In this book, crime writer Val McDermid reveals her admiration for the “amazing” work of forensic scientists who confront the “darkest and most frightening aspects of human behaviour”. While researching her character Dr Tony Hill, a clinical psychologist, she consulted Dr Mike Berry, who has worked at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital and for the police on offender profiling. As a novelist, McDermid shares with such forensic psychologists (85% of whom are female) a desire “to understand these strange universes that our fellow human beings occupy”. Using case histories and interviews with practitioners, she follows the path of forensic investigations from the crime scene (“the scene is the silent witness”, as the saying goes), through techniques such as DNA profiling (a bloodstain “a millionth the size of a grain of salt” is all that’s needed nowadays), to the conclusion in the courtroom. This is a chillingly compelling book – its tales of maggot-collecting from corpses and probing the damaged psyches of serial killers are definitely not for the squeamish.
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