Bodies of Evidence by Brian Innes
The Fascinating World of Forensic Science and How It Helped Solve More Than 100 True Crimes
Reader's Digest - June 2001
ISBN 0-7321-0295-0 Hardbound
Nonfiction / True Crime / Science

Reviewed by Beverly J. Rowe, MyShelf.Com
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There are over one hundred intriguing case histories of how forensic evidence was used to solve crimes, laced with two hundred color and black and white photographs to illustrate the exciting text. It contains such diverse murder cases as the Ted Bundy serial killings, the infamous cannibal, Alfred Packer, and the Tokyo Subway terrorist attack.

Brian Innes holds a degree in chemistry and has extended experience as a research biochemist. He is a member of the Crime Writers Association, and this is a "must read" book for anyone who is interested in solving crime and the role that science plays in identification of victims and determining how they died and who is responsible. It is also a comprehensive history of the development of forensic pathology as it relates to crime from the first ballistics efforts in 1835 to modern DNA testing. The text outlines the methods of evidence gathering and how that evidence is tested, showing how important evidence may be mishandled and the chain-of-custody requirements ignored as in the O. J. Simpson case.

I highly recommend this text for writers of crime fiction. It is loaded with ideas and methods that your cop and coroner characters can use. There are sidebars for related ideas and a comprehensive index. Its a great read, and fun to browse in, this book kept me up most of the night.