Picking Up The Pieces [Paperback]

It's all the fault of Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps not the first detective novels (William Godwin's Caleb Williams, according to Julian Symons in Bloody Murder, or more popularly The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins), the tales of the Baker Street sleuth nonetheless presented the first accounts of psychological profiling, characteristically drawing upon the faintest of clues. Away from one fictional figure, forensic psychologist Paul Britton was the inspiration for another, television's Cracker. Britton had been involved in the conviction of murderer Paul Bostock in 1979, now acknowledged as the first person to have been caught and convicted using psychological analysis, and he has been consulted on more than 100 subsequent cases. Picking Up the Pieces, the follow-up to The Jigsaw Man, parades a rogues' gallery of cases from his clinical casebook, as disparate and anguished as one might imagine: a man who electrocutes rabbits in place of his abusive father in a home-made electric chair; a woman possessed, supposedly after a ouija board encounter; Colin Ireland, the serial gay killer; various stalkers and rapists; and even his own Wolf-Man, like Dr Freud (though psychoanalysis barely gets a mention), who turns into a werewolf each day at 4pm. Britton's work is controversial--he was involved with the arrest of Colin Stagg for the horrific murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992, for which Stagg is considering legal action for entrapment--but when applied properly, amounts to little more than old-fashioned detective work, painstakingly worked through. The writing is sleekly episodic, wrapped around his own professional life, and while at times the neo-fictional dialogue can seem a little polished ("They used the garden because the house is full" is his response to an enquiry as to why the Wests buried bodies in the back-garden), the insights offered are genuinely interesting, and responsibly explained. And his conclusion makes grim reading: he is seeing more cases of institutionalised abuse than ever. Uncomfortably gripping. --David Vincent --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"* 'A unique understanding of the dark side of the human condition' Red. * 'Britton has done hugely important work that saves lives. He is fascinating. His book is compelling' Sunday Times. * 'Precise, considered, methodical. His skill is to go beyond the guise, to understand and inhabit the psychopathic mind' Independent."

Forensic psychologist Paul Britton can walk through the minds of those who murder, rape, torture, extort and kidnap. He can see the world through their eyes. This book reveals the psychological and forensic foundations upon which he has based his expertise.

For twenty-five years forensic psychologist Paul Britton has interviewed, assessed and treated people with damaged or broken minds. Some were responsible for terrible crimes, others were stopped before it was too late. He can 'walk through the minds' of those who murder, rape, torture, extort and kidnap. For him, the answers aren't just hidden at bloody crime scenes or in the post-mortem photographs - instead, they are often locked away within someone's sub-conscious or deep in their past. That is why the police have called on him to help with many high-profile criminal investigations and catch those responsible.

How does he do it? Picking Up the Pieces traces Britton's remarkable journey into the darkest recesses of human experience. From top security prisons and mental hospitals to ordinary outpatients' clinics, he reveals the psychological and forensic foundations upon which he has based his expertise. It is a compelling and revealing book that provides important insights into the complex organism we call the human mind.

Paul Britton was born in 1946. He has degrees in psychology from Warwick and Sheffield universities. He has spent the last twenty years working as a consultant clinical and forensic psychologist. He has also advised the Association of Chief Police Officers' Crime Committee on offender profiling for many years. He currently teaches postgraduates in clinical and forensic psychology