Forensics

What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime

By: Val McDermid

Narrated by: Sarah Barron

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The dead talk - to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. Forensics draws on interviews with some of these top-level professionals, groundbreaking research, and Val McDermid's own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists.

Along the way McDermid discovers how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine one's time of death; how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer; and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist were able to uncover the victims of a genocide. It's a journey that will take McDermid to war zones, fire scenes, and autopsy suites and bring her into contact with both extraordinary bravery and wickedness as she traces the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.

©2015 Val McDermid (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Her voice and the stories.

It was scary at first to think I would be listening to a Scottish women's accent for 11 hours, but you really get used to it.
The individual stories they use to explain each different field of forensics is very intriguing.

Fascinating history

I'm very interested in forensics and have watched nearly every episode of "Forensic Files", "New Detectives", etc. I'm also a fan of Val McDermid, so it was fortuitous for these things to come together to create a book. I thought it might be a bit technical, but I found all the ideas, concepts, scientific jargon to be easy to follow. I like how she weaved actual cases into the narrative (i.e., the Colin Pitchfork case) as often I was familiar with the case but perhaps didn't have a full grasp of the forensic methodology and how it developed. It was very accessible and easy to listen to and I'd recommend to anyone interested in forensics.

Excellent Information, Well Written, Entertaining

I really enjoyed this book and learned a great deal about the history of forensics- not often covered in such detail in other books about forensic investigation.
One beef- the narrator, although very good, offended me with her mimicking American accent. I'm American, and it strikes a personal nerve, I admit. Working with many British people in my profession, I have heard this nasal pitch and moronic sounding imitating of the American accent before. It's annoying and offensive. I get that we sound stupid to the British, but we don't sound like that. It's old- that worn out stereotype. It would have been much better not to attempt the accents and just use her own voice.

Good history of forensics

I enjoyed the history of each of the elements of forensics discussed - fingerprints, blood spatter patterns, facial reconstructions, etc. Many unsung heroes got a little, well deserved, credit here. Most were discussed in the context of one or more real cases which introduced or advanced the science.

I personally enjoyed the reader's Scottish accent, as opposed to some other reviewers. You should be able to determine from the sample excerpt whether it is for you or not. What I did not like were the horrible English and American accents which sounded as if they were drawn directly from 1930 melodramas. Fortunately, they constituted less than 5% of the material. But sadly, they are what I will remember most about this narrator. I would like a version of this book where she read it through in her lovely Scottish brogue.

Very interesting and informative.

I'll probably listen to it again. It provides a good path to the growth of forensic science.

Excellent non fiction

The reading was wonderful with a range of accents to help distinguish between ‘characters’.
I found this book to be fascinating though not for the squeamish. If you are interested in true crime this is a great accompaniment.

mystery fans will appreciate

this is a collection of stories of real life cases that demonstrate the powers and weaknesses of various forensic sciences.
i learned things i didn't know, i learned ways in which the entertainment industry has misled people (breaking bad fans will notice one in particular), and the narrative easily held my attention and entertained me.
the narrator is Scottish, and her accent is, too. i found it beautiful, and I'd like to hear more of her work, but if you have trouble following various accents, then you should listen to the preview first to make sure it won't trouble you.

Very interesting and informative

This was a fascinating and well told book that did a great job of bringing up various evidence used at trials, and choosing interesting cases that either complicated or complemented the use of that evidence. It's well told and flows nicely, and I really enjoyed the narrator's Scottish accent.

Engaging and Informative

I learned that 'CSI' dealt with forensics (I never watched any of the shows - to me it was, 'Ug, not another police show'). The book actually made me clean-up my life in a small way (I got the lingering smut off of my computers)...

The chapters focused on the various aspects of forensics, so I liked how it was organized.

Particularly entertaining (and curious) for me was the narrator's Scottish accent. Scotland Yard, indeed.

very informative

I absolutely loved this book. As a criminology student it was an interesting and informative read. I learned many things about forensics that I never learned in the classroom. It helps to have an understanding of the history and evolution of science in the criminal justice field today. I didn't want to stop listening. Many of the stories really helped me to really grasp the information.