The cop and serial killer cliché

The Cop
We've all seen something like this: Harry Wang, once a decorated detective on the NYPD, returns from his battle with morphine and Stolichnaya addiction just in time to work one of the most provocative cases in the department's history. Women are being brutally murdered in Manhattan East Side. They're being ground up like sausages. Anita Wang, harry's deceased wife, was once turned into a sausage by this savage killer. And now, after all these years, the East Manhattan Sausage Maker Killer is targeting Harry Wang, who is not a woman and does not endeavor to be anyone's sausage.

The Killer
Niles Trufont is not your obligatory killer. He holds seven Ph.D.'s in various topics, is the son and only child of a yachting magnate from Southern France, speaks seven languages, is fond of children, harpsichord and poetry, and likes the dress in women's knit fabrics when the camera isn't on him. His grandfather, a pedophile, abused and sexually molested Niles when he was young. Poor Niles associates ground pig with "Let me see your pee pee." Oh, and when Niles isn't playing harpsichord, speaking seven other languages, adoring children and sailing the seven seas, he's a Wall Street broker of unblemished reputation. And president of the Manhattan  chapter of the national "Don't let them see your pee pee" Association (and you thought you had a busy life). He's reserved a special hatred for Harry Wang, whose Korean grandfather was also a meat cutter (and probably a pee-pee peaker). Despite it all, he somehow finds the time to succeed in his career and still moonlight as a serial killer.

I'm being facetious, of course, but why the fuck does every cop in a thriller have to have drug and alcohol problems (and/or a dead wife), and why does every serial killer have to taunt the police? Jesus Christ, people, be original. Write your own story, not someone else's. It could turn out that someone else's story which so influences you might not be that good in the first place (and that story copies other stories). So, you're essentially writing a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of ten other copies. I mean, come on, where's the goddamn psychological depth? Have you actually researched serial killers? How many of them taunt the police? How many are geniuses with good jobs? In most cases, a serial killer lurks in the underbelly of society, preying on easy victims. Ph.D.'s? Obsessions with fine cuisine and Wall Street Jobs? Give me a fucking break.

I mean, when you construct these stories, do you understand there are other readers out there--yours truly, for example--who are rolling their fucking eyes at the derivative nature of your work? Thomas Harris had his day in the sunshine. Jesus Christ, write something original already. Research ACTUAL serial killers, and know this: serial killers, from a dramatic standpoint, are pretty ineffectual. Come up with an original spin. Serial Killer taunting cops who drink has been done ad nauseam. I can sometimes understand the frustration of agents and editors. If a derivative serial killer story came across my desk, not only would I reject it, I'd probably roll it into a tight ball and launch it through my own window.

End rant. Thank you for listening.