A look behind the scenes     

Rating:  5 out of 5  

(Please note that my review refers to the UK version of this book)

A fascinating non-fiction book about how forensics help to solve a crime .

This book is written in layman’s terms, referring to many well known cases in the UK and the US (for example Harold Shipman) and explaining how forensic work is carried out – both historically and currently (book first published in 2014).  The book is full of interesting details like how fingerprinting came about, why arsonists should never leave their matches behind and why flies are so helpful.

The chapters each cover a different area of forensics, for example  The Crime Scene,  Face Reconstruction etc, and each chapter is broken down into easy to read chunks.  A few pictures are also included.

There is no detailed scientific information, and at times I found it frustrating that more information about various cases was not given, but hey I expect the author could have written a whole book on each case, and the internet provided me with what further information I wanted.

Surprisingly not gory, though obviously some of the cases are upsetting.  The only part I found difficult to read was the chapter on Digital Forensics where some of the material that has been found on computers I found very chilling.

An absolute must for any fan of crime TV programmes, readers of news reports or just a general interest in forensics.  This book was so good I am currently reading my first novel by Val McDermid (and enjoying it so far!)

See also:  Out of Bounds by Val McDermid