Customer Reviews

No Stone Unturned:The True Sto

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

 

 

When people think true crime, this person anyhow, I think Mafia, Hell's Angels, Grisly murders, etc... none of which particularly appeals to this particular reader.

Steve Jackson has written a forensic true crime "biography?" that I could not put down. He chronicles the history of forensic science in crime investigation from the time of Doyle and his fictional Sherlock Holmes, albeit briefly, until the present day. Jackson focuses on a particular group that have modestly changed the face of criminal investigation. NECROSEARCH INTERNATIONAL, a group of criminalists, archaeologists, anthropologists, naturalists, paleotologists and many other ists and isms;).

The group was founded in the late eighties and early nineties (although their roots as told by Jackson stretch even further back than that.) experimenting at locating pigs and corpses. From Project PIG NECROSEARCh emerged as an team utilized by investigative agencies throughout the world.

Jackson focuses on three cases that have been a few examples of Necrosearch's successes. He writes the groups and victim's stories with such passion and empathy that it is almost like reading a thriller except these are real cases. That is to say this is a very readable true crime book that should appeal to armchair detectives, scientists, and people like myself ( and I am guessing from ratings there are a few) who are CSI fans.

True-crime writer and newspaperman Steve Jackson explores NecroSearch International's history in "No Stone Unturned," a simultaneously macabre and uplifting new book. And the soul of NecroSearch's work is not just finding hidden corpses and collecting clues, Jackson says, but easing pain.

Jackson is a newspaperman's newspaperman, the kind of guy for whom "journalist" is simply too pale a term. He once joined two Indians from the remote mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, crossed the border at Tijuana and journeyed more than 1,000 miles to Oregon to document the hopes, dreams, trials and travails of migrant farm workers. At Denver's Westword, where he worked for eight years, he once wrote a series called "Dealing with the Devil," tracing the rise and fall of a Hispanic street gang against the backdrop of a murder trial.

"No Stone Unturned" delves into cases that would make good novels, but they're real. Furthermore, he describes a group of uncommon people performing uncommon tasks, and he does it with respect, accuracy and genuine style.

As an investigator involved in one of the cases written about in this book I found the stories to be compelling and factually accurate. NecroSearch is truly a group of dedicated professionals whose goal is to seek the truth. Steve Jackson tells their tales well and shows the world that the passage of time does not take away grief nor make the value of a lost life any less. His hard work in seeking the facts of how each case was handled has paid off and No Stone Unturned is a great read. I hope others in law enforcement will pick it up and be inspired to continue working on their own cases or seeking assistance from NecroSearch or others in the scientific community despite the passage of time.

Steve Jackson's clean, crisp prose and his story-telling ability make "No Stone Unturned" a very readable and enjoyable journey into the fascinating world of forensics. Despite a diverse cast of characters and five detailed case studies, I couldn't help but be disappointed. My chagrin is not related to the writing, but is due to the fact that in each of the cases it was the traditional detective work that lead the forensic team to within yards of the bodies they were searching for. The team was only called to complete the process. I expected that their abilities would be showcased in locating the impossible, but they proved far more human then dust jacket promised.

The whole idea of Necrosearch is fascinating to me and Jackson's coverage of its beginnings is intriguing. I only wish that Jackson had included more cases and perhaps left out some of the detail on the few cases he did cover. Nevertheless, I couldn't put this book down and carried it around for several days, reading it every chance I got. These investigators were making the rules as they went--the incident that impressed me was how they devised "the bucket test" after finding a skull that had clearly rolled downhill after becoming separated from the rest of the body. I liked Jackson's writing so much that I bought 2 of his other books this week--but I hope he writes another one about Necrosearch's other cases!

As an avid reader of true crime for 30 years, I found Steve Jackson's book, "No Stone Unturned: The Story Of NecroSearch Investigators," to be a fascinating and true account of a group of remarkable people who volunteer their time and expertise to locate hidden murder victims. These are cases that have been shelved because the body of a victim could not be found which would provide evidence that a murder had taken place. In turn, families of the victims are given some sense of closure. The intensive research and hard work is evident in every chapter. The details of how each case was handled held my attention to the point of not being able to put the book down. Steve takes you through the search, the find, the sense of accomplishment felt after a cold case was finally closed and a family was given some closure. Equally fascinating was Steve Jackson's account of how NecroSearch International was born and how they conduct their searches. They search for bodies in some of the most remote places such as open fields, mines, mountainsides, rivers and even backyards. The title, "No Stone Unturned," is a very appropriate title for this book. After you read it, you will realize that there was "no stone left unturned" during the search for these murder victims. This book is not only a must read for true crime readers, but also for anyone in law enforcement or interested in forensics.

Steve Jackson has presented the history of Necrosearch in this book. Necrosearch was formed by a diverse group of investigators and scientists who wanted to use the latest techniques to find missing bodies to help give peace to victims' families and solve crimes. What I liked about the book was the detail in the case histories. Jackson brought real human interest to the victims and their families, as well as to the investigators. What I didn't like was that too much space was giving to long, boring explanations of some of the techniques and how they were developed. I felt these could have been explained in fewer pages and more space given to actual solved crimes. I did not need to read so much about tests with the bodies of pigs buried in the wilderness. Also, a lot of time was taken up describing in minute detail searches that failed to produce results. Some searches lasted days and in the end revealed nothing, so I was left wondering why so much emphasis was put on these descriptions when there were successful cases to focus on. As true crime books go, this one wasn't bad, but I feel it would have been better if a hundred pages or so of the team not turning up anything had been cut.

This book is about a group that helps found those hard to find bodies. Anyway the best thing I can say about this book is that if you like C.S.I(the t.v show) and true-crime books you will love this book.

ReaD IT

this is a decent read for someone who is older in my opinion...in older i mean older than 21. talks about some old cases.

Not a keeper. I mean, it's well written and interesting, but the information about NecroSearch is a distracting digression that imposes itself upon otherwise interesting murders. You're reminded at the end of each story that NecroSearch helped, too. I thought of the Shake-N-Bake commercial where the kids squeal "and I helped!" Dilettantes. This jewel is going in the yard sale box.