Whether you're exploring forensics to enhance your writing or simply out of curiosity about the field, this book is an excellent addition to your bookshelf! The chapters are organized by topics like 'Entomology,' 'Pathology,' and 'Toxicology,' diving into how these fields contribute to forensic investigations and even touching on their historical development. Val McDermid's Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime not only illuminates the collaboration between different fields in solving crimes but also includes fascinating real-life cases that underscore their importance.

This book was a great read. Many different chapters, all thoroughly explained with different examples of cases. You don't have to be in the field of forensics to understand what this book is discussing. It was exactly what I was looking for and it was actually recommended by a staff member in the Braehead Waterstones store just before lockdown. Would definitely recommend this to others!

I've read quite a bit of Val McDermid's crime stuff, so I picked this up on a whim - I've got rather a fascination with true crime and this was a great introduction. She looks at the different aspects of forensics, their development and uses, but also the issues with them. Endlessly fascinating and cut into chunks that made for easy reading - recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in true crime- this one focuses more on the journey to justice than the actual crime.

I confess to not being a huge fan of true crime accounts per se, but with the dual temptations of Val McDermid- one of the UK’s premier crime novelists- and a real behind the scenes look at the craft of forensic science, I couldn’t resist a look at this one. What unfolds is a fascinating and wonderfully readable look at a wide range of forensic practices and case histories that sheds light on the skill and intuition of crime scene investigators, underscored by the fluid and entertaining style of McDermid’s writing. The books charts over 200 years of developments in forensic techniques, using a combination of familiar crimes like the Ripper case, but whirling backwards and forwards through time, to provide a view into more recent crimes and atrocities like the Madrid train bombings. Equally, a familiar institution like The Body Farm in America is set against the ground-breaking techniques that are occurring day in and day out by less well known forensic laboratories, so adding heightened points of interest and discovery for the reader. Broken down into specific areas of interest in each chapter, this format allows the reader to skip back and forth easily, and I found this very useful, reading this alongside fiction. The chapters cover a wide breadth of subjects; fire scene investigation, entomology, pathology, toxicology, fingerprinting, blood spatter, DNA, anthropology, facial reconstruction, digital forensics, forensic psychology and finally how these techniques are drawn on during the final legal process to gain a conviction. The language is uncomplicated, but never patronising, and I would say that this book would hold a wide appeal, not only for those employed in, or studying the field of forensic science, but also eminently suitable for writers and readers such as myself with an interest in the subject, but no advanced knowledge of this field. Bolstering McDermid’s presentation of the subject matter, there are also some insights into her own personal experiences of gathering the material for the book, and some nice personal touches to the overall narrative. If like me you are rather jaded by the celluloid representations of the CSI field, with their showy camera tricks and lip glossed forensic investigators, there is much to be gleaned from this well-researched and highly readable account of this crucial area of crime detection. Although McDermid does incorporate some cultural references to crime on screen, for the most part, the book centres on the real day to day job of forensic investigators and the difficult, and at times, laborious reality of their investigations. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this, and having read many, many fictional crime books presenting assorted medical examiners and forensic officers, it was a rewarding and refreshing insight into those who do this for real. I learnt some things that I didn’t know before, but equally enjoyed McDermid’s representation of the more familiar cases and developments through the years. An entertaining and enlightening read for professionals and laymen alike.

An interesting book, with lots of real forensic stuff, some ancient or classical, and some more modern, case histories. One unusual feature of the book is the image of a housefly on almost every page from front cover to back cover, placed randomly on any blank space - sometimes appearing to fly off the page as you read! No doubt just an illusion, but creating a spooky effect!