The Official Forensic Files Casebook

by Paul Dowling, Vince Sherry

This book, as the first one did, will bring readers behind the scenes of the show, talk about cases never before shown, talk about the major forensic breakthroughs of Forensic Science, have a glossary of important terms, talk about the cutting edge research that we can only imagine right now have exclusive photos from the archives of FORENSIC FILES as well. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Genres: Nonfiction

226 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2004

Reviews

[Nicole Galbraith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book showed and interesting behind the scenes view of the popular television show Forensics Files. I found the information interesting, but the multiple editing errors became distracting.

[Lori Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and put some highlights on the shows as well.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was going to provide more behind-the-scenes information than it did. Unfortunately, the book mostly recapped early episodes of Forensic Files, so it's pretty unnecessary reading for anyone who has already seen the show. I was hoping for more cases that didn't make it to TV (Dowling does go over a couple of those but very briefly) and more of a focus on how the show was made. My favorite parts were, for example, discussing how a producer met with a prisoner for an interview, and the filming tricks for making it appear like summer in the dead of winter. Who knew all FF episodes were filmed on location, with no stock photography/videos since everything was filmed exclusively for each episode?

As a note, this book suffers from typos and at one point, pages that are in the wrong order. I'd love to read a revised version of the book with more cases (this book only covers up until the 200th episode, which is less than half of its total run) and more production info.

*2022 Around the Year Reading Challenge*
Prompt #7: A book related to psychology, neuroscience, or the mind*
Unlike the show, this book focused more on psychology than hard science (given that it was mostly episode summaries), with more of a focus on motive and the ways in which criminals tried to out-smart investigators. It's not strictly about psychology, but discusses it often enough that I think it qualifies as being related to it.

[Sophia Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, interesting read about one of my favorite shows. It was cool to read about some of what goes on behind the scenes of the show.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Official Forensic Files Casebook by Paul Downing

Interesting, thought-provoking, informative. The photos are an added bonus. I enjoyed this book.