Brian Master’s previous book about a homosexual serial killer, Killing for Company, has become – deservedly – a classic of criminology. Yet I never felt entirely happy about his account of Dennis Nilsen’s motivation: that the murders were due to his horror of being left alone. Would anyone really feel that a naked corpse made his loneliness more bearable? Is it not far more likely that he killed because he was driven by a simple and crude appetite for sex with partners who had no choice?

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