In the end, I was a little disappointed in How To Solve A Murder. It does give quite a good insight into the day-to-day reality of a Forensic Medicine department, but overall I found it rather unsatisfying.
The book is written by Derek and Pauline Tremain, a married couple who have worked in forensic medicine all their careers; Derek firat as a technician and then Scientific Officer of increasing seniority and Pauline as a secretary and administrator (a surprisingly hands-on role). Between them, they have a wealth of experience and insight into what really goes on and the significance of it both to the justice system and to individuals affected by crimes. All this is very welcome, but the book did have some significant flaws.
Probably most importantly, there isn’t really quite enough solid science and detection in it. Derek refers several times to Prof. Keith Simpson and his book Forty Years Of Murder, which I read many years ago with great interest; I was hoping for something along similar lines, but I’m afraid I didn’t find this nearly so interesting. There are some very good passages, like Derek’s excellent explanation of the use of diatoms in cases of drowning, or Pauline’s account of some of the visits to crime scenes, but it all felt too diluted with personal anecdote, stories about larks in the lab and so on. While these do give a sense of how people dealt with the grisly things they had to work with, many of the stories aren’t as amusing as the authors think. For example, Pauline’s wardrobe malfunction or Derek’s disposal of a pig’s carcass may have seemed hilarious to those involved, but they aren’t nearly so funny to the rest of us and don’t merit the number of pages devoted to them.
I also found the style a bit stilted and it is often difficult to know whether the narrator is Derek or Pauline as the voice shifts suddenly and without any signal, all of which interfered with my enjoyment. It is also worth saying that there isn’t much here about how murders are actually solved. Overall, it’s not bad, but I can only give this a qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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