Fingerprints and Talking Bones

by Charlotte Foltz Jones

Can a skeleton confess? Can a talking parrot actually lead the police to a suspect?



Throughout the twentieth century, important crimes have been solved with unusual clues that have required detectives to go off the beaten track and sometimes to consult with experts from scientific fields. Charlotte Foltz Jones has drawn together numerous actual accounts that illustrate the fascinatingly diverse and often surprising paths to truth. Bugs, dirt, bite marks, and even pets are all potential crime-solving clues. This page-turning book is perfect for detectives-to-be, young scientists, and all those interested in a peek at the police work that goes on behind the scenes.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting overview of forensics techniques; many of which can be seen in action on TV crime shows like CSI, Bones, and Criminal Minds.
The stats are outdated, but the general information is still fascinating.

[Todd LaMontagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis: Fingerprints and Talking Bones:How Real-Life Crimes are Solved is a how-to book that explains how detectives gather evidence and solve crimes. With the popularity of reality and fictional television shows that focus on crime-solving, this book offers young people the background knowledge they need to be able to differentiate between latent, plastic or visible fingerprints, or to know how a detective can use tire prints to solve a crime. This book fits well into a unit coupled with a mystery novel in which some of these crime-solving techniques are utilized.
Themes/Curriculum Connections: Mystery, crime solving techniques.
Age/Grade Recommendation: Middle school and up.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This YA intro to forensics showed up in my Little Free Library, so being a fan of true crime I decided to read it. It is a fairly comprehensive overview of the field apparently aimed at future detectives. Murders are mentioned while rarely naming murders or giving specifics such as locality. Exceptions are made for the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Unabomber. The interesting techniques, including hair and fiber matching, recalls to me many cases I have seen on Forensic Files, etc.

[Rakayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun true crime book! I learned a lot about forensic science I didn't know before. Great book if you want to learn more about real life police work of collecting evidence.

[amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Could be good for self contained forensics class or young adults that are interested in the field.

[The Elite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative

[Chase]

Book Review #4
By Chase Brucher

The book Fingerprints and Talking Bones by Charlotte Foltz Jones is a complicated, mysterious, bloody filled book with deadly crimes. This book shows readers about the crimes committed around the world and how the police solve these crimes with just about anything you can think of. The police use animals, blood, dirt, whether, car streaks, and even plants. Yes you heard right, a dandelion can help the police find a robber or a murderer. I enjoyed reading this book because of all the little details the author hid in the writing. The author spent a lot of time going into deep detail of how police officers find criminals. The author shows a strong vocabulary and is descriptive about each thought introduced. If you are a person who wants to join the police and solve crimes. This book will give you a head start on how police use any possible way to find the person they are after. I believe this book is very fact filled with lots of small details hidden for the reader to uncover. I would rate this book an 8 out of 10.

[Kate acevedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that people should read this book because it talks about the diffrent types of things that they go in order to find out what and how did the crime. It walks about how when burgler brake into a car is diffrent then braking into a house window. They say that there are some ways that they can find the criminal by finding who bought the gun by putting a liquid on it if they skrach the number of the gun. they can find evidence in thier cars truck or even in there homes. They talk about how people kill someone and then they hide the evidence in there house like the clothes of someone in grills or in the trash. People put the bodies in there car and they hide the bodies in the woods and there is a fiber from something on the dead person that can lead to the criminal.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple, but enlightening read about how crimes are solved. Some of these methods I knew about, but some I did not; some of the techniques are more in depth than I would have ever imagined. This book is a fun, short read on how evidence is used to solve crimes. I would recommend it if this happens to be one of your interests.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

so far in this booke, it's talking about how in a crime scene, when an anthropologist finds bones, they can deteermine the sex,race,whether or not the person was left or right handed, and the way that the person was killed.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really cool view on how to solve crimes, what they use to solve crimes and all about crimes!

[Shelley]

Not really for Halloween, but is a great idea for a mystery/detective theme.

[Rebecca]

I was into this stuff for a while, and I was fascinated by this book. The technology has advanced since this book written, so it easily outdated. However, the true stories of solved crimes are never outdates.