The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book: Reading Clues at the Crime Scene, Crime Lab and in Court

by Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Thomas E Svarney

A practical, accessible, and informative guide to the science of criminal investigations. Covering the fundamentals, science, history, and analysis of clues, The Handy Forensic Science Answer Reading Clues at the Crime Scene, Crime Lab and in Court provides detailed information on crime scene investigations, techniques, laboratory finding, the latest research, and controversies. It looks at the science of law enforcement, how evidence is gathered, processed, analyzed, and viewed in the courtroom, and more. From the cause, manner, time of a death, and autopsies to blood, toxicology, DNA typing, fingerprints, ballistics, tool marks, tread impressions, and trace evidence, it takes the reader through the many sides of a death investigation. Arson, accidents, computer crimes, criminal profiling, and much, much more are also addressed. The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book gives real-world examples and looks at what Hollywood gets right and wrong. It provides the history of the science, and it introduces the scientists behind breakthroughs. An easy-to-use and informative reference, it brings the complexity of a criminal investigation into focus and provides well-researched answers to over 950 common questions , such as …

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2018

About the author

First I must appologize to my family for being the kid who always asked "Why?" But that one word asked many times led me to science and writing--especially in the physical sciences. And all of that led me to have quite an wide range of other writing topics--from weather in Antarctica to the many facets of Forensic Science. Yes, I've always been "the geek next door"... and with more than three dozen books to my credit (mostly on science), no one questions my geekiness anymore!

The latest book is from Visible Ink Press--The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book. Thomas Svarney is my co-author, and is one heck of a researcher. (He also has a science background, so we can discuss the mechanics of the climate without scratching our heads in puzzlement...Well, within reason!) The book was interesting to put together and we learned a great deal about forensics. It was especially fun since the subject includes so many different sciences.

Reviews

[Greg Parrott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found it very hard to start this book and stick with it. Maybe it is the question/answer format. Taking it back to the library for now. May try again later.