It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The Criminal Mind

The Criminal Mind

Summary

Gift the gift of suspense this Christmas with an edge-of-your-seat true crime journey into the darkest depths of the human mind – perfect for any thriller lover!


'Insightful, informative and sometimes shocking' DR RICHARD SHEPHERD, author of Unnatural Causes

'Riveting, very moving' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'Grips you from the start like a bestselling novel' JOHN HUMPHRYS



A must-read for readers of Unnatural Causes, All That Remains, Do No Harm, War Doctor or The Jigsaw Man

----

A likeable young girl who’s burnt her family home to the ground.

A man with no memory of the night he killed his wife.

A teenager whose visions and voices have had murderous effect.

One question binds these and 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. An expert witness, he must try to establish a defendant’s mental state and motivation. And their fitness to stand trial.

Growing up in a broken, violent home, Harding became a doctor because he wanted to be good and kind. It led him on a journey that has brought him face to face with psychopaths, taken him to the limits of his compassion and to the darkest corners of his own troubled past.

But he’s never turned away nor given up hope.

Mesmerising, insightful and redemptive, The Criminal Mind is his unforgettable story.


'Gripping . . . each patient a mystery to unpick’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘The most moving, surprising and compelling book you’ll read this year’ M.J. ARLIDGE, author of Eeny Meeny

Reviews

  • 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

About the author

Duncan Harding

Dr Duncan Harding is a consultant adolescent forensic psychiatrist, working with adults and children who commit serious crime. He is a specialist member of the Parole Board for England and Wales, and the college lead for expert witnesses at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Specialising in forensic mental health, he has provided expert testimony in many court cases involving homicide, serious violence and terrorism, and has conducted research into conduct disorder and criminal psychopathy. He lives in London.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more