Informative and entertaining but ultimately a bit disappointing, Minds on Trail: Great Cases in Law and Psychology is true crime in Cliffs Notes form with an emphasis on court cases that hinged on expert psychological testimony. Authors Charles Patrick Ewing and Joseph T. McCann, both psychologists, run through a greatest hits collection that includes Lee Harvey Oswald, Patty Hearst, Dan White, John Hinckley, John Demjanjuk, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Andrea Yates among their twenty cases. If true crime fans have a complaint, it will likely be that in some instances Ewing and McCann may not tell them much that they don't already know. My only complaint is that I expected a bit more substance from two experts writing for Oxford University Press. In their epilogue, Ewing and McCann ask what we can learn from the twenty cases they have discussed, and their answer is . . . not much.
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