What do you think?
Rate this book
What the Corpse Revealed
The victim was shot through the heart--but no bullet was ever found.
In a case full of baffling twists, a gunshot wound to the heart leads to a brilliant investigator to one conclusion: a bullet designed to disappear...
The skin was peeled from the victim's hands
A beautiful woman almost gets away with murder because her victim cannot be identified. Then a forensic scientist leads police to the peeled skin from two boiled hands--and the fingerprints that will crack the case.
The murder weapon was smashed to smithereens
A man was killed by a blow from a bottle. Now, determined investigator carefully puts the pieces of glass back together to catch a kiler--and to carry out a crime of his own...
What the corpse revealed
Once detectives solved crimes with shoe leather and a gun. Now they use DNA samples, blood splatters, microbes and psychological profilings. This extraordinary book, through details drawn from some of the most baffling cases of the last fifty years, shows how a new generation fo real-life crime busters is catching stalkers, poisoners, mass murderers, and assassins--through the astounding art of forensic science.
In a case full of baffling twists, a gunshot wound to the heart leads to a brilliant investigator to one conclusion: a bullet designed to disappear...
The skin was peeled from the victim's hands
A beautiful woman almost gets away with murder because her victim cannot be identified. Then a forensic scientist leads police to the peeled skin from two boiled hands--and the fingerprints that will crack the case.
The murder weapon was smashed to smithereens
A man was killed by a blow from a bottle. Now, determined investigator carefully puts the pieces of glass back together to catch a kiler--and to carry out a crime of his own...
What the corpse revealed
Once detectives solved crimes with shoe leather and a gun. Now they use DNA samples, blood splatters, microbes and psychological profilings. This extraordinary book, through details drawn from some of the most baffling cases of the last fifty years, shows how a new generation fo real-life crime busters is catching stalkers, poisoners, mass murderers, and assassins--through the astounding art of forensic science.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
7 people are currently reading
857 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Miller
21 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Hugh Miller (1937- ) aka. John Watts, was born in Scotland but now lives in Warwick.
He is the author of the best seller Ambulance, as well as the highly acclaimed Mike Fletcher crime novels.
He is an acknowledged expert on forensic medicine and has numerous TV credits.
Hugh Miller (1937- ) aka. John Watts, was born in Scotland but now lives in Warwick.
He is the author of the best seller Ambulance, as well as the highly acclaimed Mike Fletcher crime novels.
He is an acknowledged expert on forensic medicine and has numerous TV credits.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 2, 2011
What a misleading title this book has been given. I was expecting something along the lines of the wonderful Dead Men Do Tell Tales (reviewed in Morbid Curiosity #4)—in other words, down-and-dirty details of how corpses helped solve crimes. Only after struggling through eight chapters in which corpses never speak and are sometimes not even consulted did I read the credits page. There I discovered that the original British title of this book was Forensic Fingerprints: Remarkable Real-Life Murder Cases Solved by Forensic Detection. A title as dull as its contents.
Since there’s no point of view in this collection of police cases, there’s no one to give any impressions of the cops and doctors who step forward to tell their stories, changing narrators each chapter. There’s no way to judge if these people know what they’re talking about.
In fact, Miller’s introduction claims that some names and places have been changed. I guess you’re meant to trust Miller didn’t create what follows out of whole cloth. I did catch one mistake, so I wonder if there may be others. In a chapter about a girl strangled in San Francisco, the movie theater she said she was attending has been moved several miles across town, so that it could be in the neighborhood where her body was found. Also, one of the cops one the case refers to the tennis shoes she was wearing as trainers. Perhaps a British editor changed that, but it doesn’t inspire confidence in the factuality of the quotations.
The book isn’t completely devoid of entertaining information. I did learn a little about hypostasis, or the way the blood settles after death. I also found out 20% of the population doesn’t secrete the antigens of their blood group in their saliva or semen and so can’t be identified by DNA testing.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough to justify the price of this book.
I initially reviewed this in Morbid Curiosity #5.
Since there’s no point of view in this collection of police cases, there’s no one to give any impressions of the cops and doctors who step forward to tell their stories, changing narrators each chapter. There’s no way to judge if these people know what they’re talking about.
