| Description |
ix, 310 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-298) and index |
| Contents |
The crime scene -- Fire scene investigation -- Entomology -- Pathology -- Toxicology -- Fingerprinting -- Blood spatter and DNA -- Anthropology -- Facial reconstruction -- Digital forensics -- Forensic psychology -- The courtroom |
| Summary |
The dead 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. This book draws on crime novelist McDermid's own 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 |
| Subject |
Forensic sciences
|
|
Forensic sciences -- History
|
|
Criminal investigation -- History
|
|
Criminal investigation -- Case studies
|
| Genre/Form |
Case studies. (OCoLC)fst01423765
|
|
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
|
|
True crime stories. (OCoLC)fst01919985
|
|
True crime stories.
|
| Added Title |
What bugs, burns, prints, DNA, and more tell us about crime |
| ISBN |
9780802123916 (hardcover) |
|
0802123910 (hardcover) |
|
