[Mio]

Has anyone read any good forensic books lately? Any one that you reccomend to the posters?

My favorite is called "Redrum The Innocent" and it's by Kirk Makin. It's about a real life crime that happened in Ontario back in the 1980's. A little girl was kidnapped and the police suspected the next door neighbor because he had psychological problems, looked funny, acted weird and kept to himself a lot. They really liked him for the kidnapping. A year or so later, the little girl was found murdered and the neighbor was arrested and charged with the murder. He kept with his innocence until the detectives coersed him into confessing. He later said that there was nothing he could do to prove his innocence to the officers because they we're so hell bent on leather to get him.

This book shows the inconsistencies with the Canadian Criminal Justice system, the ongoing problems, corruption of the system and the investigating officers in this case, crime scene evidence tampering, improper collecting/storing of evidence, throwing away key pieces of evidence and tunnel vision.

We read this book in my criminal justice class and I really loved it. Mr. Makin paints a correct picture about how our justice system is, or really, any justice system is.

The book can be found at both amazon.ca and amazon.com.

[Astra]

Hmm... let's see...

I've read a couple of crime/forensics books lately..

One was called "Stiff" and looked in the 'afterlife' of human cadavers (how they're used in research, medical training, experimentation etc)

And the other one was called "Death's Acre" and was by the former director of Univ/Tennessee's 'Body Farm' facility in Knoxville...

Both were good... [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[GrissomFan]

Originally posted by Astra: <STRONG> And the other one was called "Death's Acre" and was by the former director of Univ/Tennessee's 'Body Farm' facility in Knoxville... Both were good... [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]</STRONG>

Hey Astra I read "Deaths Acre" too.I enjoyed it. It was very interesting.

Another book I read is called "The Forensic Science Of CSI" .Its very good plus It talks about CSI in it too.

i have others but i havent read them yet.

[Mio]

Originally posted by Astra: <STRONG>Hmm... let's see... I've read a couple of crime/forensics books lately.. One was called "Stiff" and looked in the 'afterlife' of human cadavers (how they're used in research, medical training, experimentation etc) And the other one was called "Death's Acre" and was by the former director of Univ/Tennessee's 'Body Farm' facility in Knoxville... Both were good... [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]</STRONG>

A fellow friend whos in criminal justice studies as well read those books and recomended them to me. I'm waiting for "Death's Acre" to get to the library so I can pick it up.

[SnickerDoodle99]

I love the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell. It's mostly forensic pathology/crime stuff. And of course it's fiction. But still awesome.

[Mio]

Crime Scene by Richard Platt is a MUST HAVE for every Forensic Science buff. I love this book so much that once it goes back to the library I'm going to buy it.

I also have Blood Evidence by Dr. Henry Lee. It's a thick book, but I'm excited to read it.

[Mio]

I borrowed two from the library yesterday- Hunting Humans and Why Children Kill: A Psychological look into young killers

[GrissomRules]

I've read just a few


The one Jamie mentioned "The Forensic Science of CSI" is a good one, and the author ties it into the series. I read it last summer.

"The Forensic Casebook" is also a nice one. Look in the back in the index of schools that offer a Forensics program, and you'll see good old Weber State University!

If you want to get a little more in depth, pick up a copy of "Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science" by Saferstein. It's one of the standard intro forensics texts. The author is very good, and he presents a lot of info without gettin overly technical. You could probably pick up an older edition fairly cheap online somewhere. He talks about almost everything from scene investigation to drugs, to blood spatter patterns.

If you really want to see what goes on in the scene investigation "in depth," check out a copy of "Practical Crime Scene Processing and Investigation" by Gardner. It's our text that we use in our Upper Division CSI classes. It's a bit tedious in places, but then again, so is scene processing . It's also good if you want to read the material without having look at all the gory photos.

If you're a science whiz, you can try the "Forensic Science Handbook" by Saferstein. It's super-technical, and for the most part, super-boring. However, at least in the USA, it's considered the standard work in the field.

[that's a bingo]

i'm glad i found this thread. i plan on going into forensics when i get to college, and i've been looking for some good books to check out.

[Astra]

Well, this link is more for fiction, but it's a cool link... You type in authors you know of (for example, Kathy Reichs, or Patricia Cornwell) and it'll give you other authors names who are similar and that'll you'll probably like as well...

Check it out: Literature-Map - The tourist map of literature

[anonymous1]

One of my college textbooks was really helpful for introductory forensic biology. It's called "Forensic DNA Typing, Second Edition: Biology, Technology, and Genetics of STR Markers" and is by John M. Butler. While it's useful to have a biology/chemistry background (not a major, but at least an intro class in each), it was written for any professional (especially lawyers and DAs) to read.

As for fiction, I just finished "The Romanov Prophecy" by Steve Berry. This is the fictionalized account of the deaths of the Romanov family in Russia and the identification of the remains, which is one of the most famous uses of forensic DNA markers to date. Definitely a great read!

[Astra]

Ooooh that last book sounds good.... Over the winter I read a couple of factual accounts of the recovery/analysis of the Romanov family etc... It was really interesting!

I'll have to check out Berry's fiction book on that as well then!

[CSI:NY-4EVER]

Hello. I'm reading "the forensic of CSI and it's good. But I think the best books ever are the CSI:NY books. and the CSI books. I am/have read three of those books and they are really good.

[Astra]

I've never read any of the CSI NY books...

My mom was telling me about a couple of good sounding books... I've not yet read them but thought I'd share

They're fictional but written w/ Dr. Bass (of Body Farm fame)...

Carved in Bone
Flesh and Bone

are the titles