In fact, Miller’s introduction claims that some names and places have been changed. I guess you’re meant to trust Miller didn’t create what follows out of whole cloth. I did catch one mistake, so I wonder if there may be others. In a chapter about a girl strangled in San Francisco, the movie theater she said she was attending has been moved several miles across town, so that it could be in the neighborhood where her body was found. Also, one of the cops one the case refers to the tennis shoes she was wearing as trainers. Perhaps a British editor changed that, but it doesn’t inspire confidence in the factuality of the quotations.
The book isn’t completely devoid of entertaining information. I did learn a little about hypostasis, or the way the blood settles after death. I also found out 20% of the population doesn’t secrete the antigens of their blood group in their saliva or semen and so can’t be identified by DNA testing.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough to justify the price of this book.
I initially reviewed this in Morbid Curiosity #5.
September 2, 2011
WARNING: The descriptions of many of these crimes are VERY graphic and the crimes themselves are very disturbing.
While this is a good idea, the execution leaves much to be desired. It is like watching a CSI episode based on a crime that really happened as the names, places and some of the facts are changed to be more dramatic.
The author of the book is British and he states in the beginning that he changed the names, places, dates, crimes, pretty much everything in the book, including the "quotes" from the investigative officers involved with each of the cases. The problem with this is that all of the dialog feels the same and is out of place when the crime did not take place in England. Using British words for a supposed police officer in NYC or SF gives a bad vibe.
While this is a good idea, the execution leaves much to be desired. It is like watching a CSI episode based on a crime that really happened as the names, places and some of the facts are changed to be more dramatic.
The author of the book is British and he states in the beginning that he changed the names, places, dates, crimes, pretty much everything in the book, including the "quotes" from the investigative officers involved with each of the cases. The problem with this is that all of the dialog feels the same and is out of place when the crime did not take place in England. Using British words for a supposed police officer in NYC or SF gives a bad vibe.
April 23, 2020
I have to say that I don't think this book is non-fiction. The preface says the cases are inspired by actual events but parts are fictionalized. It's marketed as true crime, but the stories in it are very unusual and don't match up to anything I've ever read or heard of. The stories are interesting but not believable in the least. Actually, I believe this book is probably a hoax.
February 21, 2011
Most of the time I thumb through a book before I read it but this one I think I found a recommendation for on-line and just took a chance. It wasn't bad, but it was a little bit more like reading the CSI TV show then reading about real cases. I like the more technical aspects of forensic detective work. This book read more like crime drama... still it was interesting and a quick read (probably would've finished it sooner except for how busy and preoccupied I've been). While most of the 16 cases were interesting there was only one (about the death of a four year old boy) that was really upsetting. I wanted to throw up actually when I finished reading it. I had to put the book down for a while after that too. The death of innocent children really gets to me... on that note I think I'll skip the forensic files for while and read happier tales.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2019
"What the Corpse Revealed" is on my "true crime shelf" only because I see no need to create a special "allegedly true crime but so heavily disguised as to be fictional" bookshelf.
If this was not marketed as a collection of true casefiles, I'd have rated it higher. The subject matter is very interesting and the cases are all unusual and have very clever endings.
And the writing itself is good. Not a standout, but good.
However, this book flies a false flag. The disclaimer says that to protect innocent people from distress or embarrassment, some names and places have been changed.
By the looks of it, just about everything was changed. I can find nothing online about any of these cases, nor even ones that are similar. The more unusual names mentioned come up on a Google search only with references to the book itself, and the other names are so common-sounding it would be pointless to try and ssearch for them.
I am forced to conclude that the cases themselves are fabricated around a kernel or two of truth. Which is annoying and disappointing.
