Blood, Bullets, and Bones: The Story of Forensic Science 
from Sherlock Holmes to DNA
by Bridget Heos
Middle School, High School    
Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins    259 pp.
10/16    978-0-06-238762-2    $18.99    g
e-book ed.  978-0-06-238764-6    $9.99

Each of eleven chapters chronologically traces the development of one branch of forensic science and the experts who practice it. Methods used to reconstruct a crime and identify its perpetrator include autopsy; collection of crime scene evidence; fingerprint, ballistic evidence, blood pattern, and DNA analysis; psychological profiling; and good old deductive reasoning. Heos cogently presents these techniques and several others through the examination of historical murder, theft, and mayhem cases, both (in)famous and little known. She also touches on certain types of evidence — such as bite mark analysis and eyewitness testimony — that have come under scrutiny as more sophisticated forensic technologies have arisen. 
Primary source quotations are seamlessly woven in, accompanied by archival images and documents. The chronological coverage of each individual discipline makes for a slightly muddy perspective on the history of forensic science as a whole, but this approach does ably communicate the sense that forensic analysis is both ancient (coroner Zhang Ju authored A Book of Criminal Cases in 207 CE China) and constantly evolving (emerging technologies will more accurately identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent). Heos’s conversational text is forthright with the (sometimes disturbing) facts, but never sensationalized — keeping the focus squarely on the fascinating science. Robust back matter includes a glossary, quotation and photo source notes, and an extensive bibliography.

From the September/October 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.