The Man Who Loved The Praying Mantis

In this book Toledo's notorious "animal-rights" serial killer speaks up for the first time. Fred Didion tells us how he became someone who killed in defense of animals, whom he calls "angels." In Fred's account butterflies and dogs, ticks and worms, are not only angels. They are also under constant threat from "the beasts"-otherwise known as human beings. Here Fred explains how an obese aunt, a treacherous friend, a Scottish minister, and a horrific injury helped him become, in time, an expert practitioner of the homicidal arts. He narrates the tales of his various victims, such as Noah, the traumatized ex-teacher; Bobby, the overweight, despised sousaphone player; Mary, the decadent refugee from Los Angeles; Phil, the sensitive but mediocre poet; and Alvin, his hot shot businessman cousin. None of them are bad people-but they are doomed beasts nonetheless. Fred makes sure of that. In this harrowing page-turner readers will meet one of the most inexplicable personalities in fiction: a nice guy who's decided that not murdering would be more shameful than murdering. Here is a protagonist whose philosophy of life seems absurd, dangerous, and yet, sometimes, uncannily persuasive.