Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers

In a forty-year career Michael Baden has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies. Considered one of the world's leading forensic pathologists, he was New York City medical examiner from 1960 to 1985 and is now co-director of the New York State Police Medicolegal Investigation Unit. The host of the popular program Autopsy on HBO, Dr. Baden brings riveting stories and expert analysis to Dead Reckoning.

The authors go to the crime scene, take readers to the autopsy table in the morgue and practically place the scalpel in the reader's hand to show how advances in forensic science are solving crimes as never before. They visit cases both famous and ordinary to explain why the first hour at a crime scene is crucial. They reveal for the first time how a key clue to the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson was lost during the transportation of her body to the morgue. In another case, they show how something as obscure as the imprint of a button on a dead man's skin was overlooked until months later when, while reviewing the crime-scene photos, Dr. Baden saw it, causing the case to take an astonishing turn.

Baden and Roach invite readers to be present at the analysis of soil, plant matter, insects, blood spatters, bone, teeth, hair, weather, and other crime-scene evidence to witness how the startling accuracy of science can improve the chances of a just verdict.