Time Of Death by Js Sachs
Despite repeated claims and breakthroughs, forensic scientists are little better equipped to establish with any real degree of precision the exact time at which a victim of crime (or indeed anyone else, were there no witnesses) died. Over the last two centuries, scientists and detectives have attempted to rely on body temperature, evidence of rigor mortis and decomposition, the decay of the vitreous humor of the eye, the stages of digestion of the body's last meal, the progress of the insects that prey of dead bodies, all eventually without total conviction. Death is a gradual and highly variable business, dependent on a myriad of factors, and the expert witnesses at the trial of O J Simpson could be little more precise than the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Gloriously written and ghoulishly fascinating, studded with the details of crucial cases, this is true crime at its most fascinating.
We all know something about forensic science, if only through TV cop serials and high-profile murder trialsBut what can this 'science' (which even after thousands of years is still far from perfect or conclusive) really tell us about the time and cause of someone's death? Jennifer Snyder Sachs has created a fascinating (if sometimes very gruesome) study of the subject. It's partly a history of what her subtitle calls 'The Search for Death's Stopwatch', and partly a comprehensive account of the current state of the art in forensics - an art which has made substantial recent progress through the use of entomology. It's well written, and incidentally a must-read for budding detective fiction writers and anyone with a curiosity about some of the body's darker secrets.
Jessica Snyder Sachs is a freelance health and science writer. Time of Death is her first book.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780434008995 |
| ISBN 10 | 0434008990 |
| Title | Time Of Death |
| Author | Js Sachs |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Cornerstone |
| Year published | 2002-03-07 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |