle his readers, Mr. Singular takes the story off into a very different direction than those other books. He's not trying to fi......more