“A wonderful, intelligent, and engaging study that illuminates the disturbing relationship between some of those who appeal to our better instincts, as victims, and those on whom they prey, including ourselves—it will grip the general reader and should be compulsory reading for anyone working in the ‘caring’ professions. For many, the world will never look the same after reading this book.”

—Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist,
author of The Master and His Emissary

“Barbara Oakley has written the most ambitious kind of true crime book, one that goes beyond a story well told and takes the lid off the simmering conditions and psychopathology that cook up into a tragic killing. There are haunting warnings for all of us in Cold-Blooded Kindness, as well as a fundamental truth: Homicide is self-will run riot—even if it wears a smiley face.”

—Lowell Cauffiel,
New York Times bestselling author of House of Secrets

“Cold-Blooded Kindness is a masterful fusion of analytic depth and powerful narrative. A singularly incisive exposé of the fallacy of simplistic moral dichotomies we routinely deploy to judge (and misjudge) the intricacies of human nature. And a gripping read to boot.”

—Elkhonon Goldberg,
clinical professor of neurology, NYU School of Medicine, and
author of The New Executive Brain and The Wisdom Paradox

“Barbara Oakley sets her sights on a seemingly mundane act of domestic violence to reveal the many hidden layers beneath. To make sense of those layers, Oakley uniquely dissects the dynamic psychological, social, and cultural forces that led an artistically gifted and seemingly kind and caring woman to kill her husband. Was she an abused victim or a conniving victimizer? Read Cold-Blooded Kindness and find out.”

—Mark Blumberg,
F. Wendell Miller Professor of Psychology, University of Iowa,
and author of Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies
Tell Us about Development and Evolution

“Finally someone has exposed the ugly, vicious underbelly of ‘kindness.’ Dr. Oakley reminds us that the expenditure of energy or emotion is not in itself naughty or nice, it's a question of how they are channeled or directed. So-called good and evil can look an awful lot alike—the devil is indeed in the details. Cold-Blooded Kindness is an excellent piece of investigative journalism and a riveting read all rolled into one. Dr. Oakley does Truman Capote proud, you won't want to put it down!”

—Dr. Margaret Cochran,
author of What Are You Afraid Of?
and host of “Wisdom, Love and Magic!”

“This brave and important book reminds us that even our best intentioned assumptions become prejudices if they go too long unexamined. Truth and justice deserve our rigorously honest attention and we must trust that they will protect us better, in the long run, than convenient lies. The book is also an excellent read—lively, suspenseful, strange, and as insightful as it is disturbing. You should read it.”

—Jennifer Michael Hecht,
author of The Happiness Myth and Doubt: A History