Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

For those of you interested in forensic science, this is a thread dedicated to this subject matter.

Members may discuss non fiction books and/or historical fiction dedicated to this topic.

Please identify which books are non fiction and which ones are historical fiction.

Here is an interesting book:

The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr

by Douglas Starr

Publisher's Synopsis:

A riveting true crime story that vividly recounts the birth of modern forensics.

At the end of the nineteenth century, serial murderer Joseph Vacher, known and feared as “The Killer of Shepherds,� terrorized the French countryside. He eluded authorities for years—until he ran up against prosecutor Emile Fourquet and Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne, the era’s most renowned criminologist. The two men—intelligent, bold, and full of the spirit of the age—typified the Belle Epoque, a period of scientific achievement and fascination with its promise to reveal the secrets of the human condition.

With high drama and stunning detail, Douglas Starr recounts Vacher’s infamous crime wave, interweaving the story of how Lacassagne and his colleagues were developing forensics as we know it. We see one of the earliest uses of criminal profiling, as Fourquet painstakingly collects eyewitness accounts and constructs a map of Vacher’s crimes. We follow the chilling and horrific events leading to the murderer’s arrest. And we witness the twists and turns of the crucial trial, celebrated in its day. In an attempt to disprove Vacher’s defense by reason of insanity, Fourquet recruits Lacassagne, who in the decades previous had revolutionized criminal science by refining the use of blood spatter evidence, systematizing the autopsy and doing ground-breaking research in psychology. Lacassagne’s efforts lead to a gripping courtroom denouement.

The Killer of Little Shepherds is an important contribution to the history of science and criminal justice, impressively researched and thrillingly told.

Here is another:

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

by Deborah Blum

Publisher's Synopsis:

The Poisoner's Handbook
By DEBORAH BLUM
Reviewed by Sarah Weinman
Murder provides the crux for a good many of the stories which fascinate us, whether the tale comes from the tabloids or a novelist's imagination. But the act itself often eludes narrative. A cloud of rage, a moment of opportunity, and a weapon in hand leads to death in minutes, even seconds, barely enough time to register that the victim has moved out of the land of the living. Add a dash of poison, however, rationed out in small doses over a long period of time, and murder leaves the realm of second-degree impulse for first-degree pre-meditation. Randomize the efforts and, in recent cases like the 1982 Tylenol murders and the 2001 anthrax attacks, the result is domestic terror, the lack of resolution lingering in the air like the bitter almond smell of cyanide.

Contemporary crime fiction's emphasis on verisimilitude and character favors more easily discernible death mechanisms like gunshots, stab wounds and ligatures, in large part because there are more such murders in real life. But the genre's Golden Age, from the turn of the 20th Century to World War II, ran amok with poisoners, whose crimes could be couched as debilitating sickness or the natural run of aging. Once unmasked by the likes of Agatha Christie -- who knew a thing or two about insidious chemicals thanks to an earlier job dispensing pharmaceuticals -- the handiwork of these villains were a testament to elegantly complex plotting and fiendish misdirection of the reader.

These parlor tricks of fiction also reflected what Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum describes, in her new book The Poisoner's Handbook as "a deadly cat and mouse game, [with] scientists and poisoners as intellectual adversaries." Although poison is as old as human culture (think of the death of Socrates) its operation couldn't be understood until the advent of modern chemistry. By the early 1800s it was possible to detect the presence of poison, and by the early 20th Century European toxicologists were staying in step with drug-happy murderers who thought they could get away with their crimes, only to be foiled by post-mortem chemical tests.

In America, these advances ran into somewhat greater obstacles. Forensic science practices were nowhere close to their counterparts across the Atlantic -- American states and towns were riddled with incompetent coroners, underfunded laboratories and indifferent politicians who could not keep pace with the "wealth of modern poisons" created by the innovations of industry. The clever poisoner, however, was about to meet his match in the two heroes of Blum's fascinating account of the dawn of modern American forensic toxicology; The Poisoner's Handbook offers a synthesis of societal forces and chemical advances with barely detectable seams.

