Popular culture would have us believe that serial killers are an obvious threat to the public, a deformed creature that snarls, drools and hides in the shadows. In reality the serial killer is less like the maniacally out-of-control character of Mr Hyde and more like the subdued Dr Jekyll, a human being with a family, a job, and ambitions. We examine killers such as John Robinson, once Kansas Man of the Year, a successful businessman and family man, but also the killer of eight women. There are also killers such as Elizabeth Bathory, the wealthy and influential Countess in Hungary who, during the sixteenth century, murdered over 600 women and girls. River of Blood brings together two criminologists, from England and Australia, to give detailed biographies of serial killers from history and from across the world. River of Blood exposes the ordinariness of the serial killer, showing how the killer blends into society, successfully avoiding the stereotype assigned to the genre.