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Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Overview of Forensic Entomology
Review: This work is extraordinarily useful to any death investigation professional. It provides an extensive overview of all aspects of forensic entomology with chapter contributions from the leading forensic entomologists in the United States and Canada. It is expertly written so that the investigator with no formal entomological training can easily understand the context of the book, while still on a level that other formally trained entomologists will find very useful. It is richly illustrated with over 150 color photos of insects of forensic importance. This allows investigators to immediately recognize forensic insects at the scene so that collection can be assured. This book is certain to become an invaluable reference for anyone in the field of forensic entomology, or those involved in the collection of entomological evidence from a death scene. It is a perfect complement to the other works published on the subject by K.G.V. Smith and E.P. Catts.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing a "key" point...
Review: While this book does address a variety of necessary topics and its overall praise is well-deserved there is a gap, which means there is still a need for a textbook in forensic entomology. For a book of this nature one would expect to be able to identify insects of forensic importance. The numerous color photos are nice to look at, but in most cases do not allow species determination at the adult level (don't even bother asking about immature idenitification!). Short species accounts are given, but much more valuable would have been the inclusion of keys (as in K. Smith's treatment of the European forensic fauna). Unfortunately this means that you have to buy another text in order to identify any specimens that you collect. You will likely have to go the Manual of Nearctic Diptera in order to identify genera of Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Phorids... In summary, even if you buy this book you'll still need to consult a forensic entomologist and as such, I'd recommend dropping the words "Forensic Entomology" from the title. This book is written for those who do not have formal training in entomology or even a science background (i.e. arthropod, botantist, and invertebrate are all defined in the glossary). For the authors I would highly recommend adding keys in order to increase the value of this work. Please, for the entomologists' sake place them in an appendix, but do include them. Another suggestion would be to expand the taxa covered in Table 9.1 (insect development times) and move it to the appendix. Thanks!
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