Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This is a reissue of a true crime book published in the aftermath of the original trial about the crimes of Dennis Nilsen.

The majority of this book was original writing from 1983 when it was originally released. The book felt quite dated in it’s telling and it’s focus. I think it could have benefitted from more updating to make it more readable to a modern audience.

The book is a very thorough account of the trial and the media circus around the trial. There is more in the book about that then the crimes or earlier life of Dennis.

I have read a number of book about Dennis Nilsen over the last year and this is not my favourite of them but is a solid read on the crimes and subsequent trial.

AD - This copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This was a really fascinating look into the Nilsen case and I thought it was really well written for a very tough subject to cover.

This was a weird one.
I thought since this was re-opened and re-done it would have been updated since the 80's, but it clearly wasn't because apparently certain things can cause you to be gay.

*eyeroll*

There were some interesting segments, but overall, I found it boring and outdated. The adaptation will hopefully be better.

Difficult book to judge, some parts very gripping and interesting, others made me lose interest. Didn’t deliver on the promise I hoped it would.

I read this book after I had read Brian Master’s “Killing for Company”, my attention to the serial killer Dennis Nilson having only piqued after watching the TV series “Des”. Although a lot of similar information provided here, there was much more about the victims and the surviving victims. I find this case very intriguing (hence reading all the Nilsen books), to this day, nobody knows the real reason Nilsen did what he did, he was a well-educated quiet man, a normal person on the outside so why? He gave himself up with no fuss and told the police all about the other bodies and where to find them, maybe he wanted to be caught? A lot of unknown factors but a compelling read.

It wasn't a totally bad book, I read it pretty easily and quickly. Some of the historical references were relevant and interesting while others seemed quite pointless.

I had a very hard time with this book and deciding what rating to give it. Some parts were interesting but most of the book was borderline boring and I had to force myself to read it. I can honestly say it is not a book I would pick up again nor would I recommend it to friends.

This was a book that I couldn't quite decide on. Some of the book I really enjoyed, other parts not so much.

I, of course, knew of Nilsen before requesting this book and knew a little about him and his murder victims but this offered an in depth look into the man himself and a little more into the victims.

The book was originally published in 1983 but was recently re-released by one of the authors after the others death in the wake of the popular ITV dramatisation, Des. In my opinion, some of the language and terminology could have been updated in order to appeal to today's audience

Overall this was an interesting read.

Obviously a quick update on the original book published in the 1980s post-conviction as the language used is still very much of 35 years ago. The views on homosexuals expressed in the book are very dated and obviously of the time: some refer to police attitudes, which is fair enough, but some do not. Tenses change, sentences don't make sense, thoughts are left hanging in mid-air. This book needs a complete refresh for 2020 as well as a decent editor. It seems to have been reissued to cash in on Des on TV and perhaps Nilsen's death a couple of years ago, however a bit more care and attention to the editing, to the tenses used and to the actual content would have been time well spent.

I really enjoyed this, I have read several books on Nilsen including killing for company. This gives a different context the focus is on the impact on the public and how the murders were shown in the media. The author does not try to use too much scientific theory or gory details but focuses on the facts. Although I didn’t learn anything new about the case itself it was interesting to hear this perspective. I would certainly recommend this to true crime fans.

I’ve never heard of Dennis Nilsen till this book. I may have read of it in one of the true crime books but did not leave a lasting enough impression to remember.

I find the execution of the book well organised and easy to follow. It started off with how Nilsen’s crime was accidentally discovered or I would say intentionally, and the details surrounding the discovery was very entertaining and amusing from the start till the end.

Then the book went to study his victims, including the ones who escaped. Effort was made to weigh and compare them together and to seek an explanation to Nilsen’s grisly killings, alongside with several explained connections into his past.

Nilsen’s own thoughts were also included in the book so we get a peek inside the mind of Britain’s most prolific killer. Simply delicious.

The flow was easy to read for anyone to read, as you can see even for a newbie like me. Though one must be warned about the slightly gruesome description of the crime scenes (it’s a plus for me though). I highly recommend this book to aspiring true crime readers for its entertaining prose without the excess terminology or heavy facts.

I also particularly like how the book ended with an encouragement to reflect on how a flawed society (and I would also add on my own crime prevention incompetence) that allowed a mass murder to operate so freely for so many years

Terrible book, disorganized and pandering to the gory and disgusting details of each and every murder or attempted murder. I am 80% through and honestly don't know if I can finish it.

I had watched the new British TV series on Nilsen and was expecting some more information on what makes a seemingly intelligent man into a mass murderer, an exploration into the psychology of a killer.

Instead I got pages and pages of irrelevant material, filler to hide the fact that they didn't have enough information for an entire book. There was a full biography of each and every victim, running pages and pages for each one. And while some info can be warranted to draw you into the drama, giving his life story, where born, who his parents were, who he worked for, ad infinitum, is info we reserve for protagonists. If a hospital was named, then, for example, we got a history of that hospital.

And then the story jumps from one thing to another. For one shining example, we are finally starting to read about the trial and then the book jumps back again to the gory details of the murders and many pages later the info on the trial (which would have been interesting) still was not explored. I can't go thru more gore to finally, perhaps, get to something interesting and pertinent.

Finally, there are innumerable repetitions that should have been noted by an editor.

This is a revised version of the book that was hastily put together on the last day of Des Nilsen’s trial, back in 1983. What‘s new about this edition is that it includes excerpts from Des Nilsen’s writings and letters that he frequently wrote during his time at the prison, up until he died in 2018, but were not allowed to be published like this before. It also includes so many new details about the murders, victims and the trial.

