GYF of forensic science, part deux

This time, it's a review of No Stone Unturned: The True Story of NecroSearch International, the World's Premier Forensic Investigators. by Steve Jackson. (I'm blaming this binge of science/forensics reading wholeheartedly on CSI: Season 4 DVDs arriving via Netflix, in case you were wondering.)

This is my favorite kind of science book: the science is well-explained, the geek-speak is minimal and unobtrusive because it's well-explained, and it's got case studies. And it's not some gory "true crime" read - okay, it IS gory in parts, but it's not sensationalized like so many other books in the 363.25 section of the library.

NecroSearch International is an organization based in Colorado that started out as "Project PIG," PIG being an acronym for "Pigs In the Ground." As you may have guessed, yes, it involved the burial of dead pigs. It was an experiment along the lines of the Body Farm in Tennessee, but focusing specifically on how to find "clandestine graves" with various technical specialties being represented. There's a geologist, an aerial photographer, a forensic anthropologist, an entomologist... basically, all of the experts that law enforcement agencies may need when working on especially tough cases that need evidence of a body to bring the file to a closing point. The experts of NecroSearch International review cases upon request, asking no more than room and board if they decide to participate in the search.

What's particularly good about this book is that it explains in some detail many of these forensic specialties and focuses on the fact that they are not, as one convict calls them, 'high-tech witch doctors." Jackson gives the explanations within the context of several different forensic investigations: Michele Wallace, a 25-year-old photographer who disappears under suspicious circumstances during an adventerous trip West; Diane Keidel, a mother of four whose murder was witnessed by her frightened four-year-old daughter; Cher Elder, a 20-year-old woman whose murder proves the NecroSearch team wrong in many aspects of their assumptions; Christine Elkins, a single mother and meth addict with a murderous drug-dealing boyfriend; and the Romanovs, the Russian royal family.

It's always moving to read about the victims, but the extensive discussion of these cases allows you to really get inside the head of the NecroSearch team members and to understand the demons - physical and mental - that they face on these assignments.

The book starts getting a bit slow in places, especially in instances where there are several people involved in the murder and their discussions are recounted, seemingly word-for-word. The author would have done just as well to sum up the conversations because the dialogue is tedious and doesn't particularly advance the action. I'm thinking particularly of the Christine Elkins section of the book. The Romanov case seems to have been tossed in as a last-minute chapter to break the 350-page mark, and isn't particularly stunning - but it is good for a look at how the team doesn't always find good working situations and also at work the team has done in an international context.

To sum it all up, if you're interested in this kind of thing and run across this book, it's worth a read if you've got some spare time and nothing more pressing to do.

Reader's Bill of Rights

I found this in one of my magazines this month (Utne) and thought it would be appropriate to post. It's reprinted there from Better Than Life by Daniel Pennac.

1. The right not to read.
2. The right to skip pages.
3. The right not to finish. (And thank goodness for that. I think I'd still be stuck back in senior year in high school on The Catcher in the Rye. --LS)
4. The right to reread.
5. The right to read everything.
6. The right to escapism.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to browse.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to not defend your taste.

Also, a good quote for these winter months from an "anonymous farm woman" in 1921: "May I ask you to tell me of a few books that you have loved, that have made you sit up and just shout with delight? I am going to buy four new books this winter and I want four new friends to stay by me, to read over and over."

Get your fix of forensic science

Review : Maggots, Murder, and Men : Memories and Reflections of a Forensic Entomologist by Dr. Zakaria Erzinçlioglu

I suppose there were two things that drew me to this title : the alliteration of the title and the author’s name. I have only a vague idea of how to pronounce the author’s name (and actually, neither my French or American keyboard layout contains the accent mark that is needed over the G in his last name), but when you see a name such as this one on the library shelf, you can’t help but be curious. That moment of curiosity was well-rewarded by reading Maggots, Murder, and Men : Memories and Reflections of a Forensic Entomologist.

The author, known as Dr. Zak to his associates and police throughout Great Britain, presents case studies from a long and distinguished career in forensic entomology. (Entomology is the study of insects ; forensic entomologists interpret crime scene evidence of insects and insect activity.) It helps to have a tough stomach while reading the cases, which range from the one about a man who may have died alone in his house after it was boarded up to the case of the girls who went on a walk in an English wood in November 1862 and never returned home. Dr. Zak discusses the facts of the cases, the evidence (especially the entomological evidence), and then walks readers through the process of « working the cases. » While this kind of book could easily turn technical and dry, the author turns each case study into a passionate narrative that will get you all caught up in that particular investigation’s web. The introductory chapters are just as interesting as the case studies, an unexpected delight and foray into a bit of historical background.

My only beef with the book is the concluding chapter, « The Ends and the Means. » It is by far the least interesting aspect of the book, unless you’re into English law and legal reform. The chapter begins promisingly enough, but I found myself tuning out about twelve pages in. I skimmed over the middle and finished my reading with the last few paragraphs, which did a good job of summing up problems with forensic science at the time of the publication of the book.

I found one of the reviews of the book on the jacket particularly interesting. Colin Wilson of Literary Review wrote, « (I)t would make a superb TV series – in which event, I would be one of its most faithful viewers. » Huh. The book was published in 2000, just prior to the first season of one of today’s most popular television dramas, CSI : Crime Scene Investigation. One of the main characters, Dr. Gil Grissom is, as luck would have it, a forensic entomologist. Go figure.