A hunger to kill A serial killer, a determined detective, and the quest for a confession that changed a small town forever

Mager never intended to write a book, but after the Ashland, Ohio, detective had a tearful conversation with a bereaved mother, she knew she had to tell the real story, the story that the victims and their families deserved. One of those victims was a courageous Jane Doe who made a daring 911 call as her captor lay sleeping next to her. She cautiously guided police to the abandoned house where she was imprisoned and had been assaulted for three days. Jane's rescue would be the harbinger of her abductor Shawn Grate's demise. Grate, a ruthless serial killer who murdered five women, fixated on Mager once finally detained in 2015. He refused to speak to other detectives; only Mager would do. After eight days of strategic interrogation, Mager's psychological skills elicited a full confession that would earn Grate a death sentence. This book has all the hallmarks of a prime-time police procedural and Mager is a real-life Olivia Benson. Mager and coauthor Pulitzer capture the shock of a small town caught up in the story of a harrowing kidnapping escape and a murderer. Moving and methodical, this book belongs in the true crime canon.

Ohio police detective Mager's chilling true crime debut recounts her 2016 interrogation of serial killer Shawn Grate. Arrested after a woman escaped from his home in Ashland, Ohio, Grate was initially booked for rape and kidnapping. But as the hours ticked by and Mager began to question Grate, she realized she might have stumbled on the most consequential case of her career. Over the course of a week, Mager convinced Grate to open up to her, offering him cigarettes and coffee as he confessed to kidnapping and torturing one woman, then two, then five. As their conversations progressed, Grate shared details of his difficult childhood and his lifelong interest in serial killers, and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to confess to Mager. The interviews ended abruptly after a jailhouse informant came forward to warn Mager that Grate was planning to kill her, but she'd gotten enough to convict him; he was sentenced to death in June 2018. Drawing on her interviews with Grate, his escaped victim, and his half-sister, Mager delivers an unflinching study of a killer. This hums with the intensity of a real-life Silence of the Lambs. (July)