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Review of “Written on the Skin – An Australian Forensic Casebook”

Author: Liz Porter – Pan MacMillan 2006 $35-00 390pp + index
ISBN 13 978 1 4050 3731 0  ISBN 10 1 4050 3731 8

Reviewed by: Dr Robert N Moles

For those who like “real life” CSI – this is a terrific book. It brings together a wide range of forensic cases grouped according to whether they deal with “blood” “bones” “organs” “skin” “teeth” “fire” “insects” or “documents”.

If anything this book is a testament to human ingenuity. First of all is the ingenuity of the author in tackling such a wide range of scientific and technical issues, and being able to explain them in an interesting and instructive manner in the context of the cases she is dealing with.

Then, of course, there is the rather perverse ingenuity of the people who are the subject of these cases. It is quite shocking to realise just what human beings are capable of doing to each other; bashed, stabbed, shot, burned, poisoned, defrauded. This book has it all. Then having despatched one another, there is the ingenuity involved in attempting the cover-up, or the explanation as to why or how another has gone missing. Its all terribly sad.

Then comes the ingenuity of the investigators. I must say, that having studied myself so many examples of miscarriages of justice, I found it quite refreshing to read about investigators who are dedicated to their respective tasks. The number of examples which Porter had studied where police and forensic investigators had gone way beyond their duty in pursuing inquiries or piecing together tiny fragments of information or of bones or teeth in order to arrive at a conclusion one way or another was both remarkable, and sufficient to restore one’s faith in human nature.

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