David Canter believes the roots of murder can be better understood by careful consideration of the parallels between the criminal's psychological journey and the actual paths he follows. He conducts a meticulous and fascinating exploration of a number of notorious crimes, taking us on the murderers' journeys in both the psychological and geographical sense. His work has enabled police departments across the world to solve a number of high-profile cases, since his groundbreaking contribution to the capture of the vicious 'railway murderer', John Duffy. He describes how the uptake of this innovative approach is enriching detectives' mental maps of the how and why of murder, throwing light on previously unsolved crimes as far afield as Newfoundland, Las Vegas and New Zealand. With first-hand experience of applying his techniques, Canter expands on his theories of what distinguishes criminals from each other, probing deep into the twisted logic of men whose crimes have shocked the world. For the first time in print he gives a detailed profile of his 'marauders and commuters' theory -- looking at killers whose confused and devious attempts to satisfy their brutal desires led to their capture. An in-depth study is made of murderers like Fred West, and the Belgian, Marc Dutroux -- who constructed 'spiders' webs' to lure and then destroy their victims. He shows how these webs operated like black holes, due to the absence of information related to the disappearance of the victims.

Details are also given of criminal 'marauders' who venture out to find their victims, as well as the 'travelling killers', like Robert Black, Peter Sutcliffe and Peter Moore. Most chillingly, the role of the victims is examined: how someone can unwittingly become etched on a murderer's map without realising the journey they are taking could be their last. Based on the highly acclaimed TV series of the same name.