British-American journalist Jon Ronson describes how he became interested in exploring psychopathy and investigating psychiatric diagnostics. After neurologist Deborah Talmi and her colleague, James, contacted Ronson about an ongoing mystery they were party to, Ronson met them at a Costa Coffee near University College London. Deborah presented Ronson with an enigmatic 42-page book titled Being or Nothingness by “Joe K,” which she had received anonymously from Gothenburg months earlier. The expensively produced volume featured M. C. Escher’s Drawing Hands on the cover and contained cryptic verse, blank pages, and words carefully cut from page 13.

Talmi informed Ronson that she was not alone; academics worldwide—neurologists, astrophysicists, and religious scholars—had all received identical packages. In response, online communities formed to decode what recipients assumed was a brilliant puzzle, perhaps devised for recruitment purposes or viral marketing. Ronson agreed to investigate.

Meanwhile, Ronson was experiencing severe anxiety over a threatened defamation lawsuit from Dave McKay, leader of a religious group Ronson had called “psychopathic” in an interview. The conflict resolved when Ronson apologized, leaving him feeling foolish for worrying. During tours of Talmi and James’s research facilities, Ronson noticed psychologist Essi Viding, who studied psychopaths. James told him that Viding once interviewed a psychopath who couldn’t interpret fearful expressions on photographed individuals’ faces but identified the expression as the one people made “just before he killed them” (10).