In this book, mortician and Agatha Christie super fan Carla Valentine looks at the forensics found inside Agatha Christie's works, noting how knowledgeable Christie was about many modern crime detection techniques, how she learned as she wrote more books, and the ways in which she took inspiration from true crime cases of her day.

This book is gory, but surprisingly jolly. Valentine clearly loves Christie's books (but takes care not to spoil them) and admires how much the writer educated herself to fill her imaginative crime stories with realistic detail. I had so much fun reading this!

The Science of Murder carries the infectious enthusiasm that all murder mystery and true crime aficionados will recognize and mirror. The book is broken into chapters about different types of forensic science with a brief history of their development and a slew of examples showing how these types of clues have appeared in Agatha Christie's works. The author is a huge fan of the literary giant and does her best to stop short of spoiling any of the mysteries by describing the relevant details. While I found the fangirl energy endearing at first, it did come to bother me over time as more incidents of borderline defensiveness appeared on behalf of Christie. Instead of merely noting where Christie used artistic license as a reasonable part of her craft, long-winded explanations are offered to minimize the apparent offense against science. I also must admit I got a bit worn out by the volume of exclamation points used. But as a woman who has had to do specific email edits to remove an effusion of the punctuation to seem more sedate, I get it.

In terms of content, my interest varied by topic. I also have a fair bit more forensic training than your typical layperson, so sometimes my mind would wander when the author was in the nitty-gritty of terminology and procedure I already knew. I can see how that would be interesting to a reader who has never been introduced to this information stripped of TV glamour, however. The author's professional experience is clear, and I think she does a nice job keeping the information concise and easy to grasp. I was more interested in her description of landmark historical cases that pioneered certain forensic methods because that was new to me.

I appreciate the author's direct conversation about the less-than-enlightened goals and thought processes of forensic scientists in history. I think she did the strongest job of this in the conclusion where she notes that science is fallible and scientists' testimonies have sent innocent people to unjust punishments. In many places, however, I felt her discussion stopped short of taking a firm stance or she failed to dig far enough to point out biases and harm done. My knowledge of these issues in osteology gave me some insight into when the author was shying away from hard truths. One topic she covered early is how fingerprinting research had aims in racial classification and identifying intelligence. But the author notes this would now be controversial, which is a tepid descriptor as far as I'm concerned. She also says nothing of what groups were first targeted with this practice and how it affected their lives (see: The Women's House of Detention for that history and more). She draws readers' attention to how one giant in the field was also a Nazi, which I think is important to bring to light. However, I think that's one of the easiest groups to criticize in terms of popular support, and she didn't bring the same censure on other types of cruel, privileged scientists. For example, her treatment of the "contentious" British rule of India left much to be desired. Um, hi, I ~contend~ that it's colonialism, pure and simple. And the fact that "superstitious natives" is used as a phrase at all is disappointing at a minimum.

You can't be lulled into a false sense of security by the author's pep and the somehow enjoyable delivery of grim topic matter. I would simply advise readers to use a critical eye as they ought when reading any nonfiction, but there's also the question of what was omitted, something we can't hope to guess at as readers without the same level of expertise and/or research. For that reason, I can't recommend what was otherwise an entertaining, informative piece of popular science interwoven with murder mystery tie-ins. It's a bit too glossy, with fun trumping a critical eye when the two could co-exist with the right handling. History is messy, and it's a bad look to ignore or skip past the ugly bits.

To end on a positive note, did I finally cave and go watch Death on the Nile as my latest "I watched the Agatha Christie adaptation but never read the original story" adventure? Yup. With popcorn and a smile on my face.

