Another Positive Review 

This week I received another positive review for I Albert Peabody, Confessions of a Serial Killer. 

“I carry in my satchel many secrets I wish to reveal between now and when he will make his confession known to me.”

Albert’s decision to take a life was made with intended malice. A doctor couldn’t save his daughter’s life, so the pain that Albert experienced needed to be felt by the doctor. He targeted the doctor’s daughter and snuffed out her life with no remorse. Years removed from this premeditated act, Albert Peabody is living out his golden years in a psychiatric hospital where he is confessing his past crimes to his doctor. As Albert reveals his pathological nature to the doctor in painstaking detail, the doctor has questions of his own about what drove Albert to these heinous acts. Albert’s crimes have been concentrated for decades, and his cunning mind has helped him elude capture. However, now Albert is being held accountable for his nefarious deeds.

A voyage into the sinister mind of a killer proves both disturbing and illuminating in this mystery/thriller narrative. Albert’s disclosures reveal a detestable human being who whitewashes his ghastly crimes due to grievances, real or perceived, with either the victim or the victim’s kin. Albert’s doctor believes he can see through Albert and that Albert’s motives may not be as clear as Albert has conveyed. The question of Albert serving as an unreliable narrator surfaces from time to time, conjuring a comparison to American Psycho and where Albert’s confession will ultimately lead. The mind games played between the killer and his doctor form the dramatic dynamic in this story and propel the plot forward to a fulfilling conclusion. This story is intended to leave the reader unsettled and succeeds on multiple levels.
Book review by Philip Zozzaro
RECOMMENDED by the US Review

As with the Kirkus Review done in November 2023. It’s well received and got a “recommended” from the critic. 

“A fascinating and relentlessly dour peek into an evil mind.“

In Schellhammer’s novel, an elderly serial killer chronicles an alarming string of murders he’s committed over the course of decades.
Albert Peabody sits in a Washington State mental hospital. Authorities suspect the 85-year-old of killing 10 people whose remains were left in urns stashed inside a mausoleum. Albert writes out his confession to Dr. Schwartz: He’d been a POW in the Korean War, then he returned to Spokane, his hometown, and married his high-school sweetheart. Their daughter got sick, and when a doctor failed to save her life, Albert took revenge on the doctor’s child. He confesses to multiple murders spanning the 1960s to the 1980s, mostly committed as responses to what he perceived as slights. He freely admits to other shocking atrocities as well. While Albert acknowledges he’s a monster, he doesn’t think he’s crazy. Schwartz reads pages and pages of descriptions of the man’s crimes but is certain that Albert is keeping something to himself, regarding an apparent deathbed confession of Albert’s father’s. Schellhammer maintains a consistent tone throughout these writings of a narcissistic serial killer—Albert continually addresses Schwartz as “Herr Doctor” and takes unmistakable joy in recounting every awful thing he’s done. While the author avoids graphic details, the killer’s myriad deeds and cold indifference make for a mercilessly dark tale. Beneath Albert’s playful narration, readers get glimpses into his psyche, as when particular questions from Schwartz infuriate him. The killer, on occasion, seemingly contradicts himself, but he’s very clearly not the most reliable narrator, and at least some of these contradictions make sense as the story progresses. There are a few surprises awaiting readers in the final act (some more convincing than others), leading to a gratifying ending. A fascinating and relentlessly dour peek into an evil mind.

I hope that many of you my loyal readers have already bought my book and enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for all of your support and I’m looking forward to writing more to you.