Killer Book | Daily Prompt: Bookworm

Tell us about the last book you read (Why did you choose it? Would you recommend it?). To go further, write a post based on its subject matter.

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I have a real, some what perhaps morbid interest in criminal psychology, in particular reading about serial killers, learning about the psychology behind their thinking, the why’s and what for’s. Sometimes no explanations can be found for why these people behave how they do and commit such heinous crimes as they do, but I am interested in reading about what certain psychologists believe are the reasoning’s and methods behind the madness.

The last book I read was indeed a book based on my interest of this. It is called ‘A History of British Serial Killing’ by Professor David Wilson. I chose this book because not only did it deal with this particular subject matter but also it is written by a man who is believed to be one of the best, if not the best criminal psychologist in the UK. I have read a lot of his books over the years, seen his documentaries on television and listened to him during interviews when discussing these matters. I also follow him on Twitter haha.

This book was fascinating and whilst it is primarily dealing with British serial killers, the thoughts about these can be applied to many serial killer cases throughout the history of the world. The book itself deals with not only the more famous cases of British serial killers, but also deals with the lesser known cases too. The details of the crimes themselves are dealt with, with respect and thought and do not go into too many gory details, instead this books focuses more on the actual victims of the crimes, names of people who often get forgotten about, and also the psychological aspect of these crimes, why they happened, what could have been the catalyst to begin these murderous episodes and what, in the authors mind, drove these people to continue with their crimes until they got caught. This books addresses the question of nature vs nurture, a question very often linked to these kind of crimes and not very easily answered, arguments can be given on both sides, which Professor David Wilson explores and helps the reader to understand some reasoning behind the crime.

I honestly cannot recommend this book enough to anybody who has an interest in this subject matter or an interest in wanting to learn more about the human psyche, particularly as this book has been written by an expert in this field. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and no doubt will be reading again in the near future as I was literally struggling to put it down.

 Professor David Wilson

This post is in response to: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/daily-prompt-words/