What makes it even more irritating is that most of the cases as presented here are so sensational that if they'd actually happened, there absolutely would have been a good deal of media coverage and thus some verifiable materials online. For instance, in the last case presented, a nurse sets fire to an exclusive Hollywood nursing home that catered to former silent-movie stars, killing several. She also had set fires in other nursing homes where she'd worked and we're told that "Mia Clark" was convicted of killing sixty people.
that kind of thing does not go unnoticed by true-crime writers and readers. Something of this magnitude should certainly have left news stories and documentaries and books, and that goes double when you consider that the last set of victims had been famous at one point.
if this had been a work of fiction "loosely based on real events" I'd have given it an extra star or two. But as it is, it gets just one because 1. There's no "0 star" rating option here and 2. It was at least readable and interesting. But you don't get a passing grade for lying to me and pretending you're not.
If this was not marketed as a collection of true casefiles, I'd have rated it higher. The subject matter is very interesting and the cases are all unusual and have very clever endings.
And the writing itself is good. Not a standout, but good.
However, this book flies a false flag. The disclaimer says that to protect innocent people from distress or embarrassment, some names and places have been changed.
By the looks of it, just about everything was changed. I can find nothing online about any of these cases, nor even ones that are similar. The more unusual names mentioned come up on a Google search only with references to the book itself, and the other names are so common-sounding it would be pointless to try and ssearch for them.
I am forced to conclude that the cases themselves are fabricated around a kernel or two of truth. Which is annoying and disappointing.
What makes it even more irritating is that most of the cases as presented here are so sensational that if they'd actually happened, there absolutely would have been a good deal of media coverage and thus some verifiable materials online. For instance, in the last case presented, a nurse sets fire to an exclusive Hollywood nursing home that catered to former silent-movie stars, killing several. She also had set fires in other nursing homes where she'd worked and we're told that "Mia Clark" was convicted of killing sixty people.
that kind of thing does not go unnoticed by true-crime writers and readers. Something of this magnitude should certainly have left news stories and documentaries and books, and that goes double when you consider that the last set of victims had been famous at one point.
if this had been a work of fiction "loosely based on real events" I'd have given it an extra star or two. But as it is, it gets just one because 1. There's no "0 star" rating option here and 2. It was at least readable and interesting. But you don't get a passing grade for lying to me and pretending you're not.
November 15, 2024
The writing was good and the stories are intriguing, however I believe that they are just stories. I can't find any info online that even matches these. One was about a serial arsonist in California which should have popped up but I couldn't find a single article about it. The disclaimer says that names have been changed but there is zero reason to hide the name of the person who has been convicted of the crime.
June 19, 2017
A collection of stories from crimes solved by forensics around the world. I had read a couple of them before but most were new. Many were chilling but all were educational for a true crime buff.
Want to read
January 18, 2022nice book and i love it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2025
i think i read if you are in to murder crime . Files of forensic scientists there There work police once you strart readind you will be suck in
September 7, 2025
I thought I'd really like this book. For some reason I just couldn't get into it.
October 7, 2025
Not all that interesting. Didn't grab my attention like I anticipated. Some stories were unique but not the majority.
2.75 stars
2.75 stars
Read
March 7, 2016What the Corpse Revealed is compiled of 16 unique murder cases that were put to rest due to unimaginable uses of forensic science. Each case included the background of all related persons, the details of how a body was discovered and analyzed, a brief description of how forensic science provided certain leads for detectives, and how each individual case was eventually brought to a close. The biggest take away for this book was that it established the importance of forensic investigation when relating to crimes. I, personally, found it truly remarkable how such little evidence can put knowledgeable and thorough criminals behind bars. Knowing that this book was published in 1999, and recognizing that technology never ceases to progress, only attributes to my amazement for the use of biology. When searching for a non-fiction book that integrated the use of forensic science, I was not impressed when coming across this one. What the Corpse Revealed consists mostly of plot and read more like a snip-it from a CSI episode. This book did a superb job at withholding the reader’s attention, but contained little more subtenant use. I would recommend this book to someone who wants an easy and engulfing read. When reading other reviews on this book, many claimed that this one was, in actuality, fiction. If you are someone who wants an authentic, non-fiction book, I would not take the chance on reading this one.
September 3, 2016
First, the prospective reader should be warned, although this particular book contains forensic scientific investigations based in the U.S. the author is almost decidedly English and his vernacular is very much British-influenced, making it at times a bit of a bother.
