'Killing for Company' stands out for its unprecedented access to the killer's mind. Brian Masters, an Oxford-educated biographer, took the extraordinary step of corresponding with Dennis Nilsen while the murderer was in prison awaiting trial. Published in 1985, the book emerged during a golden age of British true crime writing.
Masters approaches the subject with a scholar's precision but a novelist's eye for detail. He doesn't sensationalize the 15 murders committed between 1978-1983. Instead, he constructs a psychological portrait of Nilsen that's both clinical and deeply human. The timing of publication was crucial - it captured the cultural shockwaves from one of Britain's most notorious spree killings.
What fascinates me most is how Masters frames Nilsen's crimes within broader questions about loneliness and alienation in modern society. The book transcends true crime to become a meditation on the darkest corners of human nature. For readers wanting deeper context, I'd suggest pairing it with Gordon Burn's 'Happy Like Murderers' about Fred and Rosemary West.
Brian Masters penned 'Killing for Company' back in 1985, creating a true crime masterpiece that still gives me chills. Unlike typical crime reporters, Masters brought literary elegance to this gruesome subject. He spent months visiting Nilsen in prison, unraveling the killer's twisted logic firsthand. The book arrived when Britain was still reeling from the discovery of Nilsen's flat full of corpses in 1983.
Masters' background as a royal biographer seems unlikely preparation for documenting a serial killer, yet it gave him unique insights. He treats Nilsen not as a monster but as a profoundly damaged human being. The narrative juxtaposes meticulous crime scene details with existential musings on why Nilsen kept victims' bodies for company. For those interested in psychological depth, this outshines more sensational true crime works. Contemporary readers might compare it to David Peace's 'Red Riding' novels for its bleak portrayal of 1970s-80s Britain.
I remember stumbling upon 'Killing for Company' during a deep dive into true crime literature. The book was written by Brian Masters, a British author known for his meticulous research into criminal psychology. Published in 1985, it remains one of the most chilling accounts of serial killer Dennis Nilsen's crimes. Masters didn't just report the facts; he got inside Nilsen's head, revealing the disturbing banality of evil. The timing was significant too - coming just two years after Nilsen's conviction, when the case was still fresh in public memory. What sets this apart from other true crime is how Masters balances forensic detail with philosophical questions about what drives someone to kill repeatedly.
2025-06-30 23:28:43
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“I was looking for a man named Zarion, but I ended up here.”
Most of them gasped when I uttered Zarions’ name. “Don’t mention that name because it’s cursed!” someone hissed. My brows furrowed at her reaction. “Why?
"He's the Alpha of this pack. He was banished because he didn't want to take the position. Rumour says that he's out in the woods, looking for his mate, and..." she trailed off.
"And?" I swallowed.
"Kill her. He wants to kill his mate."
***
Alpha Zarion is on a quest to find his mate and kill her because he despises the idea of a mating bond due to his father leaving his fated mate (his mother) for another woman. During a winter storm, he met Cassidy Bentley who saved him from death. He knows he has no time to waste but Zarion was curious about her, deliriously wanting every inch of her skin and touch…until he found out that the girl is mated to his number one rival, Alpha Brandon.
Alpha Brandon rejected Cassidy because she’s a human—which he greatly despises. She eventually started getting over him, pouring out her love to Alpha Zarion who obsessively wants her in return.
During the night Alpha Zarion watches Cassidy transforms to a werewolf, leaving her humanity behind for her love for him, Alpha Brandon comes to his senses and goes to find her. But her first mate already found Cassidy in another Alpha's arm, in his half-brother’s arms, who was just about to mark her…
My sister leaves some last words before committing suicide, and everyone who sees those words die.
My grandmother is the first to go, and then my father. In the end, even my mother jumps off a 30-story building.
The reporters fall over themselves trying to score an interview with me, and the police interrogate me. Countless people want to know what my sister's last words are.
However, I keep my silence until my sister's tenth death anniversary. I see a figure before her grave, and I'm agitated beyond imagination.
I know it's time for death to take me.
He broke down my door at 9:47 on a Tuesday to kill my husband. He wasn’t supposed to find me. I should have been afraid of the most wanted man in the state. Instead I asked him for something no woman had ever asked him for. Then I drove north. I thought I was free.
Content Warning
Domestic Violence, intimate partner abuse, violence, morally-grey anti hero, love interest, stalking, explicit sexual content
He promised to protect him from a killer. He never said he was one.
When journalist Ian Parker witnesses a brutal murder, he should have been the killer's next victim. Instead, he wakes up in the hospital, saved by Zhedya Hunter…a brilliant forensic pathologist, a reclusive CEO, and a man with chilling grey eyes that feel hauntingly familiar.
Charismatic and dangerously possessive, Zhedya offers Ian shelter in his opulent penthouse, a gilded cage where every comfort is a chain.
As Zhedya's obsession deepens, Ian's career skyrockets, with damning evidence against the city's most wanted criminals mysteriously falling into his hands. But each exclusive story comes with a price: a fractured memory, a drugged haze, and a growing pile of bodies connected to anyone who threatens their twisted paradise.
Now, Ian is trapped in a nightmare of luxury and lies, unraveling a truth more terrifying than any headline: his savior is a predator, his sanctuary is a crime scene, and the man who claims to love him is the most prolific murderer he will ever interview.
Learning how to love a murderer is easy. Surviving him is the real story.
“If I ever crossed that line with you,” he said, calm enough to chill me,
“It sure as hell wouldn’t be because you’re rich.”
His thumb brushed my jaw, making my lower lip sag .
“It would be when you’re no longer hiding behind any of it.”
A second passed
“It’d be when you’re flooded up to your eyes with your wetness but still thinking straight enough to plead with me fuck you. It’d be when you’re on your knees begging to have my cock shoved in you in any hole I please,”
I released a heavy exhale and he swallowed it up as his lips were mere inches from mine.
“It’d be when all that pride finally shuts up.”
His eyes dropped briefly, then returned to mine.
“Until then, I’ll be here to watch you convince yourself you’re not unravelling under my gaze, to watch you struggle to understand what’s happening to you.”
“Fuck you!” I spat
“Sure. Whenever you’re ready.” he replied, releasing my neck
Raina Cole doesn’t believe in love not after being left at the altar by the man she thought she’d spend forever with.
So when her ex invites her to his wedding, she does what any humiliated woman with money and pride would do; she hires the most dangerous man she’s ever met to play her perfect boyfriend. Gorgeous enough to make her ex choke on regret.
Only the man she hires isn’t what he seems
He’s not a date-for-hire. He’s an assassin sent to end her life.
But the closer he gets,
the harder it becomes to remember which side he’s on.
'Killing for Company' absolutely chills me because yes, it's based on real events. The book dives into the horrifying case of Dennis Nilsen, one of Britain's most notorious serial killers who murdered at least 15 young men between 1978-1983. What makes this story particularly disturbing is how ordinary Nilsen appeared—a civil servant who lured victims to his home, then kept their bodies for weeks. The details about his psychological profile, like his need for companionship even from corpses, are ripped straight from police reports and court transcripts. It's not just true; it's meticulously researched, pulling from interviews, crime scene photos, and Nilsen's own disturbing confessions. If you want to understand the mind of a killer who blurred the lines between loneliness and monstrosity, this is the real deal.