American Sherlock

Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI

De: Kate Winkler Dawson

Narrado por: Kate Winkler Dawson

From the acclaimed author of Death in the Air ("Not since Devil in the White City has a book told such a harrowing tale"--Douglas Preston) comes the riveting story of the birth of criminal investigation in the twentieth century.

Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities--beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books--sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes," Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest--and first--forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.

Heinrich was one of the nation's first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious--some would say fatal--flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation.

Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon--as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them.

Interesting story and individual, terrible speaker

This story is utterly fascinating, but I just can't bear the reader, whose delivery is slow, ponderous, and full of the oddest pauses and stops. I'll have to read this one myself.

I love Kate Winkler Dawson

This book was fascinating. I was amazed at the accomplishments of Oscar Heinrich and that he was able to discover this methods during the 1920s and 30! I thought the author did a great job reading the book.

The author is always the best narrator…

I love author-narrated books. No one, save the author, knows the nuance and inflection in which the book was written. There are few voice actors that truly do a book justice. This book reads like a novel. It’s smooth, educational, and fact-paced. The research is impeccable.

Very interesting.

History and forensics. I learned a lot about the science of forensics and the gentleman who worked hard for the truth according to the evidence.

Great science.

Well done. A little wordy but very good. Her voice is clear and easy to listen to.

Great read

Narration wasn't the best, but I enjoyed that it was read by the author. I do wish she'd fleshed out (har har) some of the individual cases more. While E.O Heinrich's work in each case was fascinating, the author dropped the plot of several cases when he ceased involvement, which was disappointing. Sent me down a rabbit hole of independent research on a couple of the cases.

Amazing

a combination of History and true crime?! that's this murderino's listening dream. wonderful author. love her books her stories and her podcasts

Great Listen

FANTASTIC! Very thorough history of an American forensics pioneer. Wonderful performance by the author as well.

Compelling

With story after story Kate Winkler Dawson engages the listener with well crafted and compelling narrative of Heinrich’s life and accomplishments.

Sherlock he is.

Kate reads with clarity the amazing and almost unbelievable true story of a man who's powers of deduction I'm not sure have been matched.