The Psychic Detectives

At the outset it should be stated that this book by the author of The Occult and The Outsider is only tangentially about paranormal crime detection, and is not for true crime buffs. While focusing on psychometry, Wilson surveys parapsychological phenomena with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Psychometry, which is closely related to telepathy and clairvoyance, involves the psychic's touching of an object or, in some instances, only being in the presence of an object, and "reading" that object's history or the history of a person closely associated with it. The phenomenon, according to the author, has applications to police work and has been successful in archeological studies. But emerging from Wilson's admitted "bewildering array of facts" are his devout faith in poltergeists, spiritualism, dowsing and related areas, and his intention to convert skeptics.