Rating: 
Summary: A fingerprint in the Howdunit series
Review: Scene of the Crime has lots of facts about fingerprints and examining possible pieces of evidence at a crime scene. I found the sections about identifying remains and what changes the body goes through after death very interesting. I learned a lot of information that will help me in my writing. On the down side, I did have a hard time focusing on this book. It is very similar to the other books in the Howdunit series, and this is the only reason for a lower rating. However, I do believe that the entire Howdunit Series (I now call it "The Writer's Bible series") could not be complete without this book. Scene of the Crime may be similar to other books in the series, but it DOES have a lot of knowledge that the other books missed!
Rating:
Summary: A fingerprint in the Howdunit series
Review: Scene of the Crime has lots of facts about fingerprints and examining possible pieces of evidence at a crime scene. I found the sections about identifying remains and what changes the body goes through after death very interesting. I learned a lot of information that will help me in my writing. On the down side, I did have a hard time focusing on this book. It is very similar to the other books in the Howdunit series, and this is the only reason for a lower rating. However, I do believe that the entire Howdunit Series (I now call it "The Writer's Bible series") could not be complete without this book. Scene of the Crime may be similar to other books in the series, but it DOES have a lot of knowledge that the other books missed!
Rating: 
Summary: Well researched on facts that makes it a good writing tool.
Review: The book was well organized and thoroughly addressed each section. For someone who writes murder mysteries, this is a good factual tool to help someone develop an interesting story. The references are actual law enforcement sources, such as the F.B.I, actual police departments, and other sources that would know. However, my only complaint is in the description of using chemicals, like ninhydrin, to develop fingerprints. I felt a safety warning was missing. If someone wants to use ninhydrin in their story to make developing fingerprints interesting, then there's no problem. But, I personally worry about the curious trying to experiment. The chemicals that make ninhydrin and other chemicals used by crime scene personnel can be extremely dangerous. Training and proper use is mandatory. All law enforcement people know this. Ninhydrin must be used in a well ventillated area. Plus, getting it on your skin over time, is dangerous. So, please....all you authors who wish to help and give people information to do something to entertain....always provide your readers with caution messages. Ninhydrin is more than smelling like ripe bananas and giving you a mere headache. There are long term affects that must be considered.
Rating: 
Summary: hideously plagued with errors
Review: This book sounds authoritative, which is unfortunate. It happens that I am a firearms expert, so I turned to that chapter first. I found so many serious errors there that it calls into question the validity of the material that covers subjects about which I know little. This writer knows next to nothing about firearms. There's no reason to believe that she knows any more about the other subjects upon which she expounds so authoritatively.
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