On January 31, 1918, years after a scathing report indicted New York City's coroners for falling down on the job and despite endless delays by Tammany Hall-controlled state legislature, Charles Norris, Bellevue Hospital's chief pathologist, was appointed the city's first Chief Medical Examiner. The appointment was a watershed:
It would be imprecise to say that [Norris] loved the job...he lived and breathed it. He spent his own money on it. He gave it power and prominence and wore himself into exhaustion and illness over it. Under [his] direction, the New York City medical examiner's office would become a department that set forensic standards for the rest of the country.
Norris courted the public, which latched on to his "buoyant laugh and quick wit," and had a keen sense of the absurd ("We call this the Country Club," he would tell visitors) but never forgot his objective to overcome, as he described in an essay, "a system which fosters ignorance, prejudice and graft."

His partner in pathological crime, at least on the toxicology front, was Alexander Gettler. Unlike his boss, he didn't care for the media (reporters would grow frustrated at Gettler's tight-lipped answers, one memorably setting him down as "a personality as colorless as the sodium chloride that he works with" but shared a passion for medical research, extremely long hours and, most importantly, for devising new ways to catch previously undetectable culprits. Gettler, in essence, would have to invent the wheel, since New York's toxicology lab was America's first: "If a test didn't exist, he would invent it. If research methods didn't exist, he would develop them himself. If a new poison or drug came on the market, he went off to a butcher shop...and bought three pounds of liver."

Compared to modern machines that detect traces of substances down to parts per billion, Gettler's resources and methods come across as shockingly brute and quaint. But fields must begin somewhere, and Gettler's determination to beat poisoners at their own game forms the emotional core of The Poisoner's Handbook, which is otherwise a marvel of structural and narrative trickery. Each chapter is named for a particular chemical substance with the power to kill, the order carefully chosen to reflect the many balls Blum must juggle throughout: chloroform (CHCl3) and its oh-so-sweet smell kicks things off because it was used by a serial murderer unknown to the collapsing coroner system, while the two chapters bearing the same chemical formula of CH3OH comment on the inexorable but separate rise of cheap, deadly wood alcohol and its twin, synthetic methyl alcohol -- both boosted first by the onset of Prohibition, the set of booze-banning laws that helped define the Jazz Age's penchant for excess, and second by and the national despair brought on by the Great Depression. Not all poisons are elegant, and Blum's necessary emphasis on alcohol poisoning (which zoomed up 600% between 1920 and 1930) acts as a subtle reminder that Wars on Substances of any stripe prove to be more costly, inefficient, and damaging than the drug itself.

Other poisons get their moment as the m.o. of cases famous or forgotten. Cyanide's "murderously precise" action, binding tightly to haemoglobin molecules at the expense of oxygen, spurred Gettler and his liver meat-grinding to prove that an older couple's death in Brooklyn's Hotel Margaret was an accident, not murder. The "chemical thug" carbon monoxide's rise to prominence owed its thanks to the parallel rise in automobile usage, and its detection both fingered murderers and saved innocent men from execution. And the detection of arsenic reverses the fortunes of a poisoned-minded woman named Mary Frances Creighton, who twelve years earlier was acquitted when Gettler's painstaking techniques were mocked in court. It was, for Gettler and Norris, a triumph that "had, indeed, changed the poison game" and commanded respect for forensic toxicology.

Blum's extraordinary narrative alchemy fuses Gettler and Norris's painstaking, laborious undertakings with the birth of safety measures (the Food and Drug Administration wasn't much of one until the 1930s), the scandal surrounding workers' exposure to radium, and many other measures that bring home how volatile the transformation from prosperity to struggle really was. A few things get lost, like what debt both Norris and Gettler owed to colleagues in other cities and countries (Blum, to her credit, makes a note of this in supplementary material) or what clashes they had with law enforcement (though the ones with government are well-documented.) But these flaws don't diminish The Poisoner's Handbook's glorious depictions of the "coming-of-age party for forensic toxicology." The book is an unexpected yet appropriate open-sesame into a world that was planting seeds for the world -- with lethal toxins and cutting-edge tools -- that would later, darkly bloom.

