Watch a video of my chat with Jennifer Hillier, author of serial killer thriller, Freak. For more BookendsTV, go to http://bookendstv.com/

What is it that makes the mind of a serial killer tick?

The topic of perverse killers has been sickly popular for ages – from the days of Jack the Ripper to the days of accused killer Luka Magnotta.

The courts will decide whether or not Magnotta committed the crime. But we can at least say that someone out there dismembered student Jun Lin and sent out the body parts. And someone out there allegedly videotaped the disgusting murder. How can anyone be capable of that?

Thriller writer Jennifer Hillier has been obsessed with that question since she was 15 years old. That’s when there was killer on the streets of her own town. That’s when Paul Bernardo was caught and convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. Hillier says the Bernardo case is all she could talk about with her friends at the time.

Bernardo’s crimes were happening close to home for Hillier, and she says that’s when she realized that, “The scariest monsters are the ones we don’t know are monsters.”

Hillier started reading about serial killers and her fascination with the topic has only grown. She now runs a blog that she calls The Serial Killer Files. And she writes thriller books about serial killers.

Her newest thriller, Freak, is a sequel to her 2011 debut, Creep. In the first book, killer Ethan Wolfe leaves more than a dozen women dead. His last victim, professor Sheila Tao, survives.

In Freak, Wolfe’s ex-girlfriend, Abby Maddox, is in prison for assaulting a police officer. The prosecutor is trying to prove that Maddox was the mastermind behind Wolfe’s murders. And Tao is trying to move on with her life.

But Maddox’s and Tao’s lives collide once more when another serial killer appears in Seattle, murdering women to try to get Maddox released from prison.

The book is an easy read and it has some cringe-worthy moments.

One of Hillier’s fictional killers loves the sounds people make as they are tortured. The killer says he/she (I won’t give anything away!) could write a book about the victim’s screams and moans. Cringe.

The same killer tells the victim, “The more you beg, the more excited I get, and the more inclined I am to draw it out.” Cringe.

If the disturbing minds of killers fascinate you in some way and you like a light read, pick up a copy of Hillier’s books.

Contact me: jlewkowicz@astral.com

Follow me: @JustineLewkowic