Publisher's Synopsis
Named in honor of Eugene Vidocq, the first modern detective and inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, the Vidocq Society comprises of 150 world-renowned criminologists who convene in "the murder room" on the third Thursday of every month to discuss a cold case murder over a gourmet lunch. Over the course of the meeting, the Vidocq members examine the known facts of the case to come up with new angles of investigation--suspects, technological methods, or areas of inquiry. And sometimes they are able to crack the case before the afternoon is over. They have allowed journalist Michael Capuzzo exclusive access to witness their legendary investigations and tell their amazing story.
Capuzzo weaves his narrative around the three founding members of the society. Bill Fleisher, the President of the Society, a former FBI and Customs agent turned private eye. Frank Bender, the world's foremost forensic sculptor, is a goateed bohemian who possesses a supernatural ability to reconstruct the images of murder victims. Richard Walter, the slender, chain-smoking loner with a blasphemous tongue is a world renowned expert profiler and has earned the reputation in law-enforcement circles as "the real-life Sherlock Holmes."
The Murder Room concludes with an examination of Richard Walter's "Theory of Evil"--a look at his new psychological theory of murder that divides killers into four quadrants of psychopathology--and for the very worst "sadomasochistic" killers, shows how they proceed along the "helix of evil," as their perversion progresses from animal torture, to dismemberment, and ultimately to cannibalism. Thrilling and unforgettable, The Murder Room is an intimate look at a team of real-life crimefighters who band together to fight the most devious and evil elements in our society--and catch the killers that nobody else can.
