A Must Read For Crime Fiction Writers!

Wicked Deeds by James O’Kane is a comprehensive study of murder in America. O’Kane’s work proves murder represents a highly predictable and expected phenomenon, and shows how it’s quite different from what most of us believe about killers and their victims – that murder is mostly committed by deranged and irrational killers in a random and unpredictable matter somewhere in a dark alleyway. In fact murder can be predictable, according to O’Kane.

O’Kane’s argument, supported by enormous research, indicates that summer months are the deadliest, Blacks are disproportionately represented as both victims and assailants, males are overwhelmingly the killers and victims, and that most murder victims either know their killer as relatives or intimate partners or acquaintances. Unsurprisingly, in most murders, the handgun is the weapon of choice. With expert precision, O’Kane pinpoints the Southern States as the dominant killing zone in the nation, and provides an in-depth discussion detailing the most probable days of the week and times when murders typically occur, and the different types of killers who commit such acts, and the justifications and defense mechanisms they employ to remove and disconnect themselves from the act of murder.

As a well-respected scholar, O’Kane writes directly and his prose is tight and free of scholarly jargon, which typically bogs down the read. He presents his material in an easy to understand manner. What I liked best about this book is the format O’Kane chose to convey the lessons. The material is presented and supported with case studies that show the reader exactly what O’Kane is teaching. This book is perfect for general readers, police personnel, criminology students, crime fiction writers, and anyone who’s looking to learn more about the phenomenon of murder by a scholar who writes with readers in mind.