Threads of Evidence: Using Forensic Science to Solve Crimes

Examines ways in which science helps solve crimes using threads of evidence such as blood, teeth, teethmarks, fingerprints, eye prints, DNA, hairs, fibers, and corpses

Grade 7 Up. In a crowded field of books on forensic science, this one stands out for its effective writing, up-to-date coverage, and gory details. Silverstein describes both biological and nonbiological forms of evidence, explains how they are analyzed, and compares the newest methods with those used hundreds of years ago. The biological evidence includes some stomach-turning details, such as the insect larvae found in bodies that can help pinpoint times of death. The crimes described include some very recent ones?the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and the Oklahoma City Federal Building and the hunt for the Unabomber?but the O. J. Simpson case is not covered. Generally, the author's writing style is quite effective, with colorful language and logical structure. Jenny Tesar's Scientific Crime Investigation (Watts, 1991; o.p.) covers much of the same material (though examples are not as current) in slightly less effective language but has illustrations and a glossary. Donna Jackson's The Bone Detectives (Little, Brown, 1996) treats one aspect of forensic science with full-color photographs and has an even more appealing writing style. And several books, including Robert Gardner's Crime Lab 101 (Walker, 1992), Robert Sheely's Police Lab (Silver Moon, 1993), and Jim Wiese's Detective Science (Wiley, 1996), address the subject in less detail but include experiments so that readers can try out detection techniques. Silverstein updates or supplements all of these titles, but the lack of illustrations will limit her book's popularity.?Jonathan Betz-Zall, Sno-Isle Regional Library System, Edmonds, WA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7^-12. This is a reassuring perspective on law enforcement by a veteran nonfiction author. Silverstein discusses the wealth of new technology that criminologists have at their disposal, beginning with a trace of forensic history and profiles of some of the practitioners who manipulate the clues. The bulk of the book examines how the evidence--whether blood spatters, shell casings, carpet fibers, or DNA--is recovered and analyzed. Case studies, some quite gruesome, are a large part of the text, but Silverstein has taken care not to sensationalize. She gets a little off track in her chapter on bombs, spending less time on the way technology was used to unravel the cases of the Unabomber and the Oklahoma City tragedy than on the circumstances surrounding the crimes (at one point she states the Unabomber "was" Theodore Kaczynski, only later noting he has yet to go to trial), but that's more than balanced by the wealth of intriguing information, straightforwardly delivered. Surely this was the stuff of Sherlock Holmes' dreams. Stephanie Zvirin