A review by lostinthelibrary
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, Dna, and More Tell Us about Crime by Val McDermid

dark informative medium-paced

3.5

This was a really interesting overview of all of the factors involved in modern forensics and the history of these techniques. I really liked that McDermid based the book around first hand interviews with the amazing specialists in each of these fields and she did a fantastic job of bringing these together into a compelling narrative.

I also found the last chapter very interesting and frustrating. That is that all of the hard work covered in the previous chapters is for nothing if the expert witness cracks under pressure or does not come across well in court. Are legal systems isn't perfect but a lot of work goes into to making them the best and fairest possible. 

Seeing McDermid's passion for forensics gives me a lot of confidence in the accurary of her novels and I look forward to picking them up. 

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