I believe this title is a re-release/re-titled version of "Murder Isn't Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie" published in 2021. The author has some degree of expertise on the topic being a forensic pathology technician (not to be confused with an actual mortician or medical examiner, but still someone with advanced knowledge on the topic). The book covers major areas of forensics and ties these into various Agatha Christie novels with a "then versus now" perspective of how forensics has progressed. The book is extremely well researched and also includes some interesting true crime cases beyond the fictional crimes of Christie's works to illustrate the points. I learned a great deal about forensics and was entertained along the way. The book was incredibly detailed in places which made it a bit of trudge a times as a more casual reader. However, if you are ever planning to write your own mystery novel you are going to want to get your hands on a copy of this book for reference! The author is clearly and avid fan of the Golden Age of mysteries as well as someone who is knowledgeable about forensics, and furthermore she is able to communicate all of this is reader-friendly manner. A must read for fans of Agatha Christie, true crime, and everyday forensics.

⭐⭐⭐ -- Great cover!

I am a true crime addict and I love Agatha Christie, so I was excited to dive into this one. The author clearly did a lot of research and that shows throughout the book. However, I found the writing to be a little all over the place and hard to get through at times. I did enjoy the poisons section and how they were used throughout history and in Agatha Christie's books. 👍🏻

**ARC Via NetGalley**

Whether Agatha Christie fan, all-around murder mystery lover, CSI/CSE aficionado, or addicted to True Crime, a book that dives into the science of forensics does pique the interest. As a mortician/pathologist, the Agatha Christie-loving author, Carla Valentine provides a fascinating dive into the forensics behind Christie’s mysteries and examples from real crimes of the past.

Beginning with a quick background introduction, The Science of Murder moves through eight chapters that focus on various areas of forensic study like fingerprints, trace evidence, ballistics, handwriting, impressions, blood splatter, toxicology, and more.

While discussing the technical side of gathering and studying these types of evidence, the author weaves in pertinent details of Christie’s research and books, but delightfully her real life. There are her memberships in murder mystery writer clubs, work on her second husband’s archeological digs, and encounters with true crime and break throughs in forensics. Naturally, the author includes details about modern forensics, but the focus is definitely on these early periods of developing the science.

Valentine’s writing style is most definitely layman-friendly and casual armchair reading. She invites the reader to draw close as she chats and shares her love for both Christie and her career in murder. The writing can wander a bit in a looser way and get wordy, but the style suited my expectations. I wanted to learn more about forensics, but not in a sterile lab setting. I liked getting scientific details paired with literary discussion. For me, who enjoys forensic TV shows and police procedural-style fiction and non-fiction, but also several mystery fiction series, the book had new blended with familiar knowledge. I was intrigued to follow the career of real-life medical pathologist Bernard Spilsbury along with other investigators and read about criminalist/criminologist advancements that came along during Christie’s writing years. It was neat to see how the various facets of forensics came about from gathering all the way to presentation when the case was closed.

Oh, and if you haven’t read Christie books, there are no major spoilers here, but there will be plenty of teasers to drive one nuts wondering just what did happen in that dramatic ending of Murder of Roger Ackroyd or just how famous author, GK Chesterton’s remark about hiding a tree in a forest led to Christie writing The ABC Murders.

Incidentally, there are photos and charts sprinkled throughout and a few indexes in the back that are helpful.

Altogether an enlightening read that quenched a little of my thirst for murder, but mostly left me wanting to dive back into my mysteries in print and visual, fictional and real. Definitely recommend to those who love murder mystery, particularly Agatha Christie’s, and want the behind the scenes and expanded version details.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for this free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is out now!

Okay first: Carla Valentine is a GREAT name and she sounds like such a badass.

Second: This book was so interesting and entertaining. I have always been fascinated with how crimes are solved and particularly like stories of how crimes were solved pre-technology. I loved this one because not only does Valentine share her knowledge on forensics as it relates to solving crimes (especially murder), but she shares real world crime stories AND ties it all to Agatha Christie and her books! I mean…did she write this with me in mind? 😂

This book was well-organized and engaging. I didn’t have any moments where I felt bored. The only thing I have to complain about is that sometimes the connections to Christie felt like a bit of a stretch. For example, there were moments when the author made the connection to Christie by saying something like, “we can assume Christie probably saw reports of this etc etc.” Ultimately, this didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the book because 1) it is EXTREMELY clear Valentine did her research on Christie and I trust her assumptions and 2) there were many more clear connections to Christie that made up for any assumptions.

