Customer Reviews

Written in Blood: A History of Forensic Detection

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"Written in Blood" is a true crime book that covers cases throughout history (but mostly after 1800 AD) primarily from Britain and France, but also from other European countries and America. These cases were mainly murders, robbery, and/or rape. Sometimes woven into the retelling of a case was information on advances made in forensic detection or information about specific detectives (usually the one who made the advance or was well-known). Specific details were given about each new method and how it was used.

The book covered hundreds of cases. Each case was about a page or two long. The cases were interesting, but the briefness meant there wasn't much suspense and the pure number of them got sickening after a bit. I found the advancements in forensics more interesting.

Also, the author came across as arrogant--he'd mention when others disagreed with his conclusions about a case, but he'd make it sound like they were dumb for not seeing what was so obvious to him. He also strongly pushed the idea that--until relatively recently--humans were just too stupid to use logic in solving crime. That judges in the past were dumb beyond words and that's why some people were declared innocent even when they were obvious guilty. (Ironically, in one of those cases, the author did admit that bribes and corruption among judges was the norm at that time.)

The topics covered were: how police forces were developed in England; the development of methods of detecting poison (plus many cases involving poison); the methods developed to identify repeat criminals and dead bodies (plus cases focused on these methods); using blood types and then DNA to solve cases; methods used to link bullets from crimes to the shooter; how the microscope was used to solve various crimes (using fibers and such on the body to identify the criminal or where the person was killed); the rise of sex crimes; private detectives; country-wide manhunts; and criminal physiology (including information on lie detectors and the development of profiling).

There were some black and white pictures of several crime scenes and people discussed in the book. However, the pictures were all in one place so it was difficult to connect a picture to the particulars of the case.

The book was well-written in the sense that it was easy to understand what was going on and how various tests worked. If you love reading true crime books, then you'll likely enjoy this one. If you're interested in how forensic science developed, this book does give that information with a fair amount of detail, but it's mixed in among the many true crime cases and wasn't the primary focus of the book.

It took me a while to get through this book, simply due to the quantity of material it contains. Wilson and Wilson do a great job of outlining the sometimes accidental, sometimes hard-earned way that science has come to play a role in crime detection. They include summaries of a variety of crimes, along with the procedures police used - or didn't - to try and identify the perpetrator. An enjoyable, informative read - highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the history of forensics and crime.

This book is chalk-full of tons of information!! It tells about almost every recorded crime, including famous ones such as The Black Dahlia, Charles Manson, and Jack the Ripper; including an interesting turn on who Jack the Ripper really was. There are also a couple pages of pictures from crime scenes such as Madeline Smith, Leonard Lake, John George Haigh, and the trial of Ted Bundy. If you're looking for an interesting read and you love forensics and crime, then this is the book for you!