Yet she doesn't write this book as a routine "textbook" at all. Instead, she manages to make it a great entertaining read and autobiography, yet quietly educates you throughout in a very subtle and gentle way, just like her personality and her interviewing techniques. I learned a great deal, and I absolutely loved this book for just the story sake too. It met all my needs. I just ordered two for my friends as gifts. I hope they will be as inspired as I now am to get out and do something worthwhile with my own life like this author is doing with hers.
Victimized on a rural road at the age of twenty-one, Boylan has made it her life's mission to assist witnesses in the recapturing of the image of the violator's face. Boylan works to combat the damage well-meaning artist and police agencies as they attempt to create composite drawings of suspects, usually from photos taken from mug shot books. Boylan employs an interview technique that keys into the subconscious' memory of the perpetrator, drawing the resulting descriptions freehand on a sketchpad that stays out of the victim's sight until the portrait is completed. By working from memory, rather than triggers, Boylan producing startling accurate portraits.
In addition to the stories of her professional life, Boylan reveals the maverick behind the artist. With a commitment to victims that outweighs all other considerations, Boylan honestly reveals the damage her career exacted on her marriage and personal life. Frequently, just as she and her husband headed out the door for much needed time together, a frantic call pulls her back to the world of killers and their victims.
Boylan has a gift for uncovering false testimony and mistakes in composite drawings. Challenged by a world where her remarkable beauty, sex and gifts work to her detriment when working with many local law enforcement agencies all the way up to the FBI, this forensic artist blazes her own path. A civilian who balks at red tape and follows a path uniquely her own -- a path that can reconstruct a witness' memory from years ago and result in an arrest. Concise, well written, and fascinating, PORTRAITS OF GUILT is a must read. Very highly recommended.