anniereads221's review against another edition

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dark informative medium-paced

4.5


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maisierosereads's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

 I received an audio ARC of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"How to Solve a Murder" is an interesting set of anecdotes spanning several decades of the authors' work in the forensic science field (and associated areas). It includes their respective paths into these careers and their notable contributions to the subject such as diatoms, the National Injuries Database, and body mapping. Similarly to "Unnatural Causes" by Dr Richard Shephere (who, having worked with Derek Tremain, provided the foreword to this book), there are some personal anecdotes mixed within the professional; for instance, how the authors met and got married. Although I was primarily interested in this title for the science I did appreciate how these stories reflected the reality of life as a person working in forensics. I also found Pauline Tremain's perspective interesting - we often think of the people directly involved in the forensics, but I don't think many of us consider what it would be like to be the person taking notes and doing other administrative tasks!

The narration and sound quality of this audiobook were both good, making it easy to follow even without my full attention.

I do think the title of this book is a little misleading; although the techniques used to gather the evidence needed to support murder investigations is discussed, I think it's worth noting that the content isn't completely focused on murder, nor does it follow the process of a murder being committed to it being solved (and prosecuted) in full as the title may suggest. I also found some parts of the book repetitive or strangely paced.

That being said, I did think that this book was interesting and didn't have to force myself to keep listening. I would recommend that anyone with an interest in hearing a realistic first hand account of life in forensic science gives it a try.

Content warnings: death (including child death), murder, suicide, sexual assault (including CSA), descriptions of injuries, blood, graphic descriptions of autopsies and other postmortem investigations. 

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