30-Second Forensic Science: 50 key topics revealing criminal investigation from behind the scenes, each explained in half a minute

by Sue Black, Niamh Nic Daeid

Humanity’s most appalling crimes are solved by experts presenting painstakingly gathered evidence to the court of law. Investigators rely on physical, chemical and digital clues gathered at the scene of an incident to reconstruct beyond all reasonable doubt the events that occurred in order to bring criminals to justice. Enter the forensic team, tasked with providing objective recognition and identification and evaluating physical evidence (the clues) to support known or suspected circumstances. Far from the super-sleuths of fiction, the real-life masters of deduction occupy a world of dogged detection, analysing fingerprints or gait, identifying traces of toxins, drugs or explosives, matching digital data, performing anatomical dissection, disease diagnosis, facial reconstruction and environmental profiling.   
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Detective, German Literature, Crime, Death

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 18, 2018

About the author

Professor Dame Sue Black is one of the world's leading anatomists and forensic anthropologists. She is also the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. She was the lead anthropologist for the British Forensic Team's work in the war crimes investigations in Kosovo and one of the first forensic scientists to travel to Thailand following the Indian Ocean tsunami to provide assistance in identifying the dead. Sue is a familiar face in the media, where documentaries have been filmed about her work, and she led the highly successful BBC 2 series History Cold Case.

Reviews

[Teodora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not very advanced or in-depth explained concepts.

Every 2 pages contain the text on the left side and the right page is filled with a beautiful illustration that covers the topic that is discussed. It is a very small summary of the subject described and doesn’t give a lot of info or knowledge. It just touched the surface of the subject but it is still useful and can help a lot of people to get into forensic science.

This is a good book to read if you just started getting interested in forensic science though, it provides the most important topics that are discussed during an investigation and some interesting facts.

Given the fact that it was written in such a way, I won’t give it a low rating considering it reached its goal, plus the beautiful illustrations helped and made me buy the book in the first place.

[Mareike Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr informativ, gut geschrieben und eine Empfehlung für alle, die Interesse an der Thematik haben :)

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this because I find forensic science fascinating. As I already have extensive knowledge on this topic (countless TV shows and a scientific background from studies) the book did not contain a whole lot of new information for me (however tied in a lot of court decisions that I happily researched further on the internet). Still I find the book's concept very interesting and am considering buying another book from the series, maybe on an area I am much less familiar with as 30 seconds per topic really is not enough to more than graze the surface.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s an odd mix of not detailed enough whilst incredibly boring. It’s free on kindle unlimited (13 dollars a month type of free) and still not worth the price.

I think my main objection is the format. 30 seconds across 50 topics. An arbitrary amount of time on an arbitrary number of topics. False balance without the science denialism.

[Kerry Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting quick look at the basis of forensics. A short explanation then a few facts or famous names associated with it. It was interesting as a quick reference but I like detail and case studies. Still a useful way to understand the various terms and methods.

[eloine.rb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il est parfait. Concis et précis, il nous donne une bonne vision élargie comme approfondie sur le domaine de la science judiciaire.

[Lucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cool

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

11NP

[Sidonia]

👍🏻: relatively inexpensive, nice hardcover book. Gives a great overview on all aspects of forensics such as science, technology & psychology. Sparks interest in many unknown fields of work, for example forensic botany. Artistic illustrations neutralise more gruesome topics. Additional plus: a scientific book published by two women.

BIG 👎🏻: quite bad German translation with grave mistakes in syntax and basic orthography. Almost Google Translate bad. Additional inconsistency in layout impedes reading fluency. I may be OCD on this, but such well-educated authors and editors should have noticed these mistakes.

Still, supporter of the 30-second books.