Two views of a killer, but they do converge in parts

I recently read the book by the daughter of #BTK, "A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming," and then I read this one by the psychologist who corresponded with him for years and has been interviewed on quite a few TV series: "Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer."

Interesting to reconcile the two very different views of this convicted killer — one from a loving daughter who was devastated by the revelation that her dad was the notorious serial they talked about in the news for years, and the other by a psychiatric professional trying to understand this criminal mind. Wow, what a trip. Katherine Ramsland does mention Kerri a few times in her own book, and the two meet on the same ground -- perhaps a bit -- a time or two, in their respective stories. But to hear Kerri's POV on her hiking trip at the Grand Canyon with her dad, her recollection that her dad was not home the night her neighbor was murdered, her finding one of the books from her dad's hidey hole stashes ... it really left an indelible impression.

Yes, it was challenging to see Dr. Ramsland's "patient," for lack of a better term, as the same person Kerri Rawson wrote about. But a #serialkiller can get pretty good at compartmentalizing. Or, as podcaster Jill of the "Murder Shelf Book Club" reminded me, what Rader called "cubing." That was a big theme of Ramsland's book. When you step back a bit, there are many ways of looking at a serial killer, many different perspectives, and experiencing the perspectives of both of these books, I believe, is very valuable in helping to understand this man.