Here is one:

Mary Roach

Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Synopsis:

"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year....Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."—Entertainment Weekly

Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

Awards:

ALA Alex Award (2004)

"Stiff" by Mary Roach is a very interesting book and offers a touch of humour on a subject rarely spoken about in society, well worth reading.



by Mary Roach

Thanks for the post Aussie Rick and the recommendation.

This sounds like a tough but rewarding read.

The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo

Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ blurb:


In the spring of 1994, Rwanda was the scene of the first acts since World War II to be legally defined as genocide. Two years later, Clea Koff, a twenty-three-year-old forensic anthropologist analyzing prehistoric skeletons in the safe confines of Berkeley, California, was one of sixteen scientists chosen by the UN International Criminal Tribunal to go to Rwanda to unearth the physical evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity. The Bone Woman is Koff’s riveting, deeply personal account of that mission and the six subsequent missions she undertook—to Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo—on behalf of the UN.

In order to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UN needs to know the answer to one question: Are the bodies those of noncombatants? To answer this, one must learn who the victims were, and how they were killed. Only one group of specialists in the world can make both those determinations: forensic anthropologists, trained to identify otherwise unidentifiable human remains by analyzing their skeletons. Forensic anthropologists unlock the stories of people’s lives, as well as of their last moments.

Koff’s unflinching account of her years with the UN—what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, what she learned about the world—is alternately gripping, frightening, and miraculously hopeful. Readers join Koff as she comes face-to-face with the realities of genocide: nearly five hundred bodies exhumed from a single grave in Kibuye, Rwanda; the wire-bound wrists of Srebrenica massacre victims uncovered in Bosnia; the disinterment of the body of a young man in southwestern Kosovo as his grandfather looks on in silence.

Yet even as she recounts the hellish working conditions, the tangled bureaucracy of the UN, and the heartbreak of survivors, Koff imbues her story with purpose, humanity, and an unfailing sense of justice. This is a book only Clea Koff could have written, charting her journey from wide-eyed innocent to soul-weary veteran across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century. A tale of science in the service of human rights, The Bone Woman is, even more profoundly, a story of hope and enduring moral principles.


Clea Koff (no photo)

Most of us have heard of the Body Farm but this book takes us a little further in the career of Dr. Bill Bass, one of the modern icons in the area of forensic science.

Beyond The Body Farm

by Bill Bass

Synopsis

There is no scientist in the world like Dr. Bill Bass. A pioneer in forensic anthropology, Bass created the world's first laboratory dedicated to the study of human decomposition--three acres of land on a hillside in Tennessee where human bodies are left to the elements. His research at "the Body Farm" has revolutionized forensic science, helping police crack cold cases and pinpoint time of death. But during a forensics career that spans half a century, Bass and his work have ranged far beyond the gates of the Body Farm. In this riveting book, the bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science, using fascinating cases from his career to take readers into the real world of C.S.I.

Some of Bill Bass's cases rely on the simplest of tools and techniques, such as reassembling--from battered torsos and a stack of severed limbs--eleven people hurled skyward by an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory. Other cases hinge on sophisticated techniques Bass could not have imagined when he began his career: harnessing scanning electron microscopy to detect trace elements in knife wounds; and extracting DNA from a long-buried corpse, only to find that the female murder victim may have been mistakenly identified a quarter-century before.

In "Beyond the Body Farm," readers will follow Bass as he explores the depths of an East Tennessee lake with a twenty-first-century sonar system, in a quest for an airplane that disappeared with two people on board thirty-five years ago; see Bass exhume fifties pop star "the Big Bopper" to determine what injuries he suffered in the plane crash that killed three rock and roll legends on "the day the music died"; and join Bass as he works to decipher an ancient Persian death scene nearly three thousand years old. Witty and engaging, Bass dissects the methods used by homicide investigators every day, leading readers on an extraordinary journey into the high-tech science that it takes to crack a case.

