Customer Reviews

Hard Evidence

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As one of the FBI Lab personnel interviewed by Mr. Fisher I can attest that his presentation of the material reported in his excellent book is accurate. I was impressed with his thoroughness during the time he spent in the Lab conducting his interviews and reviewing case facts. And, even though I was intimately familiar with much of the material contained in the book, I was still fascinated by Fisher's perspective and his ability to weave the material into a thrilling portrait of actual forensic scientists at work. An excellent read!

This book provides a good overview of what the world's best crime lab can do. Unfortunatley, like anything else this day and age, in the six years since it was written, there have been many advancements. A revised addition would certainly be in order.

This 1995 book is a standard puff piece for the FBI lab, spending 380 pages without one negative word about anything at the lab -- all testing is rigorously and honestly done, and the defense is always informed of exculpatory evidence. Fisher's starry-eyed view of the FBI lab has been disproven by recent revelations in the press and in books such as John Kelly's _Tainting Evidence_.
This book does provide an interesting and readable account of the different techniques used by the FBI to analyze evidence, including many accounts of how those techniques solved real cases. On the plus side, the book is very well-organized, with each chapter covering a separate area of the lab -- chemistry, explosives, fingerprint, document, etc. The book includes a helpful index.
On the negative side, there is not one drawing or picture in the whole book. These would have been very helpful in visualizing the instruments, techniques and results Fisher describes.

It is the first book I have read about Cri-Science.I have to confess I enjoy it but dont believe I have recapture all the material. May be an expert working on crimes would have enjoy more. My awareness rather than knowledge on this subject has improved a lot. I will re- read the book again in order to recapture the areas which were a lit bit complex to me.I read the story of PAN Flight over Lockerbie Scotland which killed 271 people, my understanding of the incident has improved compared with what I have seen in TV and Newspapers. Well Done Fisher!

As a student majoring in Criminology, I read many True Crime books, however I found that this one included the best of both worlds: it was technically accurate as well as intellectually engrossing. The only reason I put this book down was to jot down notes for personal future reference! I think David Fisher did a great job on this one (even if it is based soley on interviews with the FBI's brilliant staff...)

I love forensics! From the very first episode of CSI I was hooked on Sci-crime sleuths. I love the idea of "silent witnesses", things like DNA, paint chips, a strand of hair, being able to put even the cleverest of criminals behind bars. But "Hard Evidence" makes CSI look like a high school science project. Fisher's book deals with the real cases that have impacted our lives. Historical and contemporary. Perhaps the most interesting was how the FBI was able to find out not only how, but who was responsible for the destruction of the PanAm flight over Lockerbie Scotland from a single piece of plastic no larger than a thumbnail. Fisher's style is easy to read yet informative and detailed at the same time. He makes the lab and the people who work in it come alive. Although some of the material is dated by today's standards, it's still a fascinating read. I'd love to see him write an updated version.

"Hard Evidence" was published in 1995, after the first bombing of the World Trade Center but well before the second. It is fascinating to learn how the FBI and other law enforcement agents were able to catch the original bombers so quickly, through forensic evidence left at the bomb site. Many of the most interesting cases in this book involve bombs, including the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that was eventually traced to the Libyans, the extortionist who was blowing up transmission towers in the Pacific Northwest, and the package bomb that killed federal judge Robert Vance. The FBI really shines in cases such as these, where sometimes thousands of pieces of potential evidence have to be analyzed, and hundreds of leads have to be followed--which makes me a bit uneasy about our current Administration's effort to turn FBI agents into something other than the world's best crime solvers.

Sometimes there is very little evidence: a tiny chip of pink paint off of a girl's bicycle convicted one murderer; a partial egg casing from a body louse, another.

Inside the FBI's sci-crime lab, the author divides his narrative between the Chemistry/Toxicology Unit, Explosives, Hairs and Fiber, Latent Fingerprint and DNA Analysis, Documents, Firearms and Toolmarks, and the Special Photography, Video Enhancement, and Polygraph Units. He uses obscure cases as well as famous ones to illuminate the techniques employed by each group of experts. FBI forensic scientists have to become experts in arcana that most of us wouldn't think about in a life-time.

(Unless we plan to commit a federal crime. Then we'd better think hard about all of them. It worries me that the copy of "Hard Evidence" I read was heavily underlined, especially in the chapter on explosives).

Some of the cases in "Hard Evidence" depended upon expertise in identifying the origin of a feather, showing the difference between wig and Barbie doll hair, and intimate knowledge of the process used to manufacture plastic garbage bags.

I did find one minor misstatement in the author's discussion of body fluids left at crime scenes: forensic dentistry helped convict Theodore Bundy, but it was the bite-mark pattern left by the assailant, not the saliva left in the wound as stated in this book. The forensic dentist recognized that the murderer had a chip on his front tooth that made a unique pattern on his victim. He was then able to recreate the identical pattern using the model of Bundy's teeth.

Even so, "Hard Evidence" is a good read. Those who are already knowledgeable about forensics and American crime will find never-before-published cases that illuminate even the most obscure connection between science and the evil that men do.

I'm probably being a little dramatic when I say this book changed my life, but in a way it did. I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do with my life until I read this book. I am currently a junior inhigh school student, but after I read this book in the eighth grade I became absolutely fascinated with forensic science. I've read anything on the topic I can get my hands on since. This book provides an overview of all the divisions of the FBI's crime lab and how they all work. It goes through details of how the cases are solved. Another thing great is that parts of the book are told by the agents that worked the cases. This way you get a first had look at what happened instead of just a historical look.

This book is well written and thoroughly engrossing. Not normally a non-fiction reader, I found I could not put Hard Evidence down. It is easy to understand, easy to read and filled with thorough explanations on cases I have heard of from the newspapers. Each chapter deals with a specific area of the lab so you can pick and choose your interests or read cover-to-cover as I did. Read about the lastest technologies and the people who put them to use to solve a variety of crimes. Highly recommended.

An interesting, well written look into the Sci-Crime Labof FBI's Quantico. Fisher spent about 18 months visitingthe different divisions of the lab...fingerprints (seen inEgyptian hieroglyphics), glass, DNA, handwriting (did you know current inks each have a different chemical added soit can be determined exactly what type ink was used; thereforeisolating a posssible source) in bullets and firearms.It is a book that will make you look differently at thecurrent terrorist activities that are part of today's, Thelessons the author learned are backed up with examples ofhow they were used to solve cases. Fascinating read. By:E. Whitne