Dennis Nilsen was England’s answer to Jeffrey Dahmer. He preyed on young men he picked up in the gay bars of London. In his apartment, he’d strangle them and keep the bodies around the flat for a few days for further use before ultimately dismembering and disposing of them. He’d killed 15 men before an alert plumber noticed that the obstruction clogging the sewer line serving Nilsen’s apartment building was a little too human. Now, even a crummy paperback would be welcome on a crime of this magnitude, but Killing for Company transcends the true-crime genre. Masters has written more of an in-depth biography, attempting to answer the whys as much as the whats by drawing heavily on interviews and Nilsen’s writings. It’s easily one of the most insightful looks into the mind of a murderer in the past 30 years. JM

Publisher: Stein and Day
Paperback: 336 pages
Illustrated