I highly recommend if you are interested in forensics, Agatha Christie, true crime, etc. I’m so glad I read this and I learned so much!

This is a great read and a treat if you are an Agatha Christie fan. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it's well researched and I loved the author's voice and her passion.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you Net Galley and Sourcebooks for an ARC of The Science of Murder by Carla Valentine for an honest review. Wow, if you are an Agatha Christie fan or a fan of forensic science, this is the book for you. The author did a tremendous amount of research to identify all the types of crimes and how they could be solved from all of Christie's books. The author dove into how Christie used fingerprinting, trace evidence, ballistics, documents/handwriting, impressions/weapons/wounds, blood spatter, autopsy, and toxicology in her numerous murders written about and solved in her books. The author also connected to some history and evolution of the science and real life cases that could have influenced Christie. My favorite unique feature of this book is the appendix about the Murder Methods for each one of Christie's books-it has icons to show what type of murder was used. Christie was ahead of her time employing all of these types of detection for each murder and her background in a dispensary helped her with the toxicology episodes. I rated this a 3 stars overall because as much as I enjoyed all of the research, science and connections to the forensics (5 stars), it was a little too much detail in each chapter.

This book was a fun perspective on a normal forensic science book. I really like the author's voice coming through in describing all of the history and techniques. The combination of Agatha Christie with the various types of forensic science I found very enjoyable. The book was a little dry and long, but I learned a lot and enjoyed moving through it.

So this book is EXCELLENT!! I’ve been a Christie fan since I was very young and grew up with her mysteries. And I also deeply love both true crime and crime television. So this book just had my name aaaall over it.

I learned a lot from this both about forensics and about Christie herself. I have mostly read her books out of publication order (though I’m working on reading Poirot in order!) so I never noticed how her knowledge of forensics changed throughout her writing career. I love that this pointed out the subtle changes that she made in her works as her own knowledge grew but also her callbacks to early works after she'd discovered some of her own mistakes.

I also love that this referenced so many of her books (I definitely have a long list of Christie books I now need to prioritize!) and gave more background information on her process and her inspiration. I also had no idea that she alluded to so many real crimes in many of her books and even based some of her own stories on real cases!

So while this book was mostly about Christie and her works and elements of forensics, it also covered a lot of true crime as well. I really loved reading about so many real cases! I also wish I could visit the forensics museum mentioned throughout this book and was very sad to learn that it's only open to those who work in the field. But I'm glad it was referenced so much in this book! I learned so much just from the mentions of all of those real cases!

So this book is just excellent all around and I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it! If you’re also a Christie fan, this is definitely a must read! I know I’ll be picking up a physical copy for my shelves!!

Thank you to NetGalley & Sourcebooks for allowing me to read this one in exchange for an honest review!

What a fun companion to Agatha Christie’s novels. The author did a great job of both illustrating her points with specifics from AC’s books and keeping their plot secrets.

Great Googly Moogly! This was one amazing read!

I love Agatha Christie. I have only ever read one book that I didn't love [it was just meh, but not hideous] and after reading this book, I just want to shove ALLLLL my obligations and other reading aside and just read ALL of Agatha Christie books, starting with Hercule Poirot and ending with Tommy and Tuppence and everything else in-between. I will not of course, but the defiant part of me certainly wants to.

Murder. Mayhem. Poison. Forensics. More M U R D E R!! This book was just amazing. I love all things forensic and learning about how Agatha Christie used her knowledge of it [and poisons] to write her books was absolutely fascinating. This was totally my jam and because there is just SO MUCH in this book, I will absolutely be reading this again and when I do, I will learn something else new. This was just so well-written and you can tell how much the author loves Agatha Christie and all the accoutrements that come with reading her. She is knowledgeable and eager to share that knowledge [almost with glee in some parts] and all that makes for a really great read.

