Murder and the Making of English CSI

The authors tell the engrossing history of how, in the first half of the twentieth century, novel routines, regulations, and techniques--from chain-of-custody procedures to the analysis of hair, blood, and fiber--fundamentally transformed the processing of murder scenes. Focusing on two iconic English investigations--the 1924 case of Emily Kaye, who was beaten and dismembered by her lover at a lonely beachfront holiday cottage, and the 1953 investigation into John Christie's serial murders in his dingy terraced home in London's West End--Burney and Pemberton chart the emergence of the crime scene as a new space of forensic activity.