Yet, the author manages to take a number of interesting criminal cases from around the world and describe the forensic science which led to the revelation of the criminal behind some of the ghastly acts. Despite the title of the book, it is not autopsy heavy, but involves cases that are more of a CSI type investigation, many of the stories involved even before the CSI era. There are some autopsy findings, etc. but the book is much more about forensic science of all sorts.
The author changed some of the names, but the stories are all true, gathered in a journalistic manner and presented as such. The author never sensationalizes the crimes, some of them quite ghastly, but always keeps his focus on the them of the book-- the forensics-- and not the ghastly crimes.
A very good book and one of the best finds at a used bookstore I've made. I would love to be able to pass it along, but it was an old paperback and it really showed its age as it fell apart.
Yet, the author manages to take a number of interesting criminal cases from around the world and describe the forensic science which led to the revelation of the criminal behind some of the ghastly acts. Despite the title of the book, it is not autopsy heavy, but involves cases that are more of a CSI type investigation, many of the stories involved even before the CSI era. There are some autopsy findings, etc. but the book is much more about forensic science of all sorts.
The author changed some of the names, but the stories are all true, gathered in a journalistic manner and presented as such. The author never sensationalizes the crimes, some of them quite ghastly, but always keeps his focus on the them of the book-- the forensics-- and not the ghastly crimes.
A very good book and one of the best finds at a used bookstore I've made. I would love to be able to pass it along, but it was an old paperback and it really showed its age as it fell apart.
September 22, 2009
An excllent casebook of strange investigations. What I really liked about the book is that there wasn't much commentary from the author. Each case was presented in a matter of fact way and the color was supplied by the actual detectives and medical examiners, and in some cases witnesses. The interviews with the people who were there allowed the story of the investigations to unfold.
If you're interested in just how good these forensic detecives are, and the horros they can sometimes be confronted with, I would recommend this book.
And the story about the dog. Jeez. That one's gonna haunt me for a while.
If you're interested in just how good these forensic detecives are, and the horros they can sometimes be confronted with, I would recommend this book.
And the story about the dog. Jeez. That one's gonna haunt me for a while.
January 2, 2014
I know I say I'm not a fan of the short story but these 16 different tales of how forensic detection solved the crimes were very good and interesting. They gave just enough detail of the crime to pull you in and enough of the science for you to understand how the crimes were solved without bogging you down in technical details. The title is a bit misleading though as it often wasn't the corpse that revealed interesting details but rather the other evidence found.
April 8, 2009
Interesting but I felt it odd that so many of the cases seemed to deal with a sort of "just" murder, rapist or murdered being taken out by one of the people who was directly effected by their crimes. I know some details and most names were changed, but I found that I could not find most of the cases anywhere on the internet either.
September 26, 2007
A compendium of many different crime cases and how forensics solved them.
Very interesting read. Spans many different years and types of crimes, as well as many different forensics techniques. Most cases are very interesting.
Very interesting read. Spans many different years and types of crimes, as well as many different forensics techniques. Most cases are very interesting.
August 6, 2014
Interesting read... I always wondered if there were actually crimes as horrible as some described in novels and now I have an answer, however, I DO NOT recommend this book to any of my friends, because after reading this, I feel messed up in the head...
Read
May 1, 2008Fun book. Easy short "pick up - put down" chapters for quick reads.
June 1, 2008
I strongly suspect this book is on the shelf of the writers at CSI - many of the cases profiled here have since been fictionalized on the show.
June 2, 2015
This book was not the most thrilling read, but it had its moments. I am glad I finished it.
June 27, 2013
Very interesting reading about the real deal after digesting so much fiction! It is horrifing to read about some of these crimes, but satisfying to see how they all got their "rewards" in the end.
April 27, 2011
Very interesting and strange cases and some rather graphic photos for those of us who are more morbid than the average person!
September 3, 2013
Sixteen different stories, presented in a Sherlock Holmes format. It had potential, nice title, but I found it boring: insufficient forensics.
January 23, 2016
Good collection of forensic-detection cases. All kinds of interesting oddities in here.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews