Review Summaries

• Readers value the character work and clear thematic focus, while also treating it as a work that asks for patient attention to its quiet movement and weighty subject matter.

Reviews

• Ótimo livro.

  Ótimo livro, em perfeito estado. Chegou exatamente no dia marcado. Amei

• Five Stars

  Excellent book on Forensics. All disciplines of Forensic are covered comprehensively.

• Great for General Forensic Knowledge

  Regardless of it being based in the UK it sheds light on other places including the U.S. and ultimately it’s pretty useful for learning about the various applications and techniques of forensics, why they are important, how they can be used, and how they may tie together to provide information. Also the book shows incorrect applications and the importance of taking certain forensic methodologies with a grain of salt. An amazing read if you want an introduction to forensics and how they work

• Great Overview

  Great overview of forensics for the layman. It covers all the main aspects, its history and its current applications, both good and bad. It had a lot of what you find in TV shows, especially ones like Bones, who concentrate on these types of forensics, but at the same time it gave you something more, like the uncertainty that's really involved. I cannot testify to the accuracy of this book, but I found it incredibly interesting to read.

• A terrific introduction to the subject - and a companion to an exhibition

  It seems only fair that I should declare something of an interest before embarking on the content of this review. This subject area is part of my academic specialism so I am pretty widely read and knew many of the cases referenced in this book. However, for anyone coming relatively fresh to the topic, perhaps attracted by the deserved reputation Val McDermid has acquired in writing fiction, I think this is a terrific introduction to the subject. The minor difficulty I have with the book is that it does seem to me to be a slightly uncomfortable mix of the old and the new. The blurb on the back of the book suggests that the focus is on modern day forensics - but each chapter is laced with examples of older cases. (Jack the Ripper, The Brides in the Bath, Dr Crippen) - some more recent cases (Sion Jenkins, Colin Stagg, Colin Pitchfork form the 80's and 90's) and some very recent, less famous, cases. Ms McDermid draws extensively on other authors for many of her accounts (all properly attributed - for example Clive Stafford Smith's account of the Kris Maharaja case from his 2013 book Injustice gets distilled, very skilfully, into a three page summary. My personal preference would have been for the recent material to have been the major focus of this book. Ms McDermid has interviewed a large number of current practising forensic experts and extracted some fascinating case accounts from them. This rich vein could have been explored much more fully and some of the earlier material, which has been extensively covered elsewhere, given much less prominence. There's one other aspect of the book which is underplayed in my view. The final words declare that forensic scientists are "frankly, awesome." Well, a lot of them are. But it's not a universal truth as the book itself acknowledges in recounting the case of Sally Clark and the failings of Professor Roy Meadow and pathologist Alan Williams. And there are others too. Michael Heath's work was heavily criticised. But if they were just well qualified experts who got things wrong what about the case of Gene Morrison who just set himself up as an expert and proceeded to defraud the system? He was caught eventually but only after he had advised on a large number of cases and been paid a lot of taxpayers money. So the picture is not quite as rosy as it is generally portrayed. But I think these criticisms are perhaps drawn from my own specialism and that's why, although I have reflected them in this review I have not given this a four star rating. The book does benefit from the fact that Val McDermid is a highly skilled professional author. It is always interesting and really keeps the reader's interest. There are the usual minor proofing errors and I did find the decision, in a fairly serious work of non fiction, an odd editorial decision to asterisk out some of the letters of two four letter swear words. What I hadn't appreciated before reading the book was that it is published by the Wellcome Foundation and has been written to accompany an exhibition which they will be running in London from 26 February to 21 June 2015. I am lucky enough to have a trip planned for March and the exhibition is now a "must see" for me - and this book is a splendid companion for that exhibition.

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