From Booklist
True-crime readers, historical division, are served a full plate of murder with this biography of a forensic pathologist who was once one of the most famous people in Britain. Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947) achieved high standing with judges and juries through a precision in postmortem examinations previously absent from British police procedure. Killers who would have escaped punishment pre-Spilsbury began to drop through the hangman's trap door. Yet Spilsbury was not an automatic shill for the prosecution, according to author Evans. His expert testimony convinced juries to acquit, as well, and thus Spilsbury enjoyed a sterling reputation. Spilsbury's professional renown will be less interesting to Evans' audience than the collection of cases the author presents. Evans proves to be a verbally agile narrator of the macabre, figuratively shaking his head about toxic love triangles and murder-for-insurance schemes that produced dismembered bodies and charred corpses. Crediting Spilsbury for making medical evidence acceptable to British courts, Evans delivers a page-turner for fans of the hot genre of criminal forensics. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
Before there was CSI, there was one man who saw beyond the crime-and into the future of forensic science.
His name was Bernard Spilsbury-and, through his use of cutting-edge science, he single-handedly brought criminal investigations into the modern age. Starting out as a young, charismatic physician in early twentieth-century Britain, Spilsbury hit the English justice system-and the front pages-like a cannonball, garnering a reputation as a real-life Sherlock Holmes. He uncovered evidence others missed, stood above his peers in the field of crime reconstruction, exposed discrepancies between witness testimony and factual evidence, and most importantly, convicted dozens of murderers with hard-nosed, scientific proof.
This is the fascinating story of the life and work of Bernard Spilsbury, history's greatest medical detective-and of the cases that not only made him a celebrity, but also inspired the astonishing science of criminal investigation in our own time.
His name was Bernard Spilsbury-and, through his use of cutting-edge science, he single-handedly brought criminal investigations into the modern age. Starting out as a young, charismatic physician in early twentieth-century Britain, Spilsbury hit the English justice system-and the front pages-like a cannonball, garnering a reputation as a real-life Sherlock Holmes. He uncovered evidence others missed, stood above his peers in the field of crime reconstruction, exposed discrepancies between witness testimony and factual evidence, and most importantly, convicted dozens of murderers with hard-nosed, scientific proof.
This is the fascinating story of the life and work of Bernard Spilsbury, history's greatest medical detective-and of the cases that not only made him a celebrity, but also inspired the astonishing science of criminal investigation in our own time.
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