I’ve read about Des Nilsen before but only in passing, I only knew about the grisly murders and nothing about the murderer, and it was easy to assume that he was just another, run-of-the-mill depraved psychopath, which is true for the most part, but this book offers so much insight into Des Nilsen’s personality, and psychology, all the while giving due respect to the victims as well. Some of the facts were surprisingly new for me. During his trial, Des Nilsen came out to be a quietly polite, and very rational person. He was fully aware of his crimes and did not try to evade law at any point, he was so cooperative that even the police was surprised.

I'm actually amazed at how well-versed he was in his writings, poetry, and interviews, like, seriously! I don’t know of many people who can talk like that, even the well-educated ones. It was both chilling and sad to read whatever reflections he had for himself, very suggestive of how troubled and confused he was about his crimes, and there were actually times when he thought he would be able to stop himself from committing those murders.

If you are a true crime buff, this is a must-read. At 180 pages I finished it in two sittings. I really appreciate how much it is focused on the psychological aspects of the murders rather than on the gory details. Recommended!

This is my first ever DNF. I was so ready to learn more about Dennis Nilsen, a British serial killer who was only discovered after his neighbors were no longer able to flush their toilets because… you can guess.

It started off incredibly strong with the first sentence. But then (*major trigger warning*), words cannot express how distraught I still am over the following: “Most homosexuals develop their homosexuality when they cannot get on with their parent… Some families encourage homosexuality by stopping children having any contact with the opposite sex… Both [psychologists] were well aware of the efforts being made in medicine to show that homosexuality could be cured… for those who could be persuaded that they were not proud of their homosexual perversion, but anxious to change their character and move towards normal sexual enjoyment.”

While I couldn’t quite tell if the authors were simply making observations about social norms in the 80’s or if they were/are homophobic themselves, what is true is that so many words/statements in that quote are WRONG. I still can’t describe my abject horror. I never want to take away the voices of a group that I don’t personally identify with by speaking for them, but I am a friend and a fellow human being of people who do identify with that group. I’m sorry, but 1) no one can pretend to be an expert on how someone else’s orientation “develops”; 2) there is no cure for homosexuality; 3) homosexuality is NOT a perversion; and 4) homosexuality leads to enjoyment that is just as normal as anyone else’s.
Oy.

Beyond these issues, the version I was sent contained many typos including run-on sentences, missing commas, and missing spaces between many words.

i had never heard of this case before and I really appreciated getting to understand it. The author was able to be respectful of the subject and keep it informative.

The Nilsen File by Douglas Bence and Brian McConnell , who were both Daily Mirror journalists at the time,was rushed out in 1983 to catch the wave of public interest in the serial-killer Dennis Nilsen, who had just been jailed. This book,with the byline "Re-opened" is an up-date by Douglas Bence , Mr McConnell now sadly deceased, and worthy of a book of his own.

A quick read , as a fan of True Crime books I found it interesting and particularly the stories of the victims,and those who might have been victims. The general perception was that all of Nilsen's victims were rent boys or those similarly living on the edges of society,this book shows that to be as wrong as the recently debunked assumption that all of Jack the Ripper's victims were prostitutes.

While I enjoyed the book it does get bogged down with various psychiatric opinions on Nilsen's behaviour, which might well be essential but could have been edited a lot better. Overall though the book does give a very good insight into Nilsen ,and he was certainly a very complex individual.

If the original book was rushed out to cash in on public interest in Nilsen after his trial I suspect that this one was similarly rushed out to cash in on the success of the 2020 ITV drama about Nilsen,Des...and in some places it's very obviously been rushed. That said it's a good read ,though Brian Masters' "Killing for Company",also re-issued after the TV series , is better written. Even if you have read the Masters book there's enough here to make it worthwhile.

This book was originally published in the 80's and you can tell from the language use and case notes, in these days I am not sure of it would be politically correct but as I say it is a re-print with added content. The surviving author has updated some of the information and it includes letters by Nilsen from prison which could only be published after his death.

Like most people I find this case really intriguing. How can a man so unassuming, who had a career in the army, worked for the police force and would be someone you would pass in the street everyday be capable of these horrific attacks. I think for me personally the one thing that bothers me most is why for one he would dispose of the bodies down the drain where someone would find them, to then try to hide the evidence to eventually telling the police when asked where he was hiding the bodies </i>"They're in two plastic bags in the other room. I'll show you,"</i>

This is a really interesting book and a must read for anyone interested in true crime.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Author Douglas Bence decided to do this updated edition on his own, as his co-writer had passed away. The book is about infamous British murderer Dennis Nilsen, who got himself in trouble due to a clogged drain. I remember when this happened and later read the other book on him, Killing for Company by Brian Masters and got a general idea about his case. This book has more that wasn’t included in the other, more information about people he tried to kill that survived, etc. More about the incident that got him caught, being the clogged drain, and more on Nilsen himself. Gripping true crime at its best. Advance electronic review copy was provided by NetGalley, author Douglas Bence, and the publisher.

Maybe a 2.5?

This book started off strong, but towards the hundred-page mark, I really lost interest. It also seemed to be filled with so much information, that at times I just put it down and contemplated dnfing it.

Sure it goes into the life of Dennis Nilsen, but coming out on the other side, I still feel like I haven't really learned anything new about him or his case. I was expecting more from this book, and it really let me down.