Includes bibliographic references (pages 295-298) and index.

The dead can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces. This book draws on interviews with some of these top-level professionals, ground-breaking research, and McDermid's own original interviews and firsthand experience on scene with top forensic scientists, to trace the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.--Adapted from publisher description.