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Val McDermid is one of the finest crime writers we have, whose novels have captivated millions of readers worldwide with their riveting narratives of characters who solve complex crimes and confront unimaginable evil. In the course of researching her bestselling novels McDermid has become familiar with every branch of forensics, and now she uncovers the history of this science, real-world murders and the people who must solve them.
The dead talkâ??to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. Forensics draws on interviews with some of these top-level professionals, ground-breaking research, and McDermid's own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists. Along the way, McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one's time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. It's a journey that will take McDermid to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites, and bring her into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness, as she traces the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.… (meer)
An interesting read with chapters on each aspect of forensic science, giving the background/history and illustrating with details of specific crimes, quite a few of which are those well known to UK citizens.
This did not quite warrant 5 stars as there are quite a few typing mistakes and even words missed out occasionally, which is not expected in a traditionally published book. Would have deducted half a star but GR does not permit that so have rated this as 4 stars. ( )
Val McDermid turns her considerable narrative skill to a non-fiction history of the development of forensics, from the days of Jack the Ripper to the 21st century. It's almost as gripping as one of her novels. Each chapter deals with one branch of forensics (Toxicology, DNA and Blood Spatter, Facial Reconstruction, etc.) and how it has come to be essential to crime scene investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys. "The courtroom is the anvil on which scientific evidence is struck. With a well-prepared lawyer playing the part of the hammer, forensic techniques are either strengthened or broken, according to their merit." McDermid uses some classic cases, both unsolved and resolved, to illustrate what can be proven in a court of law (and equally what sometimes cannot be known for certain). The details of some of them were already familiar to me, but her perspective on the scientific evidence was still worth reading about. Comparisons of procedures in the US and the UK were often surprising, and who knew how much the insect world has to contribute to interpretation of a crime scene! ( )
Val McDermid is one of the finest crime writers we have, whose novels have captivated millions of readers worldwide with their riveting narratives of characters who solve complex crimes and confront unimaginable evil. In the course of researching her bestselling novels McDermid has become familiar with every branch of forensics, and now she uncovers the history of this science, real-world murders and the people who must solve them.
The dead talkâ??to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. Forensics draws on interviews with some of these top-level professionals, ground-breaking research, and McDermid's own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists. Along the way, McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one's time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. It's a journey that will take McDermid to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites, and bring her into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness, as she traces the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.
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5
This did not quite warrant 5 stars as there are quite a few typing mistakes and even words missed out occasionally, which is not expected in a traditionally published book. Would have deducted half a star but GR does not permit that so have rated this as 4 stars. (