LOVERS of forensic psychology dramas like Wire in the Blood and Prime Suspect will be fascinated by the true life story of Australian criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro.
As Australia's most distinguished criminal psychologist, 'Doc' Tim Watson-Munro assessed more than 30,000 'persons of interest' in some of the nations most notorious court cases including Hoddle Street gunman Julian Knight, corporate fraudster Alan Bond, Melbourne gangster Alphonse Gangitano and, in recent years, Australia's first terrorist convicts.
But the front line of psychology is no place for the faint-hearted. Tim's pioneering methods and proximity to evil made him front page news but also led him to a devastating personal crossroads - first wife gravelly ill, second wife pregnant, best mate betraying him to the cops, a $2,000 a week drug habit and a brilliant career and hard-won reputation in crisis.
Dancing with Demons is the extraordinary memoir of a man who spent his working life looking into the eyes of modern evil.
Tim became a psychologist in a high-security prison early in his career. It was a baptism of fire but one that led him to becoming a leading psychological criminal profiler and a darling of the legal profession and the media.
But the stresses of the job eventually led to mental health and addiction problems and a devastating fall from grace.
"I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked the question 'Doc, are some people just born evil?' It is question frequently posed to me in court: 'Witness do you have an opinion as whether or not the accused in mad, or simply bad?'"
Readers will recognise the many notorious characters which Watson-Munro dealt with during his career and may find themselves asking the same question 'mad or bad'?
- Dancing with Demons, Pan Macmillan Australia $34.99 paperback, $14.99 e-book www.panmacmillan.com.au