IF you love forensics, murder, and poisons, AND you love Agatha Christie and murder mysteries in general, this is the book for you. I loved every second of this one. I absolutely would read this author again! Well done!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Carla Valentine, and SOURCEBOOKS [non-fiction] for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As an Agatha Christie fan and a pathology technician who works in a mortuary, author Carla Valentine is in the perfect position to explain the science of murder as it would have been understood during Agatha Christie's day. Valentine gets into detail on some of the key forensic evidence that Agatha Christie used in solving her crimes: things like fingerprints, footprints, guns (ballistics), blood, trace evidence, even handwriting analysis and forging documents as well as what Christie is perhaps best known for: poisons. What would Christie have known, what would the average reader of her time known? What famous crimes might have introduced new forensic techniques to both Christie and the general public? How did the difference forensic techniques develop? Valentine explains it all to the reader in a way that is interesting and engaging, understandable yet teaches us something without being overly scientific. Each chapter explores a different type of evidence and Valentine uses examples from Christie's books to illustrate when different investigators (usually Poirot but not always) use the forensic evidence she's currently exploring.

Fans of the golden age of murder mysteries and the grand dame of crime especially will enjoy this book, but anyone interested in learning a bit about how our understanding of crime and forensic evidence has developed (and how a good author develops with it) will want to read this book. Interesting, well written, and engaging.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

"𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞."

Each chapter of The Science of Murder covers forensic science through a different lens (Fingerprints, Trace Evidence, Blood Spatter, Toxicology, etc.) and those specialties are then examined in a historical context, in relation to specific works of Agatha Christie, and tied in with true crime events that may or may not have inspired her stories.

Through her novels you witness not only the progression of the science of the time and Agatha Christie's own increasing knowledge of forensics, but how ahead of the curve she was even at the beginning of her writing career.

In her very first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles published in 1920, private detective Hercule Poirot comes prepared with his very own crime scene examiner's kit. These sorts of crime scene bags (containing gloves, envelopes, tweezers, etc.) didn't come into use until 1924.

Reading this book I enjoyed not just taking a closer look at Christie's novels and the forensic science involved, but into her life.

There are so many fascinating aspects to her life. Her background as a volunteer nurse in WW1 and as a pharmacy dispenser, her marriage to Max Mallowan & their combined work in the field of archeology, her partial founding and membership in the Detection Club, a meeting of the minds of British mystery writers who would compare notes and talk shop.

What I would have given to be a fly on the wall at one of their meetings!

A few fun facts:
...of her 66 murder mystery and thriller books, 41 contain poisonings
...Clue was partially inspired by Christie's "impossible crime" masterpiece And Then There Were None
...Christie is credited as being the first person to ever use the phrase the scene of the crime

I give The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you NetGalley & SourceBooks for this ARC! Pub Date: 5/31/22

I’m sure I’m not the only one to have quickly dismissed the cozy crime novels for being not scientifically accurate. We read cozy crime novels rather than police procedurals or darker subgenres because we don’t want the blood, the gore and the awful realistic details of a human death. We just want the fun and the plot – and a happy ending. But was Agatha Christine inaccurate in her novels? That’s the question that Carla Valentine, a mortician and certified autopsy technician, sets out to answer. I love all things Agatha Christie, and beyond her own novels, I also read books about her books and about her life: her notebooks, her complex views on dysfunctional families, or even a new take on one of her most famous novels, And then there were none. So when I stumbled upon this new book on Netgalley, I had to read it.

In short, I was not disappointed, although the book was a lot more exhaustive than what I expected. Agatha Christie is known for her fictional use of poisons, a qualification she got while being a nurse in a pharmacy during World War 1. But she was not a chemist behind a desk, she saw a lot more action than what I’d thought, and so she had practical experience of the blood and gore and all those pesky, dirty, often smelly details. All of which were not considered suitable for literary consumption, and one can conclude that she omitted all of them in order to make her books fun, not because she didn’t know.

