Friday Friyay: 'American Sherlock' by Kate Winkler Dawnson

 It's Friday and it's Christmas Eve! What could be better? I did actually have to put a pause on receiving books, just because I'm drastically running out of space. I'm going to do some reorganising in the new year and hopefully that will do the trick. But for now, let's get into my non-fiction read for the festive season: American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson.

Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities – beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners and hundreds of books – sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least 2,000 cases in his 40-year career.

Known as the ‘American Sherlock Holmes’, Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of the greatest – and first – forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.

Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock is a true-crime account capturing the life of the man who spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools, including blood-spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'His upper jawbone was massive - a long, curved bone with nine tiny holes meant to hold his teeth. The remained of his skeleton was blackened by a fairy large fire ignited by an anonymous killer.' p1%

I love how Winkler Dawson throws you straight into the archive she does her research in, straight into the detail of a skeleton. 

F56:

'Oscar slid her upper and lower jawbones in place, completing the skull. Her head faced toward the ceiling with her jaws wide open, as if she was killed in mid-scream.' 56%

Equally grim, equally fascinating. While True Crime fascinated me I don't know if I would have the stomach (or the brains) for forensic investigations. And yet their work is so crucial to not just catching a killer but also to giving some kind of closure to remaining family. 

BBH:

This week's question was suggested by Billy from Coffee Addicted Writer himself:

What's your favourite Christmas book-to-movie adaptation?

This is actually quite a difficult one because my family never had a big Christmas movie tradition. I might have to go with a likely popular answer which is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and then specifically the most recent adaptation by Greta Gerwig. I, and don't have me for this, cannot get through that book. The tone really doesn't work for me, for some reason, so it becomes a slog and then I give up about 5 chapters in. I love the movie, though, it makes me cry every single time I watch it. 

So I guess that's it for me! I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!