I took courses on the human skeleton and forensic anthropology. My instructor worked for Dr. Douglas Ubelaker at the Smithsonian who is a good friend of Bill Bass. All the books you posted are very good. Here is another I read earlier this year called Bones: A Forensic Detective's Casebook Douglas H. Ubelaker

Book Description:
A look at the state-of-the-art techniques that enable forensic experts to read the details of a life from a single bone presents a collection of cases that take readers from archaeological digs to courtrooms.

Ubelaker, a forensic anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution, has aided the FBI for years. Here he shows how traditional methods of physical anthropology and state-of-the-art chemical and computer analysis of victims' remains, no matter how worn or disarticulated, can be used to paint portraits of both the deceased and the circumstances of their deaths with an accuracy that should be discouraging to anyone with murderous intent.

Thanks, Suburbanrockdoll......Another great add to an interesting list of forensic science books.

Good job with the book citation but it isn't necessary to put a link to the book since you have a cover available. If the cover is not in the data base, the link is used instead.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great VIctorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
(Non-fiction)

by Kate Summerscale

Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Synopsis
The dramatic story of the real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction.

In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land.

At the time, the detective was a relatively new invention; there were only eight detectives in all of England and rarely were they called out of London, but this crime was so shocking, as Kate Summerscale relates in her scintillating new book, that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable—that someone within the family was responsible for the murder of young Saville Kent. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, though, his case was circumstantial and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the real legacy of Jonathan Whicher lives on in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective that we know and love today…from the cryptic Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller, and in it Kate Summerscale has fashioned a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written.

Review:

"... the spirit of scientific enlightenment was also flourishing in this industrialized period. People were already infatuated with police detectives (“a secular substitute for a prophet or a priest�) and morbidly curious about the advances in criminal psychology and forensic procedures. For a nation of armchair detectives, the prolonged and very public Scotland Yard investigation was like a teaching manual in the new forensic sciences. As Summerscale puts it, “The Road Hill case turned everyone detective.�

I read this several years ago but it still lingers in my mind - such a good book! The writing is a bit Victorian to add to the ambiance, but it was wonderfully well researched and the source notes are abundant.

Jill wrote: "Thanks, Suburbanrockdoll......Another great add to an interesting list of forensic science books.

Good job with the book citation but it isn't necessary to put a link to the book since you have a ..."

Thank you, Jill. I am still learning.

If anyone is interested in a book that teaches how forensic anthropologists make discoveries, here is a book that will help. I was able to understand some of the terminology and information in other books by reading this one. I read it from cover to cover and found it very informative.


by Steven N. Byers

Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Synopsis
Comprehensive and engaging, Byers's "Introduction to Forensic Anthropology," uses thoughtful pedagogy to lead students step-by-step through the most current and detailed forensic anthropology material available today.This one-of-a-kind text offers comprehensive coverage of all of the major topics in the field of forensics with accuracy, intensity, and clarity. Extensive illustrations and photos ensure that the text is accessible for students. As one reviewer says, "There is no other source available that is so comprehensive in its coverage of the methods and issues in the current practice of forensic anthropology." Another raves, "The first edition has been a big hit with my students, and I have been very pleased with the ease with which this text has corresponded to my class lecture structure . . . I am anxiously awaiting the next edition "

Becky wrote: " The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great VIctorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
(Non-fiction)

[bookcover:The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and..."

I read that book earlier this year, Becky, and really enjoyed it. Good recommendation.

Suburbanrockdoll wrote: "Jill wrote: "Thanks, Suburbanrockdoll......Another great add to an interesting list of forensic science books.

Good job with the book citation but it isn't necessary to put a link to the book sinc..."

You are doing fine....it just takes a while to get used to it.

Jefferson Bass is the "pen name" of two authors who have teamed up to write a series of mysteries that depend on their knowledge of forensics.

Aaron Elkins (no photo) has written a series of mysteries featuring forensic anthropologist (the skeleton detective) Gideon Oliver.