Carla Valentine examines one by one all the forensic aspects of deaths in Agatha Christie’s novels. There is even a full list of her novels and stories with the method of death(s) in each one! Valentine is very didactic, and I learnt a lot (but didn’t retain everything). In short, Christie was interested in all the famous crimes of her time, as well as the forensic techniques and even firearms (although she made some rookie mistakes in her early books, she got better with them along the way). Valentine examines famous crimes similar to Christie’s books, even some cases where the criminal seemed inspired by the books, and other cases where reading the books actually prevented some murders (when people recognized telltale signs of poisoning, in particular).

You’ll need to be interested in science and forensics and have read a number of Agatha Christie’s books to enjoy it, but Valentine does the utmost to avoid spoilers, and rarely has a science book been more entertaining.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.

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I think this is the first book with a title matching its content perfectly. This isn´t a book about forensics nor its history. It isn't about the books by Agatha Christie. IT IS about forensics portrayed in her books, just like the title says.
The author has years of experience in forensics herself AND is an avid reader of Agatha's work. She tells us how accurate Agatha was (very!), and how much it tells us about the history of science and its development over the years.
It´s a fascinating tale for those who aren´t familiar with the basic pathology and for Christie´s fans.

#TheScienceofMurder #NetGalley
It is a fascinatingly interesting book about one of the cleverest female mystery writers in the world, Agatha Christie! I could not put this down!

Ahhh...the incomparable Agatha Christie, my favourite author of all time. Now there are even more reasons to love her...though I knew about her pharmacy and nursing background, The Science of Murder contains details I did not know such as her forensics knowledge before her time. Using a plethora of examples from Christie's books, author Carla Valentine takes her readers on an incredibly compelling journey of the history of forensics and what was and wasn't common knowledge. She describes Christie's detailed ingenious mind and her meticulous research into forensics we as readers take for granted. Not only that but I learned Christie's use of forensics and analyses were accurate nearly 100% of the time and those times she was not it was mostly due to the era and our modern perceptions.

Christie was part of the Detection Club which included Anthony Berkeley (another of my favourites) and G. K. Chesterton). Her impressive knowledge included the prediction of crime scene bags, finger marks (and their absence), anthropometry, hair and blood spatter (splatter) analysis, trace evidence, ballistics, document analysis, the use of maps and floor diagrams in books, types of wounds and my favourite literary method...poison (my favourites in her books include violet creams and fish paste).

I learned more about forensics in general such as "gloving" and "skin thimbles", livor mortis and that the origin of fingerprint analysis in crime is attributed to a Croat in the 1880s, People have tried unsuccessfully to remove their own fingerprints.

If you are at all intrigued by forensics, especially as it pertains to Christie's writing, this breathtaking book is unmissable. My brain is forensically minded which really helps but you needn't have a scientific leaning to enjoy this. Appendix 1 is fantastic! This is a book I will happily read and learn from again.

My sincere thank you to SOURCEBOOKS and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this outstanding book! It may sound strange but I feel as though I "know" my beloved author even more than before!

Agatha Christie is probably my favorite writer, so this book was fascinating to me. The author is a scientist and explains the forensics of Dame Agatha’s wonderful books. Obviously, the technology has evolved since Poirot investigated, but Valentine brings to light how advanced Christie was for her time. When reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles, I never thought anything of it when Poirot brought out his gloves and forensics kit, because it’s what is normal now. Thanks to this book, I know how those procedures weren’t in use then, and some had not even been invented yet! All the details in her novels were correct to some degree, and her knowledge of poisons was impressive. I’ve read other books about the science of murder and was a little disappointed to find spoilers. Valentine gives nothing away, so this is perfect for readers who don’t know, or don’t remember, whodunit. I also loved her sense of humor. This book made me look at an author I thought I knew with fresh eyes.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Sourcebooks!

This is a look at forensic medicine in real life and paralleled in Agatha Christie's novels. It talks about all the things Christie got right in her books, often ahead of her time, and all the research that would have gone into getting everything correct. There are also a few instances, usually regarding firearms terminology, where she made some mistakes, but she was extremely well versed in the forensics of her time. The author went out of her way to avoid spoilers for Christie's books, which was nice. My only complaint is that now I want to reread all of Agatha Christie's books yet again, like I don't have enough to read already...4 stars.