Murder of Crows discussion

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid

Summary:
Forensics uncovers the secrets of forensic medicine, drawing on interviews with top-level professionals, ground-breaking research and Val McDermid's own experience to lay bare the secrets of this fascinating science. And, along the way, she wonders at how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine 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 uncovered the victims of a genocide.

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My thoughts:
My first thought when reading this was wow this is like a textbook with the influence of the beginning seasons of CSI: Vegas. I mean that in a very good way though. It was very captivating and a very interesting read. I may have only enjoyed this because I do work in a lab, but I typically don’t gravitate towards books like this so I was pleasantly surprised.

If I were to ever write a book about murder that was heavily based on forensics, I would keep this book nearby. The book is split up into different kinds of forensics such as arson, bugs, facial reconstruction, etc. It did a great job at describing each of the chapters and included relevant information. I did struggle with the fact that the author is a Scottish writer so some wording made me have to reread the sentence but this wasn’t an overall issue that I would tell someone to not read the book for.

There are a few dry points that I ended up unpurposely skimming through. When I had to get up to do something, I would return and realize I wasn't paying attention to what I was reading. I get that it’s an informational book but I did like the points where specific cases were described and those held my attention.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to someone who isn’t familiar with forensics and is looking for a basic overview.