Famed medical examiner Michael Baden and award-winning writer Marion Roach, reveal how forensic science is revolutionising courtrooms, convicting the guilt and freeing the innocent.
Michael Baden and Marion Roach take readers to the autopsy table in the morgue and practically place the scalpel in their hands to show how advances in forensic science are solving crimes as never before. They visit cases both famous and ordinary to explain why the first hour at a crime scene is crucial. They reveal, for the first time, how a key clue to the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson was lost during the transportation of her body to the morgue. In another case, they show how something as obscure as the imprint of a button on a dead man's skin was overlooked until months later when, while reviewing the crime-scene photos, Dr Baden saw it, causing the case to take an astonishing turn. Baden and Roach invite readers to be present at the analysis of soil, plant matter, insects, blood spatters, bone, teeth, hair, weather and other crime-scene evidence to witness how the startling accuracy of science can improve the chances of a just verdict. Dead Reckoning has already been hailed, before publication, as a classic of rigorous an enlightened writing about forensic pathology, both in its principles and in its practice.
Industry Reviews
Followers of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell will be enthralled by this real-life account of the world of forensic pathology. Baden's straightforward style ensures that the layman quickly grasps the role that the medical examiner plays within the criminological process. He provides a fascinating insight into the secrets a body can reveal whilst on the autopsy table - including the science of blood spatter investigations, odontology, climatology, entomology and DNA analysis from bone and hair fragments. Baden is able to provide captivating insights into various high-profile cases: blood evidence on Nicole Brown Simpson that was lost when her body was moved; the crime scene that was not protected because the first officers on the scene of the Jon Benet Ramsay case treated it as a kidnapping; and how Princess Diana's driver Henri Paul had drunk the equivalent of nine shots before the fatal crash. These are just a few examples of how forensic science has been crucial in criminal investigations. Some of Baden's lesser-known cases are just as extraordinary - the exhumation of Medgar Evers is as amazing as that of the remains of Tsar Nicholas and his family. Baden also highlights intriguing details about the body - lip and ear prints are as unique to each individual as finger prints. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the remarkable criminalist Dr Henry Lee, who took samples of Bill Clinton's DNA and analysed them against that now infamous blue Gap dress. Similarly accredited is Herb MacDonnel (the world's leading authority on blood) who encourages his students to experiment with blood. He asked one student to soak her shoulder-length hair in blood and then shake it from side to side to check blood spatter patterns. The result was then used to disprove a defendant's version of events in a murder case. Although the accounts are extremely detailed, the only chapter which some may find too gruesome for bedtime reading deals with bugs and how entomology pinpoints with amazing accuracy the time of death. Astonishing and fascinating. (Kirkus UK)
