Micki Pistorius is a South African profiler who worked as the head of their investigative psychology unit. She attributes her success to her unusual upbringing, which she says made her “more sensitive” to the “nomadic lives and… changing family circumstances” that the killers she pursued. Paired with her ability to “understand relationships” and “interpret intricate hidden agendas” and her “[sensitivity] to vibes”.

After studying languages and writing, she pursues a degree in psychology, then joining the South African Police Force, where she applied her skill for cryptesthesia (ESP) where she “picks up the vibes without using one’s five ‘normal’ senses.” When in pursuit of a serial killer, she works intuitively, letting herself fall into the feelings and mindset that she believes they are experiencing based on her profiling training, and determines where they might be hiding or where they might strike next.

This book is fascinating, combining the interesting tales of catching serial killers, like John Douglas or Robert Ressler; with a South African setting comprising villages, suburbs, the bush, and the beach; and the experience of being one of the first women in an all-male and mightily macho¹ police force. Following her initial work on her own, she established the first training course for detectives on catching serial killers.

Pistorius’s approach is unorthodox but effective, and what strikes me is the compassion she feels for the people she is hunting. She sees them as broken and sympathizes with their damaged minds, and that helps her track them down, capture them, and persuade them to confess. It’s like she sees inside these horrible men who commit the most gruesome of crimes and holds up a mirror that reveals their inner soul to them, causing them to face the things they have done and often crumble under the weight of their actions.

This is not your usual true crime book, reminiscent more of Nobody Nowhere than Mindhunter. She speaks openly about her empathy for the men she is hunting and about the emotional effort that takes from her. After 16 years, 30 serial killer investigations, she left the police, worked as a PI, and finally took a consulting job in, of all things, emotional intelligence for corporations.²

If you like true crime with a focus on serial killers, or are interested in police work in other countries, give this one a try.

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1. My words not hers. She never disparages the men she works with no matter how discriminatory they are. ↩︎
2. There’s a career path for you! ↩︎