The Mammoth Book of New CSI: Forensic science in over thirty real-life crime scene investigations

by Nigel Cawthorne

Detailed accounts of over 30 contemporary cases, or older cases reopened as a result of advances in forensic science. Crime scene investigations draw on a wide range of cutting-edge technology including genetic fingerprinting, blood splatter analysis, laser ablation, toxicology and ballistics analysis. Cases covered here the abduction of Madeleine McCann; the vindication of Colin Stagg, convicted of having murdered Rachel Nickell; Hadden Clark who killed and ate a six-year-old child in Maryland; Robert Pickton, the Vancouver farmer who fed his female victims to his pigs; the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia (was Amanda Knox guilty?); Lindsay Hawker's gruesome death in Japan; Josef Fritzl and the cellar in which he imprisoned and raped his daughter.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction

465 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book on true crime and the many ways police caught their killers. Some interesting cases, some I had never heard of before.

[Jurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a few stories were good. I agree with some others who've read this book and feels like it's just a jumble of cases. Sometimes the writer even include unnecessary details which is distracting and not necessary, such as include all snippets of 27 missing persons of a single serial killer. We know it's a serial killer, no need to drill in the fact there. Point made.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at 31 criminal cases from all over the world, some I'd never heard of before.

I do have to mention whoever did the proof-reading of this dropped the ball, there were quite a lot of typos, some of which made sentences difficult to make sense of.

All in all though a pretty good read for crime-buffs.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's basically a rehash of 31 cases, some familiar, some not, but it's not a teaching tool for forensic science, it's really nothing more than rehashed summaries. not recommended for anyone

[Lucii Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is incredibly detailed, though could do with an editor, so many errors and spelling issues that it couldn’t be easily ignored.

Each case brings incredible evidence forward, it details the crime scenes spectacularly, though there’s always room for improvement. Like I know there’s a fair bit missing from the Madeleine McCann chapter at the beginning and again this author tried to point the finger AWAY from the parents instead of showing the evidence that actually points at them.

I did skip two plane crash chapters because they were incredibly boring, naming a tonne of things on planes that I didn’t have a clue what was being said and was getting confused. I also skipped the Romanov chapter because I couldn’t pronounce anything and it was frustrating. But the rest of the chapters were amazing. My favourite has to be the McDonald case near the end. It was minutely detailed with a fine tooth comb and carried on beyond the conviction. I don’t believe McDonald did it personally as the evidence against others is too strong to be ignored. I feel there was a huge cover up because the military screwed up the whole crime scene. McDonald should never have been convicted on the circumstantial evidence that went towards him.

Overall, a greatly detailed book and very interfering. I’ve recommended this to others also but this does need re-editing majorly.

[France-Andrée · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories were interesting, but if you are a fan of investigation discovery and the likes, you will have heard of the majority of them in details. I would have wished for crimes a little less known though in a couple of chapters OJ and Tim McVeigh) I did learn things I didn’t know at the times or have forgotten since.

[Yolande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh! Not sure... Some of the cases are interesting, and the crime scene work is good (or top-notch) for the year. Some cases seem to be in the book only to show you the (often evident to us readers) mistakes made during the investigation.

[Alison Clifford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't actually read all of it as I skipped things that didn't grab me. I found this to have lots of theories, but not anywhere as near as much hard CSI evidence detailed as I'd hoped. More claims than hard facts. Disappointing.

[B McCullagh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expected this to be better. A few too many mistakes and typos. Some stories I hadn't heard of and I did find interesting and well written, hence the 3 star. Would potentially put me off trying his other books.

[Crystal Cramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting.

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me so much of the sorts of books I read as a child (although more gory than those, of course) that it was a little disconcerting to have a case from one of those childhood books get mentioned in passing in the midst of discussing one of the cases in this book.

OJ is in here, as is the OK City bombing, and several other not-as-well-known cases. The discussion of the Jeffrey McDonald case was fascinating. There are several British cases I'd not heard of; not a surprise as this was published in England.

Quite enjoyable.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought this book I thought it would be about how Crime Scene Investigators work and how they end up coming to their conclusions. This book is not about CSI. In fact it doesn't mention procedure much, at all. It is more about past crimes, some well-known, others not so, and what happened in those crimes. There are, however, and quite importantly, a lot of errors in the book which you will discover if you read the chapter in question then watch the footage of the crime on YouTube. Despite this I really enjoyed the book and found it fascinating in places. Be warned though that some video footage is quite gruesome in places.

[Maria Yohana · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is contain of several stories included celebrities scandals or just common cases that complicated enough so CSI have to do their work to solve it.

this book is extremely detail about the CSI procedure until sometimes, i just skipped it a few paragraphs just because i'm not really understand about their term of words. but this book is quite good enough though.