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  • Sons of Cain

  • A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present
  • By: Peter Vronsky
  • Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
  • Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (31 ratings)

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Sons of Cain

By: Peter Vronsky
Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
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Publisher's Summary

From the author of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters comes an in-depth examination of sexual serial killers throughout human history, how they evolved, and why we are drawn to their horrifying crimes.

Before the term was coined in 1981, there were no "serial killers." There were only "monsters" - killers society first understood as werewolves, vampires, ghouls and witches or, later, Hitchcockian psychos.

In Sons of Cain - a book that fills the gap between dry academic studies and sensationalized true crime - investigative historian Peter Vronsky examines our understanding of serial killing from its prehistoric anthropological evolutionary dimensions in the pre-civilization era (c. 15,000 BC) to today. Delving further back into human history and deeper into the human psyche than Serial Killers - Vronsky's 2004 book, which has been called "the definitive history of the phenomenon of serial murder" - he focuses strictly on sexual serial killers: thrill killers who engage in murder, rape, torture, cannibalism and necrophilia, as opposed to for-profit serial killers, including hit men, or "political" serial killers, like terrorists or genocidal murderers.

These sexual serial killers differ from all other serial killers in their motives and their foundations. They are uniquely human and - as popular culture has demonstrated - uniquely fascinating.

©2018 Peter Vronsky (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

What listeners say about Sons of Cain

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great balance of case detail and analysis

I really enjoyed reading about cases beyond the USA and UK and the analysis of changes in patterns over time was very interesting, especially when exploring the potential generational effect leading to the “golden age” of serial killers. The section on Jack the Ripper is a terrific overview and the author’s analysis of the power of the media in influencing attention on some cases over others is really insightful.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Informative and entertaining

there were a few spots that dragged a little, where the narrator was reading out long lists - for example, killers birth dates and kill dates - but over all I really enjoyed it and feel I learnt some things

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Ken
  • 22-03-2022

it's a hard listen, for all the right reasons.

man, there are some horrors lurking around in this book.
I often had to take breaks from it to recover from the cruelty man can commit on fellow man, and more often women.
it's a great book though, just really ugly content matter.
for me, the worst was chapter 6 though. The witch hunt. absolutely horrifying. Mercifully, Christianity has evolved somewhat since then.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Long Distance travelling book👍

Interesting informative if you love psychology. Raised alot of conversations. I would support reading for future reference.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

should be a print book only

it was more of a reference book and should never have been an audiobook, the chapter about ww2 was so one sided it was a joke
it was embarrassing, just leave it as a print book,

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Serial Killers Ad Nauseum

It is an interesting topic but the level of detail probably goes a bit far. It took a fair bit of concentration to get through it, but at least it sheds more light on the subject than some of the sensationalist material seen on TV. Credit to the author for the level of research. There is a section where the recitation of the number of kills per serial killer over a period of time in recent history probably goes a bit far in that this detail was not really required to get the picture. However it is one I will put down to experience.

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