Book of the week. Forensics, the Anatomy of Crime 4/5.

Part 4 of 5, Val McDermid talks about her new book, 'The Anatomy of Crime', launched prior to a Wellcome Collection exhibition on the subject in February 2015. She explores history and practices in forensics science referencing historical cases as well as those in the more recent news. In 1897 an anthropologist was involved in one of the first documented cases of an anthropologist involved in solving a crime. Adolph Louis Luetgert, known as the 'sausage king' of Chicago, was convicted of murdering his wife and disposing of her remains in his factory on the anthropologist's evidence. Facial reconstruction is required when all recognisable features have gone. Reconstruction can be surprisingly accurate. Using computers, age progression changes our faces. Digital forensics have become more important; unfortunately the exponential growth of digital storage has meant both new crimes (hacking) and old ones (stalking) need to be investigated in the digital realm. Our digital footprints may in many cases be benign but we everything we do online is traceable.