American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson

American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI
by Kate Winkler Dawson
Pages: 336
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date February 11, 2020
Goodreads

The story of the birth of criminal investigation in the twentieth century.
Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities--beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books--sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes," Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest--and first--forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.

Heinrich was one of the nation's first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious--some would say fatal--flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation.
Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon--as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them.

What I Liked

• In a world where people are obsessed with true crime reading a book that centers on forensics was very intriguing to me.
• I really liked that it was a grouping of short stories. Each one featured a different case that Oscar Heinrich covered. Despite being individual in their own right, the author was able to come full circle and unite them.

What I Didn’t Like

• While I enjoyed each story the writing felt stilted and not complete. Kate Winkler Dawson is still a good storytelling and kept me engaged. However, I still felt like there was something missing.
• Oscar Heinrich was a jerk. He put his career above all else and, while you can’t fault him for being career-oriented. his relationships suffered for it. Unfortunately, while he revolutionized for forensics the fact that he was an a-hole was hard for me to get past.

Final Impressions

American Sherlock was an interesting read and I enjoyed it overall. Although, the book was not without its faults. Considering this book holds so much potential it was a bit of a letdown.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Fantastic Strangelings Book Club

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