Picking Up the Pieces
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Consumer Rating: 
By: Paul Britton
Format: Paperback
From: Corgi Books
Pub. Date: May 2001
From: Corgi Books
Pub. Date: May 2001
Product Details:
Catalog: Book
Release Date: 2001-06-04
Media: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 598
Ean: 9780552147187
Isbn: 0552147184
Catalog: Book
Release Date: 2001-06-04
Media: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 598
Ean: 9780552147187
Isbn: 0552147184
ABOUT THE BOOK
EDITORIAL REVIEW
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
USER REVIEWS
"When it comes to preening and narcissism, Paul Britton is in a class of his own. In some respects he is a bit of an ecologist: not only does he like to sell us his self-promotional advertisements, he likes to recycle them. (Unfortunately this has a less than ecological impact on the world's trees!)
The trouble with Britton is that he finds it very hard to admit that he is wrong. This makes him a bad witnesses, a bad expert and a bad source of information to the reader. He also has a knack for distorting facts. God help any innocent person whom Paul Britton decides to accuse!
I would put him in the same class as Roy Meadow.
Unfortunately, he seems to have fooled a lot of people."
~ Written on 2007-04-12
The trouble with Britton is that he finds it very hard to admit that he is wrong. This makes him a bad witnesses, a bad expert and a bad source of information to the reader. He also has a knack for distorting facts. God help any innocent person whom Paul Britton decides to accuse!
I would put him in the same class as Roy Meadow.
Unfortunately, he seems to have fooled a lot of people."
~ Written on 2007-04-12
"Thought Jigsaw Man was good......this is even better!!!
Could not put it down.
Well written and look forward to more from Paul Britton!! "
~ Written on 2007-04-11
Could not put it down.
Well written and look forward to more from Paul Britton!! "
~ Written on 2007-04-11
"It is hard to believe that this so-called "expert" - whose testimony nearly got an innocent man sent down for life - is still rehashing his old nonsense that he started in his first piece of self-indulgent tripe (The Jigsaw Man). Paul Britton testified that Colin Stagg shared significant "narrow" characteristics with the murderer of Rachel Nickell even though there was not a shred of scientific evidence to give any basis for this claim. Whether Britton genuinely believed it or not I cannot say - what I can say is that he had no GROUNDS to believe it. But that didn't stop him saying it in Court under oath and it didn't stop him convincing a magistrate that it was within the bounds of plausibility (which it wasn't).
If it hadn't been for a judge with a firm commitment to law, this pseudo-scientific evidence might have been presented in an emotionally charged case and used to get an innocent man convicted of murder.
What is particularly disgusting about Britton is that he planned an undercover operation in which a policewoman befriended the vulnerable and lonely Colin Stagg and held out the promise of sexual favours in return for a confession. No confession ever came, yet Britton tried to convince a court that even this was proof of Stagg's cunning rather than innocence.
But more importantly, the undercover operation amounted to playing with Stagg's mind and could have caused him very serious psychological damage. Britton - as a psychologist of sorts - knew that there was a high risk of causing this serious psychological damage to Stagg, yet he was ready to go ahead with this dangerous operation in order to get incriminating evidence against Stagg - even though Britton claimed that he was open-minded as to whether or not that Stagg was actually guilty.
So first he plays with a vulnerable man's mental stability, then he brazenly misinterprets the evidence in sworn testimony and then he writes not one but TWO books designed to cash in on his celebrity status that he has acquired at the expense of another man's peace of mind. The worst part is that he has got away with it.
Who says Good always triumphs over evil?"
~ Written on 2007-03-22
If it hadn't been for a judge with a firm commitment to law, this pseudo-scientific evidence might have been presented in an emotionally charged case and used to get an innocent man convicted of murder.
What is particularly disgusting about Britton is that he planned an undercover operation in which a policewoman befriended the vulnerable and lonely Colin Stagg and held out the promise of sexual favours in return for a confession. No confession ever came, yet Britton tried to convince a court that even this was proof of Stagg's cunning rather than innocence.
But more importantly, the undercover operation amounted to playing with Stagg's mind and could have caused him very serious psychological damage. Britton - as a psychologist of sorts - knew that there was a high risk of causing this serious psychological damage to Stagg, yet he was ready to go ahead with this dangerous operation in order to get incriminating evidence against Stagg - even though Britton claimed that he was open-minded as to whether or not that Stagg was actually guilty.
So first he plays with a vulnerable man's mental stability, then he brazenly misinterprets the evidence in sworn testimony and then he writes not one but TWO books designed to cash in on his celebrity status that he has acquired at the expense of another man's peace of mind. The worst part is that he has got away with it.
Who says Good always triumphs over evil?"
~ Written on 2007-03-22
"I stumbled across the jigsaw man at a second hand book shop , As someone who is very interested in true crime books, and from the leicester area, I thought it was just the book for me I have read the book so many times and still find it amazing ,
I then went to a book shop to find more by Paul Britton and found this book , wow! I was hooked he is such a good author he has you in the story with him , I found the book both moving and very scarry at times the bit about the man turning into a ware wolf had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end , I cannot wait to read more paul britton books he truly is a master of his profession,and a great author ..please hurry with the next one ! I would put both of his books in my top ten books of all times , and ive read thousands"
~ Written on 2007-03-13
I then went to a book shop to find more by Paul Britton and found this book , wow! I was hooked he is such a good author he has you in the story with him , I found the book both moving and very scarry at times the bit about the man turning into a ware wolf had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end , I cannot wait to read more paul britton books he truly is a master of his profession,and a great author ..please hurry with the next one ! I would put both of his books in my top ten books of all times , and ive read thousands"
~ Written on 2007-03-13
"A brilliant follow up book to the Jigsaw Man. This book is as interesting as the last one. Paul Britton lets the reader enter into a world of disturbed people who commit murder - some very well known cases. He gives as much detail as he can without breaking confidences.
I thank Mr. Britton for giving the ordinary reader a chance to see how police investigation works and how he builds a profile for the suspect based on what little evidence there is.
A thoroughly interesting read - I look forward to the next book."
~ Written on 2006-09-17
I thank Mr. Britton for giving the ordinary reader a chance to see how police investigation works and how he builds a profile for the suspect based on what little evidence there is.
A thoroughly interesting read - I look forward to the next book."
~ Written on 2006-09-17