The Devil's Dozen: How Cutting-Edge Forensics Took Down 12 Notorious Serial Killers

by Katherine Ramsland

Synopsis

Katherine Ramsland has brilliantly captured the insights and drama of some fascinating cases in her previous bestselling books. Now she examines the case histories of twelve of the most notorious serial killers of the last one hundred years, and answers the questions: What clues did they leave behind? How were they eventually caught? How was each twist and turn of their crimes matched by the equally compelling weapons of science and logic?

From exploring the nineteenth century's earliest investigative tools to remarkable twenty-first century CSI advances, The Devil's Dozen provides a fascinating window into the world of those who kill-and those who dedicate their lives to bringing them to justice.

TO be released later this year:

The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science

by Sandra Hempel (no photo)

Synopsis:
The Inheritor’s Powder brings together a gripping story, a fascinating slice of history, and an unforgettable foray into the origins of forensic science.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, an epidemic swept Europe: arsenic poisoning. Available at any corner shop, arsenic was so frequently used by potential beneficiaries of wills that it was nicknamed “the inheritor’s powder.� But it was difficult to prove that a victim had been poisoned, let alone to identify the food or drink that had been contaminated. Then came a riveting case. In 1833, George Bodle, a wealthy landowner from outside London, died after drinking his morning coffee. The investigation, which gained international attention, brought together a colorful cast of characters: a doctor who turned detective; a drunken, bumbling policeman; and James Marsh, an unknown but brilliant chemist who, assigned the Bodle case, attempted to create a test that could pinpoint the presence of arsenic.

Hi S - I know it takes some time to get the hang of the citations. And we are here to help you.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (no photo)

We do not allow any self promotion however. Good trivia question:

Trivia question: what was Sherlock Holmes' alias, when he faked his own death?

Interesting Kathy

Silent Witnesses: The Often Gruesome but Always Fascinating History of Forensic Science

by Nigel McCrery

Synopsis:

Crime novelist and former police officer Nigel McCrery provides an account of all the major areas of forensic science from around the world over the past two centuries. The book weaves dramatic narrative and scientific principles together in a way that allows readers to figure out crimes along with the experts.

Readers are introduced to such fascinating figures as Dr. Edmond Locard, the “French Sherlock Holmes�; Edward Heinrich, “Wizard of Berkeley,� who is credited with having solved more than 2,000 crimes; and Alphonse Bertillon, the French scientist whose guiding principle, “no two individuals share the same characteristics,� became the core of criminal identification. Landmark crime investigations examined in depth include a notorious murder involving blood evidence and defended by F. Lee Bailey, the seminal 1936 murder that demonstrated the usefulness of the microscope in examining trace evidence, the 1849 murder of a wealthy Boston businessman that demonstrated how difficult it is to successfully dispose of a corpse, and many others.

How to Commit the Perfect Murder: Forensic Science Analyzed

by David Malocco (no photo)

Synopsis:

Today, most murder crimes can be detected through DNA analysis and the assistance of forensic scientists like pathologists, toxicologists and ballistic experts. So, the question must be asked, can a criminal, using the knowledge of forensic science to their own advantage, reduce their percentage of detection, in order to commit the perfect murder?

If a criminal knew exactly what investigators were looking for at a crime scene could they use that to avoid detection? Crime Scene Analysis is a documented and forensic process. Fortunately, most murderers do not approach their crimes in a scientific manner.

But, if you thought like a forensic scientist, is it possible to commit the perfect murder? The idea of committing the perfect murder, by which I mean, committing a murder and not being apprehended, is the ultimate intellectual challenge. A select few have endeavoured to put theory into practice. Some have succeeded.

A few experts will reluctantly admit that there might be a way to get away with murder. They say it would require an undetectable weapon, a perfect location to commit the crime and an ingenious way to dispose of the body.

There are many pitfalls a criminal can avoid by studying forensic science, just as there are many ways a poisoner can evade capture by studying toxicology. For example, did you know that the greatest source of evidence in a murder case is extracted from the victim’s body? Forensic science will use an autopsy to determine the time of death; the victim’s last meal; the manner of death; the weapon used; maybe even the actual weapon itself. Marks on the body will assist the pathologist in this regard. All of this information, pieced together, will bring them closer to catching the culprit. But there are ways to avoid this.

