kuzumel reviewed on 6/28/2013 + 112 more book reviews

This is a great series of vignettes about how a bunch of science and techies apply their knowledge, experiences, and time to work with both investigators and families on cold cases that stumped the police from 2 to 50+ years before. Each case involves at least one of our three founders of the invitation-only Vidocq Society. Some cases span many chapters, often interweaving between each other and a few cases that take only one chapter to present and solve. Due to the volunteer-nature of the Vidocq consultants (who only hear cases once a month over 15-years) there are lots of names that converge and mingle with our three main Vidocqians.

This book really skims over the actual forensics sciences we're used to from those TV and police procedurals. But what is present is the detailed explanation of the basis of criminal profiles, serial killer types and their evolutionary stages. This rang truer than the fluff found on the Law and Order and CSI franchises. Even the purportedly the psychological expert show - Perception - pales in comparison to the "logical" base laid out by forensics psycholiogist Richard Walter, one of the inventers of criminal profiling during the 1970-1980's.

FYI. The quarterly Vidocq Journal is available on-line for additional education on various subcategories of forensics tech.

--Kuzu

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