The ‘Mind of a Killer’ is the first book in Mike Omer’s famous trilogy about forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley. In Ukraine, the book was translated and published by Bookshef publishing house in 2021 in the detective thriller genre.

The author worked thoroughly through the plot of his book: he made it not only fascinating, but also thoughtful from a professional point of view. This book is not just some fictional story that you only need to know how to write, it is much more complicated.

The story begins in Chicago, where unusual things are found in the most ordinary places. An unknown maniac kills women and embalms them, leaving them in public places like dolls.

Then the main character of the book – Zoe arrives there with her new partner Tatum. Her job is to create a psychological portrait of the killer and direct the investigation in the right direction. In parallel with the investigation, the author returns us to Zoya’s past and her secrets. Mike Omer knows how to combine mystical and terrifying events with funny jokes in his book. It makes this book easy to understand. But as for such a genre, the book lives up to expectations, and includes many deaths. Sometimes, the author allows us to look at the story from the point of view of the victim, and when there is hope for his salvation, the victim dies. Then you feel some sadness for the victim, but it is certainly the author’s quirk.

One of the most interesting highlights of the book is that there are chapters in which the author talks about the killer and his story, but without naming him. The book combines long dialogues and reveals the characters. In the case of the murderer, the author leads to insights throwing light on how a person turned into such a cruel creature. .

I really enjoyed the professionalism of the author’s writing of the book, the way he used professional terminology. He carefully studied how the police and the FBI work, what the sequence of investigations are, etc. In addition, the book contains many psychological points: behavioral analysis of the victims, the killer and the suspects.

An unexpected and very tense denouement makes the book really successful, quietly hinting in the finale to the second part in this trilogy. Altogether, I really enjoyed the book, as well as the entire trilogy. The only thing that our Bookchef publishing house needs to work on is the quality of the translation. Sometimes letters are lost and text is misaligned. But these are all trifles when you read such a striking book as ‘Mind of a Killer.’ My rating is 9/10.