Evil At Our Table

Written from inside the world of forensic evaluation, Evil at Our Table by Samantha Stein, PsyD examines how judgments about danger and rehabilitation are formed. The story follows a psychologist whose work requires confronting violence directly while remaining grounded in evidence, restraint, and ethical responsibility.

In Evil at Our Table, Dr. Stein brings readers into the one-on-one interviews that define her work under California’s Sexually Violent Predator Law. Charged with assessing individuals accused of serious sexual offenses, she must determine whether they are likely to offend again or can safely reenter society.

The book traces how Dr. Stein evaluates credibility, behavior, and psychological risk without relying on preconceptions. She listens to offenders’ accounts of their crimes and their lives, weighing science against uncertainty and acknowledging how unpredictable human behavior can be. Through specific cases and outcomes, she also reflects on the cumulative strain of carrying responsibility for decisions that affect countless lives. The story offers a rare perspective on how justice is shaped not only by law, but by human judgment.

Samantha Stein Psy.D. is a forensic psychologist who specialized in sex offender and addiction treatment, court-ordered evaluations, and court testimony for nearly 3 decades. The author of a popular PsychologyToday.com column with over 2.2 million reads, her writing has been published in numerous outlets, including Flaunt Magazine, The Awakenings Review, Anxy Magazine, and The Guardian. A frequent speaker and teacher, she has presented at numerous conferences. She is also an avid photographer whose work has been exhibited in several small shows and has sold to collectors and individuals. She lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit Samantha at her website. 

What’s a detail, theme, or clue in your book that most readers might miss on the first read—but you secretly hope someone notices?

When it comes to literary true crime, stories such as Evil at Our Table grip us unlike any other genre. For every suspense novel that shocks and awes readers, there are real-life stories that make those fictions seem tame and predictable. Yet true crime is a loaded genre: the best do not sensationalize violence and human suffering, but instead provide context and depth to the crimes they study. In these books, we’re reminded that true crime does not simply consist of a neatly constructed narrative with a criminal mastermind and heroic detectives and ideal victims. Life, and crimes, are so much messier than that.

Evil at Our Table is a difficult read at times, but it resists sensationalizing or overdramatizing the terrible crimes that have been committed. As a narrator, I recount my experience in relatable prose; as a forensic psychologist, I am informed, and my views are thought-provoking and nuanced. In other words, Evil at Our Table presents an intelligent, strong, yet vulnerable narrator who takes the reader through provocative material without ever being salacious, begging weighty questions about human nature that aren't easy to answer. It also provides nuts-and-bolts tips on safety and prevention as I make the daily decisions every parent must make about their kids in today’s world.

Gripping and absorbing, Evil at Our Table is also urgently needed. True crime is perennially fascinating, and our criminal justice system–and those who are caught up in it–is one of the salient issues of our time. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial that we don’t see people and issues in black-and-white terms, and increasingly, people get it. Pure evil does exist–and the book acknowledges this–but most people are not that. It’s crucial that we see those who have committed crimes–and to see ourselves–as deeply flawed and yet human all at once, in order for us to really understand why these crimes happen and how to help make sure they don’t continue to.

When did this story or idea “click” into place for you—was there a single moment you knew you had to write it?

I was journaling about my experiences and really wrestling with the morality of the work I was doing. I was asking myself questions about the balance between accountability and empathy, about redemption and nuance versus black and white thinking. I was asking myself about where the line is between public safety and civil liberties. This is when I realized there was an important book to be written.

Which character or real-life person surprised you the most while writing this book, and why?

There is a person in the book I call “Luke Miller” who is the one offender with a through-line story in the book. He was the most surprising to me - he had really changed between the first and second times I met with him. I found this transformation to be both inspiring (on a personal level) and heartbreaking (on a professional level) as I objectively evaluated him under the law.

If your book had a soundtrack, what three songs would be on it and what scenes or moments would they pair with?

I have no idea. I would need to give this some serious thought.

What’s one belief, question, or emotional truth you hope readers carry with them long after they finish your book?

I hope that readers will be inspired to see that all of us exist on a continuum of humanity, and to be humbled out of their self-righteousness.

Tell us about a moment during the writing process when the story (or message) took an unexpected turn.

I think writing the scene witnessing my twins taking a bath was probably more vulnerable than I expected to get in the book.

If your protagonist (or the central figure in your nonfiction) could give the reader one piece of advice, what would it be?

Educate yourself. Don’t believe the hype or tropes of our society.

What real-world place, object, or memory helped shape a key element in your book?

The photographs in my book are key elements to the story. They are visual depictions of my inner experience and my journey, and they tie the book to place and emotion in a way that words can’t.

What’s something you had to research, learn, or experience to write this book that genuinely shocked you?

I was genuinely shocked to have empathy for many of the people who committed sex offenses. I believe in accountability, of course, and there is no excuse for committing these crimes (and it is never okay), but I didn’t expect to connect with the humans who committed them. Or grow to understand them.

If your book were invited to join a shelf with three other titles, which ones would make you happiest—and what would that shelf say about your story?

Just Mercy, The Fact of a Body, Autobiography of an Execution (or Things I’ve Learned from Dying by same author)

That shelf is really about people who wrote a deeply personal story about their journey to being able to hold all of what’s true: the terrible things people do, the accountability, and yet, the humanity. The gray areas we rarely spend time in but really need to if we are to grow as humans and as a society.