Dead Men Tell Tales
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
When a corpse becomes the most eloquent witness in the courtroom, science becomes the great equaliser of justice — this is the gripping world that Jürgen Thorwald chronicles in Dead Men Tell Tales, the second volume in his landmark The Century of the Detective series. Drawing on meticulous historical research, Thorwald reconstructs the dramatic evolution of forensic medicine, tracing how pioneering scientists and investigators transformed the study of the human body into an indispensable tool for solving the most baffling murders of the 19th and early 20th centuries. From the analysis of poisons and the identification of human remains to the pioneering work of pathologists and toxicologists who gave voice to the dead, the narrative unfolds with the tension of a detective thriller and the rigour of a historical document. Thorwald's masterly approach weaves together vivid case studies and authoritative biography to illustrate the birth of a discipline that forever changed criminal justice. His prose is precise yet compelling, presenting complex scientific concepts with an accessibility that never sacrifices depth, and illuminating the often-eccentric personalities whose obsessive brilliance laid the foundations of modern forensic science. Richly supplemented with 31 illustrations, this is a work that raises an urgent question: how many crimes, and how many miscarriages of justice, might history have recorded differently, had these men arrived a century sooner?
Author: Jürgen Thorwald
Format: Hardback
Published: 1966, Thames and Hudson
Genre: True crime
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
When a corpse becomes the most eloquent witness in the courtroom, science becomes the great equaliser of justice — this is the gripping world that Jürgen Thorwald chronicles in Dead Men Tell Tales, the second volume in his landmark The Century of the Detective series. Drawing on meticulous historical research, Thorwald reconstructs the dramatic evolution of forensic medicine, tracing how pioneering scientists and investigators transformed the study of the human body into an indispensable tool for solving the most baffling murders of the 19th and early 20th centuries. From the analysis of poisons and the identification of human remains to the pioneering work of pathologists and toxicologists who gave voice to the dead, the narrative unfolds with the tension of a detective thriller and the rigour of a historical document. Thorwald's masterly approach weaves together vivid case studies and authoritative biography to illustrate the birth of a discipline that forever changed criminal justice. His prose is precise yet compelling, presenting complex scientific concepts with an accessibility that never sacrifices depth, and illuminating the often-eccentric personalities whose obsessive brilliance laid the foundations of modern forensic science. Richly supplemented with 31 illustrations, this is a work that raises an urgent question: how many crimes, and how many miscarriages of justice, might history have recorded differently, had these men arrived a century sooner?