A Book Like a Thriller

There are plenty of scientific charts, data-filled maps and reproductions of MRI scans scattered throughout, but this is not an academic work.

At times it reads more like a thriller, as Williams reconstructs the events leading up to notorious crimes such as the 1999 Soho nail bombings by David Copeland in which three people died.

In each case, Williams tries to uncover how the hatred of an “other” started, and what tipped the perpetrator from prejudice into violence.

He finds neither family background nor life experience can entirely explain what drives someone to commit a hate crime.