Non-Fiction: The Profiler, by Pat Brown

The Profiler, by Pat Brown with Bob Andelman, is the true account of a woman in her thirties who travels the unlikely path to becoming a professional criminal profiler. This book tells of her journey to learn all aspects of profiling and become involved with law enforcement for the solving of cases, her experiences with the bureaucracy that is often involved, as well as her in depth analysis of some crimes she investigated.


Being that I am fascinated by true crime shows and books, I jumped at the chance to review this book. It was intriguing to see just how simple common sense makes up the majority of the profiling scenario. An eye for detail, some theories, as well as making sure the pieces fit snugly, is also required.



This book was written in plain language that was easy to read and follow. I did find it to be a bit redundant in many places. Part of this, I suspect, is due to the layout of the book. The other part might be just the author's desire to make her point. In either case, it was a little distracting.

Besides the redundancy, I was really disappointed with the fact that none of the cases in the book ended up being solved, even with the author's contribution. I feel that all of the work that Pat Brown did in order to become a profiler, and one who was taken seriously, should have led to at least a few cases being considered solved and closed. This would have been a better testament to the validity of her work. There should have been a balance between solved and unsolved cases to show that she has been successful in bringing justice forward, as well as how difficult it is to find justice when bureaucracy plays such an integral part in the process. Because of the lack of positive outcomes, this book left me feeling a tad hopeless and doubtful of Ms. Brown's success in helping to close any cases.

On a scale of 1-4, I give this book a 3 because it was an easy read with very good and interesting information. Had it not been so redundant and had at least two "happy" endings, I would have considered giving it a 4.

This book was published by Hyperion, a division of HarperCollins.
ISBN: 978-1-4013-4126-8


Thank you to Pat Brown, via her publicist Joyce Lundeen for the gift of this book.