There are ways of killing a person without leaving any marks on the body. There are ways to avoid leaving your DNA at the crime scene. There are ways to dispose of the body so that it will never be recovered, at least not in your lifetime.

Even as you read this book, someone, somewhere is committing the perfect murder. They will never be caught and forensic science, although it has greatly enhanced detection rates, is not yet fool proof. Despite what you may have read elsewhere that the perfect murder exists only in Crime Fiction novels the fact is, that thousands of perfect murders are committed every year.

Dr. Harold Shipman is the world’s most prolific serial killer who killed over one thousand of his patients before making some some basic mistakes which resulted in his capture. It was only when his motive became one of greed that he was caught. Up to that point he had committed a thousand perfect murders.

So yes, it is possible to commit the perfect murder. How? Well, let’s say it’s complicated.

France - you need to place one blank line between the third and fourth paragraphs. Also between the sixth and seventh paragraphs.

Fixed. Thanks for catching that.

FBI Handbook of Crime Scene Forensics: The Authoritative Guide to Navigating Crime Scenes

by Federal Bureau of Investigation Federal Bureau of Investigation (no photo)

Synopsis:

Guidance and procedures for safe and efficient methods from the FBI’s Laboratory Division and Operational Technology Division.

The FBI Handbook of Crime Scene Forensics is the official procedural guide for law enforcement agencies, attorneys, and tribunals who wish to submit evidence to the FBI’s Laboratory and Investigative Technology Divisions.

This book outlines the proper methods for investigating crime scenes, examining evidence, packing and shipping evidence to the FBI, and observing safety protocol at crime scenes. Types of evidence discussed include:

Bullet jacket alloys
Computers
Hairs
Inks
Lubricants
Ropes
Safe insulations
Shoe prints
Tire treads
Weapons of mass destruction

Particular attention is paid to recording the appearance of crime scenes through narratives, photographs, videos, audiotapes, or sketches.

A guide for professional forensics experts and an introduction for laymen, the FBI Handbook of Crime Scene Forensics makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in investigative police work and the criminal justice system.

Thank you Francie

Forensic Analysis and DNA in Criminal Investigations: Including Cold Cases Solved

by R.J. Parker

Synopsis:

In this distinctive book, RJ Parker documents the history of DNA and forensic science; ten notorious cold cases that were eventually solved; infamous criminals who were tried and convicted on forensic analysis; pros and cons of forensic science as it relates to criminology and facts about fingerprinting and ballistics.

Sounds like an interesting book. Have decided to give it a try.

Let me know how you like it. It's on my TBR.

Francie wrote: "Let me know how you like it. It's on my TBR."


I will. I just have to finish a couple of other books first.

Francie wrote: "Let me know how you like it. It's on my TBR."


It's interesting, but if you are looking for depth, there might be other choices.

Silent Witnesses: The Often Gruesome but Always Fascinating History of Forensic Science

by Nigel McCrery

Synopsis:

Crime novelist and former police officer Nigel McCrery provides an account of all the major areas of forensic science from around the world over the past two centuries. The book weaves dramatic narrative and scientific principles together in a way that allows readers to figure out crimes along with the experts.

Readers are introduced to such fascinating figures as Dr. Edmond Locard, the “French Sherlock Holmes�; Edward Heinrich, “Wizard of Berkeley,� who is credited with having solved more than 2,000 crimes; and Alphonse Bertillon, the French scientist whose guiding principle, “no two individuals share the same characteristics,� became the core of criminal identification.

Landmark crime investigations examined in depth include a notorious murder involving blood evidence and defended by F. Lee Bailey, the seminal 1936 murder that demonstrated the usefulness of the microscope in examining trace evidence, the 1849 murder of a wealthy Boston businessman that demonstrated how difficult it is to successfully dispose of a corpse, and many others.

That sounds like one that goes on my tbr, Francie. Forensic medicine is a fascinating subject.

Thanks, Jill. It's on my TBR also. You'll have to let me know what you think about it.