Invisible Killer: The Monster Behind the Mask

This book is a mixed bag, my review won't be too unlike previous reviews that I read prior to purchasing the Kindle version. It appears two people wrote the book and then attached one version after the other, so much of it is repetitive, which could've been fixed with editing. They try to explain the actions of Charlie Brandt from a historical and semi-psychological viewpoint, but use Scott Peck's "People of the Lie" for a baseline, which I found pretty strange. Especially because a relative of the victims was a psychiatric nurse, I would've thought more researched and documented books or information would've been used. It would leave an uninformed or person not educated with some psychology rather confused.Charlie Brandt, murdered his mother and severally wounded his father with a gun when he was 13. He would've killed his older sister except the gun didn't fire, so he tried to strangle her. He was in the local jail for several months then went to a mental institution until his father got him out. Psychiatrists and psychologist were puzzled and didn't give a concrete diagnosis. One can understand a reluctance back then, to "label" a boy only 13. Then it was never discussed, his younger older sisters were not told of it (they thought their mother died in a car wreck), and they moved to a different state.Then Charlie developed into the monster he became, hidden, unknown, for a number of years. There were people who thought him odd, "different", etc. There were clues, but because the majority of people have never encountered someone like Charlie they didn't recognize the red flags at the time, only in hindsight.Bad/evil people do exist - it's not just in scary novels or movies. If you want to learn about them I would suggest you start out with the classic book "The Mask of Sanity" by Hervey Cleck. He was the first one to write a book about sociopaths/psychopaths and in this book he gives examples from the psychologist who is intimate with his clients, to a serial killer -- there's a range from kinda bad to absolute evil. Common denominators are (1) no conscience, no remorse and (2) lying -- lying when you don't even have to lie and (3) most of them are quite charming. Charlie was definitely a psychopath, and further complicated by having borderline personality disorder (couldn't relate well to people in social situations).I knew this story from watching it on TV, but chose to get the book to try to get some more background on Charlie. While I did glean a bit more from the book, much of it is lost to time because it was little known to the community and rarely spoken of by the family. But those that did know about it still kept their tongue, wondering if they were over-reacting, wanting to make sure Charlie had an opportunity to a life, or thought it wasn't their business. That's how so many of us react, it's so human to respect even "odd" characters. And it's only in hindsight that you wish you'd said something. And if you do say something (I have), it's not usually met with gratefulness, you're just trying to stir things up.What is positive about this book is that a foundation has been started to educate people about those around us who are more than "off" and to bring up conversations about young people who commit violent crimes and what the long terms outlook is for them. These are conversations we should have to protect ourselves and those we love.

"Invisible Criminal: The Monster Behind the Mask" - Insightful and compelling, very powerful, factual and informative. A timeline of crimes committed by this horrible monster. While for me, as a personal friend of this monsters final victim Michelle Lynn Jones, it was an emotional read, but it's factual, well written, non offensive and very respectful to the victims and their families and friends involved.Diana Montane and Sean Robbins truly did their research and wrote "Invisible Killer: The Monster Behind the Mask" in a manner that gave his victims a final voice. They exposed the true demonic nature of this monstrous man who lived among many of us for so long; written not only honoring his victims, but the victims of so many like his.THANK YOU DIANA MONTANE AND SEAN ROBBINS!!! THANK YOU for bringing the issue to light, thank you for opening up all of our eyes to the fact that people just like Charlie Brandt do live next door to many of us, do walk and live among us, so many never caught, but always killing, even with their eyes.Thank you for shedding light on "The mission of the Michelle Lynn Jones Foundation" a foundation working to help promote personal safety by raising public awareness about invisible criminals in our communities through public education and advocacy, enhanced education for health care professionals and law enforcement, and enabling law enforcement to conduct more comprehensive criminal investigations, as needed. mlj-foundation (dot) org.As a result of the emotional pain of losing Michelle, the family of Michelle Lynn Jones - relatives, friends, business colleagues and clients - have made a commitment to focus the pain of their loss on constructive efforts to positively impact individuals and communities to further honor her and the wonderful human being she was. Her life ended in an untimely, horrific manner. Her death could have been avoided. Systems need to be in place to discover invisible criminals like Charlie. A social network site dedicated to defining these systems. It is located at icriminals(dot)ning(dot)com; we encourage all to click here and join the cause.I am a long time friend of his final victim Michelle Lynn Jones, and her family. As I type this review, Michelle's kitty Miss Gizzie is laying next to me with her head on my arm. I am honored to have Ms. Gizzie, I am honored to have Michelle's beautiful baby, not only to love, but she a daily reminder of such a wonderful person whom I LOVED and ADORED! I am HONORED to have had such a friend in my life, a true friend to all, a gentle soul, giving, lively, and funny!The importance of this book, is beyond just telling the story of how this man lived among us, it is to HONOR those lives that he took away from us, to bring to surface the steps that we can take, the steps our law enforcement can take, and the changes that can be made in our judicial system and changes in the current laws protecting criminals who commit MAJOR crimes as a minor and have their records expunged, allowing them to continue on as adults, killing, raping, and destroying the lives of so many, their families and their friends!AGAIN, THANK YOU DIANA MONTANE AND SEAN ROBBINS... WELL DONE! EXCELLENT!!!~ Diana Sainz

The seller put like new. The should have put very used. About 50 pages were missing and other pages were falling out when I received the book. I missed a good bit of the story. Other than that, what I was able to read..the book was very interesting.

I worked with Michelle, so this book really hit home for me. I was horrified to learn the details of her murder and the extent that Brandt hid his true nature from those who supposedly knew him the best.That said, I found the book rather poorly written. Punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors abound. Sentences are awkwardly written and repeated several times, leading me to wonder if this was not the final draft, that some sections were copied and pasted prior to a final edit.A chapter on a psychic had me rolling my eyes and in my opinion, was not necessary at all and diminishes the credibility of the book.On the plus side, the authors clearly did their research and had intimate access to those most affected by these murders. I feel for Mary Lou Jones, who lost both a sister and a daughter. I would recommend this book with the caveat that it is not one of the best written books available. Still, if you want a scary bedtime story, this book will curl your hair.

This is a true crime story and as such it covers the basic events, but i was disappointed with the way the information was organized. Since two writers were involved I expected better. They could take some lessons from authors such as Ann Rule.

The writing and flow of this book is terrible! Reading it was like ploughing and developing context from the characters difficult. Had it not been for an interview on television with the same characters in much of this book, I would not have bothered to finish what could be a fascinating story.

I’d like to say more than average but I thought it was a little light on content. It would have been better if the authors were able to dig up any of the paperwork from when he was assessed in the institution or even have gotten some modern day assessments from psychiatrists.

Poorly written and repetitive. The stylised writing was awkward and counter productive. I regret paying for this book; although I suspect my negative views should not be attributed to Diana Montane's work, but rather to the contribution of the co-author Sean Robbins.

This book was very disappointing . I didn't read any fluidity, the punctuation was atrocious exclamation marks everywhere. There was so much repetition of the same thing - not the book I thought it would be at all. I only got halfway before noticing its was a waste of time.