Amazon.com: The Second One: A serial killer's account of his first two kills eBook : Kiam, O.M.: Kindle Store

I hovered on the star-fence of rating [is that a thing? quick, hashtag it!], wanting a solid 3.5 but crossing over to 4 rather than landing on 3. And here's why:

The Introduction was almost perfect, shot through with lovely ironies. Our unnamed killer ["John" he later allows we can call him] is articulate, cool, and so, so reasonable in his assessment of himself, the world, and his chosen hobby. He gives voice to any number of things most people would consider legitimate philosophical meanderings of a practical mind.

And slowly, through the Introduction, he escalates, and we see the monster.

He makes much of being an atheist . . . but then writes of how things happen for a reason; how people never find their purpose - sounds pretty spiritual to me, oh irony of ironies! His purpose is to rid the world of hyenas. I loved this analogy, for in a certain sense, hyenas are the filthy vermin of the animal kingdom, living off the carrion scraps what real hunters [lions, for instance] kill. Naturally, the killer sees himself as a lion!

The next section is about his first kill and here I found my first bit of glitchiness. "The First One" was published earlier and, happily, included here. But the original lead-in echoes what I've just read in the new Introduction, so I felt slightly backtrack-y [not a word!] and I lost, momentarily, the momentum. However, Mr. Kiam grabs me back with more delightful irony: The killer mocks the profiler professionals and then promptly displays his outrageous ego, something they would have profiled! He's already fulfilled a classic profile: an abusive childhood, mommy issues, reliving the experience of the kill, taking trophies, living in isolation . . . bragging about his kills.

The voice changes somewhat as the killer relives his First and Second. Both were well written, though I found the First more interesting. [No spoiler specifics; and I'm not dismissing the Second. I loved the "every professional needs the right tools and lots of experience" analogy].

But the end is where I really landed on my star-rating fence. I found it weak. Mr. Kiam articulates a lovely allusion to sugar: the cravings, the addictions, the rushes. But then he drops the allusion in favour of the killer's musings that he might entertain us in the future with more bragging of his exploits. I'd have liked if these were tangled together; if the killer's careless suggestion that maybe he'll share more exploits with us in the future was underscored by our complete understanding that - even though he doesn't know it - his bragging is as much his sugar as the doing.

That's also my way of saying, Mr. Kiam, I want more of this! For I'm slightly addicted, too!