The Criminal Mind

WHAT MAKES A MURDERER? Unraveling the Dark Psychology Behind Britain’s Most Notorious Killers From Forensic Psychiatrist, Dr Duncan Harding



SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 2025

'Grips you from the start like a bestselling novel then takes you on an extraordinary journey … Riveting’ JOHN HUMPHRYS

'Incisive, informative and occasionally shocking, The Criminal Mind is an engrossing book’ DR RICHARD SHEPHERD, bestselling author of Unnatural Causes

'A penetrating insight into the darkest corners of the human mind. The most moving, surprising and compelling book you’ll read this year’ M.J. ARLIDGE, bestselling author of Eeny Meeny

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A young girl burns down the family home

A man doesn’t remember killing his wife

A teenager’s visions and voices lead to murder

One question binds these and many others from the casebook of Britain’s leading forensic psychiatrist: Why? What drives a person to commit seemingly inexplicable crimes?

Dr Duncan Harding is the person the police and the courts turn to for answers – to establish a defendant’s mental state and motivation: their fitness to stand trial.

It is a career that has brought him face to face with psychopaths, taken him to the limits of human compassion and to the darkest corners of his own troubled past.

This then is a journey deep into the criminal mind . . .

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PRAISE FOR THE CRIMINAL MIND

'Not just another forensic psychiatrist’s casebook. . . . a moving account of how Harding became a child and adolescent forensic psychiatrist, caring for mentally disordered child and adolescent offenders' KEITH RIX professor of medical jurisprudence and forensic psychiatrist

‘Superbly written, as tense as a thriller, this is a book that will make you miss the bus so gripping are these cases’ Daily Mail

‘Harding’s riveting memoir is often very moving … it left me with a powerful respect for all the people in the health and justice systems who put their lives on the line to keep us safe’ MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘A combination of medical coming-of-age tale and true crime that is particularly gripping … Harding writes with empathy and insight … each patient a mystery to unpick’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘A fantastic read … a very accessible window into the darker recesses of human behaviour … hard to put down’ JUDGE DAVID WILLIAMS

‘Not just another forensic psychiatrist’s casebook, but a moving account of how Duncan Harding became forensic psychiatrist’ KEITH RIX, PROFESSOR IN FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY