Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

by Pat Brown

What really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007? Was she abducted as the Gerry and Kate have claimed or did something happen to Madeleine on May 3 in the vacation apartment and the incident covered up? Criminal Profiler Pat Brown analyzes the evidence and takes the readers through the steps of profiling, developing a theory that is intriguing and controversial.

Genres: True Crime, Adult, Crime

Nook

First published June 14, 2011

Reviews

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has taken me a while to read this book, as, by the nature of it, I find the subject upsetting, as I’m sure any parent would.

I have always had concerns about this case. Something just didn’t chime between what has been claimed and the evidence gathered. I have also been concerned about the McCann’s and their lack of co-operation with the authorities in Portugal.

Pat Brown has been able to bring a scientific, and I have to say clinical, view to what is a very muddled subject. There is no hand wringing or recrimination in this book. There are, however, some very disturbing questions being asked and they are pointed very clearly at the McCanns and the Tapas group.

The question that is ultimately asked, and one that has been in my mind since the off, is why are the McCanns refusing to answer them? If my child had been kidnapped I would do anything, absolutely anything to get her back. Yet the McCanns continue to refuse to co-operate. Why?

The book is well written, although the fact that the author has centred all the text is annoying. There are very few typographical errors. The content is well described but there are no gruesome explanations, so it is in no way prurient.

The fact that the McCanns have had this book banned on Amazon, and the detective’s book forced off the bookshelves says more about the McCanns than anything. There is nothing in this book that they should be afraid of, unless there is a reason why they are afraid of it.

Although this book has been withdrawn by Amazon at the insistence of the McCanns legal representatives, this book is still available

[Stephen Motson · Rating 1 out of 5]

On first reading the book seems convincing enough - until you delve deeper and examine the gaping errors which the writer and self-styled profiler has made. Pat Brown ignores the scientific evidence and skips over it as if it were an inconvenience. She makes assumptions based on cadaver (human remains) dog alerts (which all turned out to be false) without even bothering to check the validity or science behind specialist dogs alerting to human remains (once a body has been removed, according to scientists and researchers, the scent of human remains begins to exponentially diminish and after 594 hours (24.1 days) (in these conditions) there is not a trace of it that can possibly be detected, even by a cadaver dog - yet Pat Brown ignores this as an inconvenience, insinuating, implausibly and against accepted science, that the scent in this case inexplicably remained for 3 months after the body had been removed! Pat Brown does not offer any explanation on why this should be so, nor does she even comment on it further. She just ignores it). Nor does she explain how a body can lay in the apartment for 2 hours and not leave one trace of physical evidence (every contact leaves a trace). She instead is convinced by Amaral's (the investigator in this case) ridiculous theories that the child had died in the apartment (leaving no physical trace whatsoever) and that the parents covered this up (again without any evidence or foundation), instead supporting Amaral's ill-thought-out theories: that the child's parents placed their child in the freezer (no physical trace found there either) and later carried their frozen child away in a hold-all under the gaze of the world's media before hiding her in the church before cremating her at the pet cemetery! What started out as a promising book became a joke and an unbelievable farce.

[Kat Montemayor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, a criminal profiler, breaks down the timelines and offers many alternatives to what could've happened to Madeleine McCann. My favorite part was how she enumerated how each possible scenario happened. Recommended for true crime fans.

[Simon Vacca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly riddled with countless stylistic errors, which makes the profile frustrating to read. Forgettable.

[CrabbyPatty · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, the author is a self-taught profiler with no profile on Goodreads to explain her lack of credentials. Second, she takes the facts of the case (none of which are referenced as to their source) and shapes them into her own interpretation of what may have happened, all the while pretending that she is some sort of expert profiler.

She is convinced that Gerry McCann carried his dead daughter to the beach to hide her (and never found despite the fact there were tons of people mobilized to search for her) then later put her body in some mountainous area in Spain, and then perhaps later to England! And if you have watched the new Netflix documentary about this case, you'll see how the McCanns were basically hounded by the international press every moment of the day so the idea they put her dead body in their luggage and returned home is absolutely insane.

[Sophie De Abreu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear, concise and informative. Pat Brown does a great job and taking her years of experience and applying it to the McCann case. All who have followed the McCann case should read this, be they believers or sceptics of the official story.

[Frobus Oogleboyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what it says on the tin.