Customer Reviews

Bodies of Evidence: The Fascinating World of Forensic Science and How It Helped Solve More Than 100 True Crimes

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"Bodies of Evidence" is a Reader's Digest book about forensic science, featuring more than a hundred true crimes and many gory, full-color photographs. It's definitely not a text-book, but more of an overview of different methods of forensic detection. I didn't find the explanations particularly clear, and the cases chosen to illustrate the detective work were the usual, tried and true (or tried and convicted) Dr. Buck Ruxton, Aunt Thally and her poison tea, Sacco and Vanzetti, etc. The 'Boston Strangler' case was used as an example in the 'Suffocation and Strangulation' section, but no mention was made of the fact that DNA analysis has recently been used to clear Albert DeSalvo of at least one of the murders.

For those who are following the Chandra Levy case, "Bodies of Evidence" will provide an overview of the forensic techniques that the Washington D.C. police force may be employing.

The body of the book is divided into the following chapters, each with lots of illustrations and a case history or two: "Gathering the Evidence;" "Suicide or Murder?;" "Mark of Death (Physical assault, bruising);" "With Poison Deadly;" "Skull and Bones;" "Breath of Life (death by oxygen deprivation);" "Worm in the Flesh (decomposition, insect traces);" "Finger of Suspicion (fingerprints);" "Written in Blood;" "DNA Fingerprinting;" "Hanging by a Hair;" "The Speeding Bullet;" "Fire and Destruction;" "Fragments of Evidence (broken glass, paint fragments, etc);" "Speaking Likeness (voice prints);" "The Guilty Party (handwriting, identity parades, etc.);" "The Forensic Hardware (hi-tech methods and devices such as Neutron Activation, Mass Spectrometry, etc.);"

One minor criticism---I wish the publishers hadn't decided to stamp "CASE CLOSED" over the actual text of the case. It made the case histories slightly hard to read.

This book was fair to midlin, depending on the perspective of the reader. I usually read for entertainment and to learn and the factual information presented was good. However, for a layperson like myself, I found much of the information on DNA and other crime solving techniques very confusing. It made me wonder how juries ever can understand it all. At times throughout the book, one would have to be a chemist to understand. Despite that, there were good portions that were both interesting and instructional. Anyone interested in forensics would just love this book. It is complete with pictures (some gruesome) and many different criminal investigative techniques. If you are reading this book because this is your field, it would be a five star book, if you are reading this book solely for entertainment - skip it, if you are reading this book in the hopes of committing a crime and getting away with it, it won't happen. But, if you are like me and are reading for both pleasure and knowledge, it's worth your time and effort.

On tv the witty cop gets the criminal single handedly. In reality the case against a criminal is often made in the forensics lab. If you enjoy watching the New Detectives or the FBI Files on TV you will love this book.

Not for the faint of heart, this book contains a fair amount of somewhat graphic photographs accompanying the text. While to be sure, this is not an in-depth thesis of forensics, for what it is, which is a layman's overview of forensic methods and detection, it is quite good. The font of the text and the book layout make it very comfortable to browse, and you may find yourself reading quite a lot in one sitting. Overall, very enjoyable, but don't expect a really deep book

I've just started reading this book. I bought it a few weeks ago but I find that Hidden Evidence is much better in the way they set there book up. In this book there information seem to be satured (sorry I'm a horrible speller.) In hidden evidence the material is put in sudheading which helps to find the information a lot faster. This book has headings at the begining of each chapter but no subheadings. Also in Hidden Evidence there case studies were right after the chapter which made it easier to read not having to stop half way through a chapter in Bodies of Evidence they put it in no good spot and it has nothing to do with that chapter. But the information so far in this book is good to learn if you want to know how crimes are solved and how they use it. But remember I'm only started the book and this is how I find it so far. Oh and the pictures in both Hidden Evidence and Bodies Of Evidence are excellent.