Brian Masters has written over twenty books on subjects as diverse as French literature, the dukedoms in Great Britain, E.F. Benson and Marie Corelli. His groundbreaking study of mass murderer Dennis Nilsen, Killing for Company, won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction in 1985. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer and The Evil that Men Do. He is also highly regarded for his journalism, in particular his weekly column in the Mail on Sunday's magazine Night and Day. He lives in France.
His discussion of evil and good is calmly, even cooly detailed. It is not merely by his compassionate distancing that Masters' study manages to engage the reader; his research seems to have been exhaustive and copious. His range is impressive. * Times Literary Supplement * An exercise in moral philosophy ... imbued with the writer's kindly wisdom or quivering indignation. [Masters'] accounts of our brutality and sadism to ourselves and our fellow creatures, although not lavish and never unnecessarily dwelt upon, harrow us the more keenly just because they are so well-written and admirably chosen. * Ruth Rendell, Daily Telegraph * A welcome link in the chain of understanding: a work of ambition and complexity underpinned by an obvious desire to grasp the fundamental nature of ourselves -- John Stalker * Sunday Times *